The Strategic Museum Exchange
Museum leaders are critical to any successful transformation effort. Bottom-up initiatives can only go so far. This is especially true for institutions that want to prioritize people over products — a fundamental change that reverberates to every corner of an institution.
The Strategic Museum Exchange (SME) provides executive directors and deputy directors a supportive space to encourage experimentation, ensure accountability, and drive strategic change.
How It Works
Each cohort brings together 6–12 museum leaders in partner pairs for focused strategic work. Groups meet weekly for 50-80 minutes over 3-6 weeks. Within each group, partners are matched based on shared characteristics like organizational size, discipline, or objectives to enable meaningful exchange while maintaining diverse perspectives. The specific format — from session length to program duration — adapts to serve each cohort's focus Partners within each cohort are matched based on shared characteristics like organizational size or objectives to enable meaningful exchange while maintaining diverse perspectives.
Recent series have focused on a variety of topics, such as applying Richard Rumelt's strategic principles in museums and examining cultural institutions’ role in times of crisis with Robert Janes, author of Museums and Societal Collapse: The Museum as Lifeboat.
Getting Started
To join future cohorts:
Sign up using the waitlist below
Enroll in Organizational Membership
Complete our institutional survey and share it with your staff
Your responses to the survey help us understand your institution's context and priorities for effective matching. While individual responses remain confidential, we may analyze aggregate data to develop broader insights about strategic challenges facing the museum sector.
Sign Up to Be Notified About Upcoming Cohorts
If you’re an executive director or deputy/assistant director at a cultural institution, you can sign up below to join the waitlist and get notified of upcoming cohorts.
FAQ
Before sessions begin, you'll need to complete our institutional survey and ensure your staff has an opportunity to respond. Once a cohort forms, sessions typically run 50-80 minutes weekly over 3-6 weeks. You'll receive exact timing details for specific cohorts before confirming your participation.
Yes, both Executive and Deputy Directors from the same institution can participate.
Participation is included with Organizational Membership.