Museum Analyticsbeta

What is Museum Analytics?

Museum Analytics is an online platform for sharing and discussing information about museums and their audiences. For each museum there is a daily updated report with information about online and offline audiences. These reports are an essential tool for communication departments to evaluate and understand their progress.

Weekly, monthly or annual reports with information about museums are sent by email. You can subscribe to receive a report on the page of a specific museum, city or country. We will never spam you. The emails will only contain the requested information and you can always stop receiving them. We are curious to hear your opinion and feedback. Feel free to contact us at info[at]museum-analytics.org.

The power of a strong community

One of the most powerful aspects of Museum Analytics is the fact that many museums are brought together online. Information about more than 3000 museums is already included and the list is still growing. Museum Analytics has the potential to make the worldwide presence of museums and their impact on our daily lives visible. It encourages museum professionals to openly share information about museum’s operations and performance. We believe that transparency empowers the museum community by increasing public trust. We would like to instigate the use of open data and open standards. Do you know a museum with an open API or using microformats? Please let us know, we would be interested in expanding Museum Analytics to include other types of information.

Standing on the shoulders of giants

For several years, the information that is now being collected on a daily basis was published in a scattered manner. Some of the references that directly or indirectly have led to the development of Museum Analytics are listed here:

• The Art Newspaper publishes attendance numbers of the most visited museums on a yearly basis.
• Maxwell L. Anderson has published Metrics of Success in Art Museums in 2004.
• The Indianapolis Museum of Art publishes daily numerical data on their dashboard.
• At the Walker Art Center a tool has been developed to aggregate data from google analytics.
• Sean Redmond publishes about museums popularity on Facebook and Twitter.
• At Smithsonian, their web and New Media strategy is publicly discussed.
• Culture24 has published a report about popularity and engagement online.
• Jesse Ringham has published Tate Social Media Communication Strategy 2011–12.
• Dutch Art Map lists infrastructures for contemporary visual arts in the Netherlands.
• Albert Einstein for remembering us that: 'Not everything that can be counted counts, and not everything that counts can be counted.'
• 'Statistics are like a drunk with a lampost: used more for support than illumination.' Sir Winston Churchill

These initiatives were important precedents that led to the development of Museum Analytics where all this information is finally cohesively presented and contextualized.

Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the following individuals for beta testing an early version of Museum Analytics:

• Annelies Termeer, Eye
• Hein Wils, Stedelijk Museum
• Ilse van Zeeland, Naturalis
• John Stack, Tate
• Kirstie Beaven, Tate
• Lotte Baltussen, Beeld en Geluid Instituut
• Matt Morgan, Metropolitan Museum of Art
• Michel Langendijk, Virtueel Platform
• Museum Nerd
• Museum Sukkel
• Nancy Proctor, Smithsonian Institution
• Nate Solas, Walker Art Center
• Nik Honeysett, Getty center
• Patricia Villanueva Illanes, Laboral
• Petra van der Ree, The Netherlands Architecture Institute
• Rachel Clements, Imperial War Museum
• Sandra van Dongen, Museum Boijmans Van Beuningen
• Sean Redmond, Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum
• Susan Hazan, Israel Museum
• Vera Bartels, Museum Boerhaave
• Victor Samra, Museum of Modern Art

Museum Analytics has been initiated by INTK in the Netherlands. INTK researches and develops online strategies primarily for cultural organizations and creates critical interventions that reflect on art, technology and society. Feel free to contact us at rui[AT]intk.com