Euregio Museum Day 2017: Museums & Local Development

20 December 2017 Trento, Italy

Maximising the impact

The Euregio Museum Day 2017 was organised by the Autonomous Province of Trento as part of the Euregio initiatives and in collaboration with the OECD LEED Centre of Trento for Local Development

Event rationale

Museums and cultural heritage are powerful assets for local development. They can help attract tourists, bring revenues, regenerate local economies, promote inclusion, boost cultural diversity and reinvent territorial identity. For several decades now, cities and regions have been drawing on these assets to put in place heritage-led regeneration plans as part of their wider economic development strategies. At the same time, museums are increasingly recognising the instrumental benefits of the arts and sciences and are experimenting with the new roles they can play as agents of economic development, social innovation and social inclusion while continuing to enrich their traditional heritage conservation, restoration, scientific, and education functions.

Several converging factors lead to the emergence of new partnerships between the museums and local authorities. In many countries decentralisation entrusts local authorities with greater responsibilities, notably in the cultural sphere. At the same time the financial and economic crisis has caused national and local governments to reduce contribution to museums and galleries, which must then reinforce their partnerships with local authorities.

Focus

In this context, national, city and regional governments, the museum community, private foundations and other stakeholders are increasingly interested in:

New ways to measure the impact of culture and museums on local development to effectively channel public and private funding.
Examples of ‘what works’ and ‘what does not’ in maximising the impacts and creating linkages between the museums and the local economy and social fabric.
New governance arrangements and funding models.

To address these needs, in 2017-18, the OECD is developing a guide to inform and support policy makers and the museum community in designing successful culture-led local development strategies.

Objective

The Euregio Museum Day 2017 reviewed the pilot version of the OECD guide and worked on thematic action principles and policy options to advance the reflection on these issues. Comments, recommendations and good practice stories contributed to the next edition of the guide to be issued by the end of 2018.