A new museum strategy is being developed at the Budapest History Museum

When the new Director General of the Budapest History Museum (BHM) was elected in 2019, the City Council of Budapest, in agreement with the professional committee, supported Noémi Népessy's application. According to her strategy plan, the goal is to transform the Museum into a modern, 21st-century metropolitan museum. Relying on the innovative approach of colleagues and drawing on the accumulated knowledge base as well as the richness of the museum's collections, an open, diverse, collaborative cultural institution can be created, which can thus earn its status among the city museums of Europe.

After several months of situation assessment, data collection and analysis, the Strategic Coordination Cabinet was formed with the help of an organizational developer from the cultural sphere, Izabella Csordás (MuseumOD). The Cabinet consists of 12 colleagues from all the member institutions and departments of the Budapest History Museum. This new role also provided the members a new perspective: strategy-making became an intensive learning process, not only bringing about the richness of perspectives and the effectiveness of working together, but also highlighting the complexity of museum operations.

The aim of the Cabinet, which has been working together since February 2020, is to significantly raise the popularity of the museum, to build #themuseumofBudapest brand, and to create a museum based on professional credibility while providing high-quality services to visitors. The task of the professional community working on the strategy was to create and define the museum's values, formulate its vision and mission, and formulate the institution's strategy for the next three years in weekly, workshop-like meetings, in a way that is rarely used by Hungarian museums.

The Cabinet set future goals after a time-consuming exploration of the situation. As a result, and in accordance with the steps of classical strategy-making, the values ​​to be represented in the future, as well as the mission of the organization and the jointly formulated vision, were developed as a result of the common thinking process.


VALUES

The BHM is an OPEN-MINDED institution: we are available and encourage the active participation of our staff, partners, visitors and urban society.

The BHM is UNIQUE in its diversity: we make the unparalleled richness and diversity of our collections and member institutions available in a unique way.

The BHM is DYNAMIC, capable of renewal: we react flexibly to environmental changes, we participate proactively in the life of the capital.

The BHM is an INSPIRATION: we approach social phenomena sensitively, using modern questions and methods to make our audience think creatively.

The BHM is professionally AUTHENTIC: the knowledge we convey is based on scientific research and modern methodology.

The BHM is proud of its TRADITIONS: we have been shaping the identity of the capital for more than 100 years with the knowledge and cultural values ​​accumulated by our predecessors.



MISSION

The BHM is the museum of the capital. Its mission is to help you understand the past and the present. It's open and inspiring, creates community and encourages critical thinking.



VISION

By 2023, the organizationally and visually renewed BHM will become a defining institution of the cultural life of the capital.

After defining the values, the vision and the future plans, the “employee involvement” took place in all organizational units of the institution. This meant not only frontal communication, but also inviting colleagues to actual interaction. Thus, the employees of BHM could personally contribute to the institutional strategy being prepared, and their opinions and insights were incorporated and used by the Cabinet. With this, in a completely exceptional way in the Hungarian museum scene, a network of cooperation has been created within the institution, which can be a stable basis and a sure background for the complete renewal of the museum. The completed museum strategy is expected to be released to the public in the fall. During the work process, the sub-strategies of each field are prepared under the guidance of the professionals involved in the development of the institution's strategy.

Thus, the strategy-making cabinet of BHM continues its activities: over time, in addition to their daily work, excellent professionals in their respective disciplines become more and more strategists of their museum, and the community of individuals from different fields becomes a unit.