Museums today are at a critical threshold between being static repositories and becoming experiential and inspirational places for regenerative cultures. In a world that suffers a lack of alternative realities and possible futures in the face of multiplying and intensifying crises, museums can play a key role as laboratories for more dynamic ways of being, belonging, and cherishing beauty. As repositories of history, arts, and culture, museums are already telling stories about who we are, how we look at the world, and what we could become. Which role could communications play for re-writing the story of museums as birthplaces for thriving cultures and places? 
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By Jean-Philippe Steeger

 
The Power of Museums to Transform

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“There is a new why emerging for museums. A new purpose, a new role, a new way of working to be truly alive. Museums are ecosystems for change and have the power to reframe cultural paradigms.”

Lucimara Letelier, Vice-Chair, International Council of Museums 



Museums are places of paradoxes. On the one hand, their mission is to express something that is essentially dynamic and alive, such as arts, culture, and scientific knowledge. On the other hand, museums as buildings and institutionalized organisations can be artificial and disconnected places. Some critics even argue that they are factories of culture, reflecting the very essence of our modern industrial times. If we recognize that our modern interconnected challenges today are marked by patterns of polarization, fragmentation, and isolation, how could museums bring us back together around new possibilities?
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Sarah Sutton, a principal of Sustainable Museums, summarises the capacities museum have today as agents of transformation: “Museums hold in one body the diverse physical and intellectual resources, abilities, creativity, freedom, and authority to foster the changes the world needs most.”



Although museums bring ingredients for transformation together, some patterns are holding back their potential. Precisely as expression of modern narratives and ways of looking at the world, their own transformation can be seen as an inspirational practice ground, a microcosm for a more thrivable world, a creative living lab of regeneration. In this respect, communications can become a conscious way of accompanying the process of becoming more organic, immersive, and interwoven places as part of their greater ecosystem.
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Museums as expressions of modern narratives

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In many ways, museums can be seen as emblematic expressions for our understanding of science, art, and culture. The growing disconnection from mother nature, from each other in society, and from wisdom and purpose is reflected in the way museums understand their role. There can be a sense of artificiality, abstraction, and alienation. Many museum spaces remain isolated from their ecological and social context, and insufficiently honour the roots of the knowledge or artwork they display. 



Furthermore, museums are often highly centralized institutions, leading to low adaptability and responsiveness to local dynamics, stories, and conversations. As a result, many fail to engage with the unique needs and stories of their communities, missing an opportunity to become a vital part of the social and ecological fabric. When it comes to the visitor experience, there is a notable lack of experimentation and immersion, which limits the ability to inspire and create meaningful, transformative experiences.
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Historically, emerging together with libraries, museums were created to collect and preserve artifacts - a practice that later often merged with colonialism. Many museums today are grappling with this legacy, reflecting on how colonial practices shaped their collections and the meaning they give to them. The focus on formalist thinking and abstraction, which has been central to modernity, often served to distance art and science from its context and from the roots of their creation.
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This way of thinking valued art for its form rather than its potential to inspire connection, transformation, and healing. This creates the illusion that a museum is somehow apart from everything that made it possible, including nature. The example of MoMa’s sustainability statement showcases the priorisation of thinking over feeling and intuiting, as well as the role of humans as being apart from nature. Here, there is only a one-sided relationship of humans “impacting” the “environment” – as if we were not part of nature and were not influenced by her.

“As a thought leader, the Museum embraces the responsibility and opportunity to raise awareness on the ways our collective choices impact the environment. Our ambition to adopt a collaborative approach includes seeking out perspectives and knowledge from all communities, particularly those that have been historically marginalized.“ 
MoMa sustainability statement.
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A new story: Museums as Living Labs

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If museums are tightly embedded in the narratives of their time, they could also become conscious spaces for transforming these narratives. Starting by becoming conscious of how modern narratives are shaping the self-understanding of museums and their resulting mission, museums can learn to inclusively communicate their process of critical self-examination. In doing so, they can become living examples that experiment with new understandings of what science, culture, and arts are about at the Change in Era we’re going through. This is more than changing programming or reviewing the architecture of buildings.



Exploring new narratives about what museums could be about is a process that involves our whole being – the breadth of our senses, the depth of our emotions, and the heights of our spirit. Since we do not know how this process will look like and cannot control the outcome, it is asking museums to communicate from a place of radical honesty and humility. It also comes with embracing a plurality of narratives, beyond just the modern Western one. With their capacities at hand, museums can design such journeys together with stakeholders and within the local context they are part of.



Museums can become spaces for radical reimagination. They can offer a space for communities to explore new narratives and possibilities—rooted in their unique histories, dreams, and wisdoms. They can ask: What does regeneration look like for this city, this bioregion? How can the integration of art and nature foster a greater sense of connection to place and community? Through sensory engagement, museums can sharpen our perceptual capacities, allowing us to connect with deeper truths about ourselves and the world around us.

Museums can also serve as laboratories for experimentation, testing new ideas, experiencing different ways of being in community, or exploring regenerative solutions as part of their ecosystem. Perhaps, it is birthing imaginative regenerative practices in the local environment as prototypes for other actors that could be described as their new role. By experimenting with regenerative approaches, they can become sources of inspiration and wisdom for whole regions and their economic and political actors.



In her book “The Age of Thrivability: Vital Perspectives and Practices for a Better World”, Michelle Holliday shares the transformational re-branding process of the Montreal Nature Museums towards becoming “spaces for life” (Espace pour la vie). By shifting the focus of their story towards becoming spaces to engage with the very dynamics of life, also internal communications and visitor engagement blossomed. Resulting new organizational structures and a new purpose inspired further transformational changes and made new revenue streams possible. You can read more about this case here (p. 13-15).
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Conclusion: Cultivating the Possible

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Museums have a great potential role to play in the regeneration of our culture. By embracing regenerative narratives and inviting a new story for themselves, museums can move beyond their role as static spaces of reflection to become active participants within their ecosystem. Through regenerative communications, they can involve diverse stakeholders in meaningful conversations, start weaving new narratives around place, as well as holding space for new potential around what it means to live, create, engage, and transform today.

Now is the time for museums to become spaces of life, transformation, and connection—where the stories of the past, of nature and community inspire us to cultivate the possibilities of more regenerative cultures that feel fully alive.

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