Our Strategic Focus
NEMO focuses on four values and three cross-cutting themes that are important in helping museums to be active and visible both today and into the future. NEMO’s mission is reflected in our Policy Statement.
Collection Value
Our Vision: Tangible and intangible collections are at the heart of museums. NEMO wants to see that collections are well taken care of for present and future generations and are as widely accessible to all people as possible. They reflect different perspectives, cultural complexity and are used in multiple ways for the benefit of the society.
Our concerns: The collections are not seen as a core of the museum work and a funding priority by policy makers and funding organisations. The collection-related work does not always have adequate resources for taking proper care of their collections, developing and making optimal use of them.
Our Mission: We advocate for the manifold values and uses of collections and provide a platform for museums to exchange good practices for the acquisition, deaccession, conservation, preservation, research, accessibility, interpretation, identification and innovative use of museum collections.
Social Value
Our Vision: Museums are part of a good life and provide social well-being. They communicate with all generations and serve society at large. They strengthen the social fabric and serve as places for meeting and dialogue for different cultures and offer opportunities for individual growth.
Our concerns: Museums are not fully acknowledged and supported in their role as social agents, they lack visibility and opportunities to cooperate with other sectors such as the health and the social sector.
Our mission: We highlight the social value and support the potential of museums for society by promoting their contribution to different social agendas such as health, tolerance, education, environment, democracy, active citizenship, social justice and poverty to policy makers and stakeholders from other sectors.
Educational Value
Our Vision: Museums help people develop as individuals and understand their place in the world. They are life-long learning environments, complementary to all other forms of education and they offer additional learning opportunities for all.
Our concerns: Museums are still not acknowledged and supported as an important agent in the educational system.
Our mission: We support museums to be recognised as rich learning environments and places of public engagement and provide the platform for the exchange of good practices.
Economic Value
Our Vision: Museums are important actors in the economy and the creative sectors. They are at the heart of successful urban regeneration and cultural tourism initiatives. They are places of, actors in and partners for the creative economy.
Our Concerns: Museums are not fully acknowledged and supported as actors contributing positively to the economy and the creative sectors. There is still little comprehensive and comparable data available, and an appropriate framework to measure aggregate economic value and spill-over effects of museums is lacking.
Our Mission: We want to to ensure that museums are recognised for their positive impact on the economy and the creative industries and supports enhanced cooperation with partners to fully tap into museums’ economic impact.
Digital transformation
Our Vision: Digital technologies affect all aspects of museum work today. With their digital potential museums contribute to different social aspects as sources of creative innovation, information and all forms of learning. They interact with different audiences and promote open and democratic access to their collections on a global level.
Our Concerns: Museums are lagging behind in fully tapping their digital potential, on an infrastructural, skills and knowledge and strategical level. To keep up with the exponential digital development museums have to fully embrace their digital extension. Public funding for digital transformation is scarce and should be made available for long term and experimental initiatives.
Our Mission: We advocate for tailored regional, national and European funding long opportunities for museums with a focus on the development of digital skills and infrastructure of museums, including the development of sound metrics, frameworks and methods to track digital activities and success factors.
Professional Development
Our Vision: Museums contribute to a sense of belonging, shared values and solidarity among a society in constant change. The empowerment and capacity building of professionals who work in museums and take care of cultural heritage are at the core of successful museum work and meaningful social impact.
Our Concerns: The importance of life-long learning and continuous training in all aspects of museum work to help museum professionals and the museum sector at large to embrace new societal developments and demands, and to enhance the value of museums to society, is not fully acknowledged and supported.
Our Mission: We advocate for support through continuous and targeted capacity building programmes for museum professionals that will equip them with new and emerging skills as an integral part of contemporary museum work. We offer museum professionals European capacity building programmes to share experiences and knowledge and to foster a European dimension in museum work.
Sustainable transition
Our Vision: The consequences of climate change have a dramatic ecological and social impact on every sector and element of society and museums and the work of museum professionals are not an exception. Adaptations to museum operations are key to preserve the impact of collections and knowledge for the benefit of future generations. The potential of museums to educate, engage and activate the public to act for a sustainable future should be adequately acknowledged, supported, and streamlined in museum practice and strategy.
Our Concerns: Museums have not been adequately supported by governing and funding institutions to make a successful sustainable transition, nor has their potential to support the sustainable transition of our society been fully acknowledged.
Our Mission: We advocate for the potential of museums to be key actors in the fight against climate change and to be supported to tap their full potential through policies and funding programmes supporting Europe’s sustainable transition. We help museums create awareness, exchange and build capacities as they adapt to climate friendly operations and use their platform to incorporate the urgency and action necessary to prevent further global temperature increase, biodiversity loss and consequent social and ecological casualties.