Today I’m teaching my third class of the semester on museum management and we are discussing mission, vision, and values. I assign each student a museum as their case study for the topics we explore through the course, which is brought together in an organizational assessment based on MAP as the final project.

Because mission, vision, and values are the foundations for managerial decision-making in non-profit organizations, they are a good place to start the semester because it will affect their thinking throughout the course. As part of our readings, we draw from chapters in Reinventing the Museum: The Evolving Conversation on the Paradigm Shift, Second Edition edited by Gail Anderson; What Management Is by Joan Magretta; Mission Matters: Relevance and Museums in the 21st Century by Gail Anderson; and the AAM’s Standards. Erin Carlson Mast, president and CEO of the Lincoln Presidential Foundation, joined us last week to discuss how the Foundation and President Lincoln’s Cottage developed their mission statements and how they affected their thinking.

Students submitted the mission statements for their museum on a wiki and today we’ll be evaluating them in three broad categories: strong, medium, or weak. How would you assess the ability of these mission statements to guide your thinking?

Asian Art Museum of San Francisco, San Francisco, CA.

Mission statement: The Asian Art Museum celebrates, preserves, and promotes Asian and Asian American art and cultures for local and global audiences. We provide a dynamic forum for exchanging ideas, inviting collaboration, and fueling imagination to deepen understanding and empathy among people of all backgrounds. 

Vision: Where experiences of Asian and Asian American art and cultures inspire and connect us all. 

Value: The Asian Art Museum of San Francisco strives to be respectful, engaging, inspirational, nimble, and accessible. 

Boston Children’s Museum, Boston, MA.

Boston Children’s Museum engages children and families in joyful discovery experiences that instill an appreciation of our world, develop foundational skills, and spark a lifelong love of learning.

California Academy of Sciences, San Francisco, CA.

Mission Statement: The mission of the California Academy of Sciences is to regenerate the natural world through science, learning, and collaboration.

Vision: Within a generation, the natural world is healthier, more resilient, and wilder each year. 

Core Values: The Academy is committed to Exploration, Collaboration, Courage, Advocacy, Diversity, and Equity.

Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum, St. Michael’s, MD.

The Chesapeake Bay Maritime Museum explores and preserves the history, environment, and culture of the entire Chesapeake Bay region, and makes this resource accessible to all.

Conner Prairie Museum, Fishers, IN.

Conner Prairie is a unique historic place that inspires curiosity and fosters learning by providing engaging and individualized experiences for everyone.

Delaware Art Museum, Wilmington, DE.

The Delaware Art Museum connects people to art, offering an inclusive and essential community resource that through its collections, exhibitions, and programs, generates creative energy that sustains, enriches, empowers, and inspires.

Denver Art Museum, Denver, CO.

Our mission is to enrich the lives of present and future generations through the acquisition, presentation, and preservation of works of art, supported by exemplary scholarship and public programs related to both its permanent collections and to temporary exhibitions presented by the museum.

Denver Museum of Nature and Science, Denver, Colorado.

Mission: Be a catalyst! Ignite our community’s passion for nature and science.

Vision: The Denver Museum of Nature & Science envisions an empowered community that loves, understands, and protects our natural world. 

Exploratorium, San Francisco, CA.

The Exploratorium’s mission is to create inquiry-based experiences that transform learning worldwide.

Additionally, it seeks to support a culture of experimentation and collaboration, inspire curiosity and understanding, and stimulate fresh ideas and directions.

Indianapolis Museum of Art (Newfields), Indianapolis IN.

To enrich lives through exceptional experiences with art and nature.

Indianapolis Zoo, Indianapolis, IN.

The Indianapolis Zoo’s mission is to protect nature and inspire people to care for our world.

Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum, Boston, MA.

True to the ambitious vision of its founder and her spirit of creative risk-taking, the mission of the Isabella Stewart Gardner Museum is: to bring to life and preserve the rich historic collection; to cultivate talent in the pursuit of knowledge and acts of creation in the arts and humanities; to support artists, landscape architects, musicians, scholars and students; and to engage local and global audiences in a sanctuary of beauty and the arts where deeply personal and communal adventures unfold.

James Madison’s Montpelier, Orange County, Virginia.  

To discover, research, analyze, preserve, and tell the stories of the people who lived and worked at James Madison’s Montpelier through collaborative research and interpretation. 

Mystic Seaport Museum, Mystic, Connecticut.

Mission: Mystic Seaport Museum strives to inspire an enduring connection to the American maritime experience.

Vision: Mystic Seaport Museum will re-imagine the interchange between maritime heritage and broader contemporary culture.

Core Values: Knowledge, Authenticity, Inspiration, Stewardship, Community.

Museum of Fine Arts Boston, Boston, MA.

The Museum of Fine Arts houses and preserves preeminent collections and aspires to serve a wide variety of people through direct encounters with works of art.

Oakland Museum of California, Oakland, California.  

OMCA inspires Californians to create a more vibrant future for themselves and their communities. We explore the big ideas that shape California lives, then bring to life the untold and under-told stories of the people behind them—all with a distinctly Oakland point of view.

Peabody Essex Museum (PEM), Salem, Massachusetts.

Mission: The mission of the Peabody Essex Museum is to celebrate outstanding artistic and cultural creativity by collecting, stewarding, and interpreting objects of art and culture in ways that increase knowledge, enrich the spirit, engage the mind, and stimulate the senses.

Vision: Through its exhibitions, programs, publications, media, and related activities, PEM strives to create experiences that transform people’s lives by broadening their perspectives, attitudes, and knowledge of themselves and the wider world.

Telfair Museums, Savannah, GA.

Telfair Museums offers compelling expressions of visual culture – embracing three unique buildings and three distinct collections that bridge three centuries of art and architecture. The museum develops awareness, understanding, and appreciation of the arts and serves as a dynamic cultural center connecting people of all ages and backgrounds. 

Wadsworth Atheneum Museum of Art, Hartford, CT. 

Holding its collection in trust for all people, the Wadsworth Atheneum is dedicated to advancing knowledge and inspiring everyone to experience and appreciate excellence in art and culture.