The Museum of London
Client
The Museum of LondonServices
Engagement,
Organisational Design,
Organisational Culture,
Brand Strategy,
Brand Architecture
2016 – present
Transforming the Museum’s relationship to London and the wider world
Mass participation with Londoners to co-create everything from a new strategic mission to future exhibition concepts
Participants from the Smithfield Residency
With a collection that stretches from Charles I’s execution garments to a 10 tonne fatberg, The Museum of London is one of the world’s greatest city museums and unique repository of London’s cultural and material history.
During the 2020s, the Museum is undergoing a dramatic transformation, built around a high profile move from their current location to establish a major new home in historic Smithfield Market. This physical move is part of a broader transformation that will see the Museum radically rethink how it re-engages with its audiences.
We have worked closely with the Museum’s Executive Board over the last three years to shape this vision and to make it a reality, connecting it to the day-to-day work of people all across the institution and beyond, and placed radical participation at the heart of the Museum’s practice.
Inviting London In
During summer 2019, we hosted two-week residency in an unused butcher’s shop in Smithfield market where over 500 Londoners co-created the Museum’s new Mission & Vision. We started with a blank sheet of paper and finished with a statement of intent loved by audiences, staff and governors alike.
Shaping A Culture
We’ve worked with the Museum to ensure this new strategic framework informs decision making across the museum – from card game workshops that use the new framework to helping teams tackle day-to-day problems across the institution.
Dreaming the future
Together, The Museum and Something More Near have built on this spirit of radical collaboration - inviting public groups to help answer major strategic questions from exhibition concepts, curatorial principles and brand architecture. Welcome to London’s museum of the future.
"Bravo to Something More Near for crafting our strategic vision through such engagement. It shows what we should aspire to - when engagement is embedded as a way of doing things throughout the organisation, engaging young people, broadening the range of inputs into the museum, and plugging into the diverse experiences and ideas of the Londoners we serve."
Sharon Ament – Director, MUSEUM OF LONDON
