Join Museums as Progress
Cultural organizations often measure their value through visitor numbers and demographic data, believing engagement is the path to relevance. Tracking these metrics can feel like a carefully maintained junk food diet — momentarily satisfying numbers that offer no real sustenance, distracting from deeper understanding and masking opportunities for genuine impact.
The problem with engagement metrics is that they only matter to the institution. People don't want to be engaged by a museum. They do pursue goals that matter to them, though: creating memorable experiences with friends, helping students grasp complex concepts, exploring a career in the arts … There are many goals museums can and do support. Engagement is just the shadow someone casts while making progress toward these goals.
MaP helps institutions identify and support the goals that matter to their communities, leading to more meaningful impact and sustainable growth. Through research-driven frameworks and a supportive community of practice, we guide organizations beyond surface-level metrics toward genuine progress.
Choose your path:
The Museums as Progress Partner Program (MaP³)
MaP³ takes a research-driven approach to helping museums develop and implement user-centered strategy. Our community of practice is a the heart of the program and uses peer collaboration and learning to bridge the gap between what your museum aspires to be and how it functions day-to-day.
Program Leadership
Kyle Bowen, MaP Founder
Kyle helps cultural organizations redefine strategic purpose through innovative progress-space research. His approach shifts museums from product-centric to people-centric strategies, fostering a collaborative network that drives meaningful change in the cultural sector.
Kelly Cannon, Community Research Partner
Kelly builds audience relationships through compelling storytelling and community building. Her experience spans educational technology and peer learning networks, with a focus on creating sustainable engagement practices that deepen institutional impact.
Dr. John Falk, Value Realization Partner
John transforms how museums demonstrate value through groundbreaking free-choice learning research. His work reveals how cultural institutions support public well-being by fostering curiosity, personal growth, and enhanced physical and mental health.
How MaP³ Works
1) Assessment
Using a mixed methods approach developed with Dr. John Falk, we identify:
Critical Challenges: We measure alignment around strategic priorities across departments, revealing where different perspectives create barriers to implementation. Rather than assuming everyone shares the same understanding of priorities, we identify specific disconnects that prevent progress.
Participant Outcomes: We identify patterns in how your institution supports specific visitor outcomes, revealing opportunities for strategic differentiation, improved positioning, and articulation of unique value.
Learning Capabilities: We analyze how knowledge flows across your organization, identifying where insights get stuck and how to build sustainable learning practices that align functions around high-value outcomes.
Financial Performance: We explore connections between your strategic challenges and revenue patterns, creating context for targeted investment decisions that maximize limited resources.
2) Validation & Strategic Focus
Once we have a view of the well-being outcomes your staff believes your institution provides, we identify up to five outcomes that are of strategic value to your institution. We then evaluate with visitors the degree to which your organization is able to support those outcomes. This validation process helps your museum determine which outcome to prioritize. Once you have a priority outcome you institution can develop cross-departmental initiatives that build on strengths and create metrics that measure genuine progress, not just activity.
3) Participation and Practice
Your next steps will depend on the results of your assessment. If it’s beneficial, you may decide to participate in one of our advanced programs, like The Community Goals Study or The Value Realization Collaborative. Or you can just take advantage of the peer learning opportunities that come with your MaP³ benefits, including:
All Staff Program Access: Workshops and events focused on your specific challenges
Leadership Cohorts: Connect with museum leaders facing similar challenges
Structured Learning: Reading series and practice sessions selected to address your institution's needs
4) Reassessment
At the end of your first year, we measure progress across all four assessment dimensions, creating both accountability and a foundation for continued evolution. Reassessment is included with your membership renewal.
A Closer Look: Institutional Insight Through Comparative Analysis
MaP³ assessments include benchmarking that positions your institution's performance within the community of participating organizations. This comparative analysis transforms isolated data points into strategic intelligence.
The visualization below represents a composite from multiple institutional assessments. It illustrates how organizations discover their distinctive strengths — such as supporting intellectual well-being outcomes — and use these insights to drive cross-departmental collaboration centered around visitor outcomes rather than institutional outputs.
This comparative approach provides valuable insights and creates a profile of your institution that we use to match you with institutions in our community addressing similar challenges. We also use your institution’s profile to inform our seasonal programming, ensuring we’re providing relevant learning and collaboration opportunities for our participants.
