Museums Connect: The Next Chapter of International Collaboration

Abstract

Funding has recently become available for what is arguably the most time and resource intensive, though perhaps the most rewarding, type of international collaboration among museums: the facilitation of person-to-person cultural diplomacy. Whereas cultural content has historically been exchanged through museums in the form of objects; this new era of international collaboration transfers cultural content through personal connections. One such example is the Museums Connect program, which has funded over 50 projects between American and non-US institutions since 2008. There has been little comprehensive research on the factors that contribute to these projects’ successful achievement of outcomes, nor the challenges that Museums Connect project managers may face in reaching these goals. The field could be served by a deeper understanding of the strengths and skill sets museum professionals are relying upon to facilitate these types of collaborations, as well as the barriers they face in working with these large-scale, transnational projects.