Strategic Plan

ICOM Exhibitions Strategic Plan 2023-26

Vision
ICOM Exhibitions is a transformative voice in museums, ICOM, and the exhibitions community. ICOM Exhibitions inspires individuals and organizations to connect with each other through meaningful experiences and dialogues, focusing on content creation, exhibition development, travelling exhibitions, strategic partnerships, collaborations, and cultural exchange.

Mission
ICOM Exhibitions is committed to being a force for transformation in the museum and exhibition sectors by supporting efforts to expand diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion (DEAI), by encouraging difficult conversations with the goal of discovering common ground, by providing a multicultural and multidisciplinary platform for all members and organizations and by taking risks that enable and support innovation and progress within the exhibition industry and our museum communities as a whole.

Priorities

  • ICOM Exhibitions seeks to expand and strengthen its position as the global voice for the international museum exhibition community.
  • ICOM Exhibitions seeks to establish and share best practices in exhibition production, partnership development, sustainable production models for travelling exhibitions, and content exchange.
  • ICOM Exhibitions leads a global museum network that embraces change and supports innovation and progress.

Focus Areas

1. Global Positioning

  • Expand Reach
    • By becoming ICOM Exhibitions, we can broaden the focus of the International Committee (IC) to include not only travelling exhibitions, but all content creators, innovators, producers, and fabricators.
  • Tactics
    • After the launch of the new identity, ICOM Exhibitions will market to new members with the goal of increasing membership in the following areas: non-European countries; individuals in exhibitions roles (both travelling and non-travelling); and content creators, curators, educators, etc.
  •  Measurement
    • Increase in global diversity of membership
    • Increase in the number of individual memberships
    • Increase in the number of organizational memberships
    • Increase in participation of IC events by members
    • Increase in participation of IC events by non-members

2. Best Practices

  • Promote Sustainability
    • Content creation has an environmental impact whether it be through transportation, manufacturing, disposal, or digital consumption.  ICOM Exhibitions commits itself to expanding the dialogue around best practices in sustainability and encouraging members to actively pursue higher sustainability standards across their programs.
  • Tactics
    • Partner with thought leaders to discuss the impact of new strategies in exhibition production and strategize on new ways to reduce waste, carbon footprint, and resources used.
  •  Measurement
    • Number of environmentally sustainable events
    • Participation in events
    • Documented evidence of change due to these conversations

3. Communication

  • Encourage Dialogue
    • ICOM Exhibitions is a global organization with diverse constituencies. By connecting these communities, new narratives for new futures can be created. What stories are being told, how they are told, who is telling them, and who they are being told to are all rapidly changing. ICOM Exhibitions commits itself to embracing new ideas in content creation and dissemination, understanding that new models are needed to meet the demands of a changing world.
  • Tactics
    • Partner with IC’s, National Committee’s (NC) and other cultural partners to explore new dialogues about current struggles, challenges and achievements in co-creation, power sharing and community engagement as they intersect in museum leadership, exhibition development and content creation.
  •  Measurement
    • Number of environmentally sustainable events
    • Participation in events
    • Diversity of participants and location of events