Registration
We encourage you to schedule a call with us to discuss how MaP³ may support your institution’s goals and find out if it’s a good fit for your team.
If you're ready to begin, choose your registration path based on your institution’s annual operating budget:
We'll verify your organization's budget after registration if needed. Your entire staff receives access upon enrollment. Fees will increase on October 1, 2025. Register by September 30 to secure the rates shown above.
If your museum is a member of a MaP partner association, you’re eligible for a 15% discount. Email us for more information.
Is MaP³ Right for Your Institution?
MaP³ tends to provide the most value for museums that:
Are embarking on a period of strategic planning and want to prioritize what matters to the communities their organization supports
Want to move beyond demographic data to understand participant motivations
Need to improve cross-departmental collaboration around participant outcomes rather than departmental outputs
Are seeking evidence-based approaches to audience development
Value practical frameworks over theoretical models
Schedule a call to discuss your specific challenges.
Participating Cultural Institutions
Participating in MaP³ has been a transformative experience for the Ulrich Museum of Art. It has been invaluable for us to have our museum staff participate in their assessment. Through this research-driven assessment and their supportive community of peer museums, we've gained insights into aligning our exhibitions and programming with the goals that matter most to our community as our focus. Our participation in the program deepened our understanding of visitor engagement, critical challenges unique to our museum, and how to genuinely interact with the communities we serve. This process has empowered us to become a more dynamic and responsive institution. We highly recommend MaP³ to any cultural organization seeking to enhance its impact and foster meaningful connections with its audience.
— Vivian Zavataro, Executive and Creative Director @ The Ulrich Museum of Art
Ready to Build Internal Support?
We've created a template to help you make a clear case for participation to your colleagues and leadership.
The document outlines what your institution will gain, how progress will be measured, specific benefits for your team, and clear next steps for getting started.
Google Doc Version
Make a copy you can edit and share. Best for gathering input from your team.
Word Version
Download and format it your way. A good start for formal proposals.
Need help building your case?
Schedule a call to discuss your institution's specific challenges. If MaP³ is a good fit, we’ll help you contextualize the program.
Looking for Individual Membership?
If your institution isn’t ready to enroll in MaP³, you can join as an individual member.
FAQ
Individual membership provides personal access to MaP events and resources. The MaP³ program takes this further — your entire institution gains access while receiving structured assessment and guidance to drive organizational progress. Think of individual membership as professional development and MaP³ as institutional development.
All cultural institutions and professionals are welcome, including:
Museums of all types and sizes
Public gardens and arboreta
Zoos and aquariums
Historic sites and cultural centers
The MaP³ assessment takes about 20 minutes for staff to complete. We encourage you to sample at least half of your staff and aim for representation across every department and function. Institutions see the best results when they invite departments to block 30 minutes on the calendar for everyone to focus on completing the survey independently while at work. In addition to the survey, we will invite up to 10 staff to participate in private interviews. The assessment is completed within six weeks and leadership will be invited to a one-hour debrief to discuss results. This process is repeated annually to track change over time. Beyond this foundational assessment, MaP³ is designed for flexibility — your staff choose which events and programs serve their needs, with no mandatory time commitments.
MaP³ complements strategic planning by revealing patterns in how different departments view priorities and progress. During planning phases, the results surface insights that inform strategic direction and help align teams around shared goals. During implementation periods, the assessment measures how insights are being shared internally, alignment drift, and outcome confidence.
At the end of your first year, your institution is invited to participate in a reassessment. This creates a picture of your progress while surfacing new opportunities that may have emerged. The program automatically renews at a reduced fee, but you maintain complete control — you can cancel renewal anytime through your account settings without contacting us.
Yes. MaP³ is fundamental to success in other programs like The Value Realization Collaborative. Your assessment results describe if and how other programs can help your institution and which outcomes you can prioritize if you wish to engage in further research or training.
Registration is straightforward — select your tier based on operating budget above and complete payment. We'll verify your budget information after registration and help you begin the assessment process.
We can provide an invoice, which will let you pay via ACH bank transfer. Email community-at-museumprogress.com to request an invoice.