Museumsquartier Osnabrück Modellmuseum in internationaler OECD-Studie: Ergebnisse
Stadt: osnabrueck
Drucksache: VO/2019/4606
Datum: 2019-10-28
Vorlagenart: Mitteilungsvorlage

Seite: 1/2
Stadt Osnabrück 08.10.2019 
Vorstand für Bildung, Kultur und Familie
Fachbereich Kultur
Mitteilungsvorlage Vorlage-Nr:
Öffentlichkeitsstatus:
VO/2019/4606
öffentlich
Museumsquartier Osnabrück Modellmuseum in internationaler 
OECD-Studie: Ergebnisse
Beratungsfolge:
Gremium Datum Sitzungs-
art
Zuständigkeit TOP- 
Nr.
 Kulturausschuss 07.11.2019 Ö Kenntnisnahme
Der Inhalt der Vorlage unterstützt folgende/s strategische/n Stadtziel/e:
 Vielseitige Kultur- und Freizeitangebote (Ziel 2016 - 2020)
Sachverhalt:
Vgl. VO/2019/3460: Das Museumsquartier Osnabrück nahm - als Modellmuseum für 
Deutschland - an einer internationalen Studie der OECD (Organisation for Economic Co-
operation and Development) teil.
Unter dem Titel „Culture and Local Development: Maximising the Impact. Towards an 
OECD Guide for Local Governments, Communities and Museums“ umfasst die Studie 
eine von Expertinnen und Experten begleitete Evaluation von Museen als Standortfaktor 
für die Stadt, die Region und darüber hinaus.
Auf Vorschlag der Verwaltung führte Prof. Dr. Gesa Birnkraut (Hochschule Osnabrück) 
im Auftrag der OECD vor Ort Befragungen von ausgewählten Museumsmitarbeiterinnen 
und - mitarbeitern, von Akteuren der Kommunalverwaltung und weiteren Interessenver-
bänden durch und wertete die Ergebnisse aus.
Die Interviews wurden mit den parallel dazu laufenden Gesprächen zu Baustein 3 der 
Kulturstrategie „Kultur als Standortfaktor“ abgestimmt. In die geplante Veröffentlichung 
hierzu werden die Ergebnisse der OECD-Studie ebenfalls eingebunden.
Diese Ergebnisse liefern wertvolle Hinweise zur Positionierung des Museumsquartiers als 
Standortfaktor für die Stadt Osnabrück und Umgebung, die für die konzeptionelle Weite-
rentwicklung des Museums genutzt werden sollen. Zudem bedeutet die Teilnahme des 
Museumsquartiers einen wichtigen Schritt in Richtung der Wiedererlangung des Muse-
umsgütesiegels, für das die Evaluierungsergebnisse inhaltliche Anhaltspunkte liefern. 
Auch für die Steigerung des internationalen Renommees des Museumsquartiers ist die 
Teilnahme an der Studie von Bedeutung.
Die Länderexpertin der OECD, Frau Prof. Dr. Birnkraut, hat einen zusammenfassenden 
Bericht erstellt, der Ende 2019 gemeinsam mit den übrigen teilnehmenden Institutionen 
Eingang in eine Publikation finden soll.
Der Bericht über das Museumsquartier Osnabrück wurde erstmals im Rahmen einer Pres-
sekonferenz am 10.09.2019 der Öffentlichkeit vorgestellt.
Die Studie der OECD bilanziert insgesamt eine sehr gute Reputation des Museumsquar-
tiers und bescheinigt eine positive Entwicklung, die durch die Neubesetzung der Direktion 
mit ihrem neuen Museumskonzept in Gang gesetzt wurde. Das Museumsquartier wird als 
lebendiger Kulturort in der Mitte der Stadt wahrgenommen. Gleichzeitig macht die Studie 
                                                           Seite: 2/2
deutlich, dass durch eine stärkere Einbindung des Museumsquartiers auf strategischer 
Ebene in Politik, Verwaltung und in Zusammenarbeit mit externen Akteuren (Universität, 
Unternehmen, Sozialinstitutionen…) weiteres Potenzial geweckt werden könnte. 
Vgl. die Studie „Report OECD project Museumsquartier Osnabrück“ (in engl.) im Anhang
Gez. Mersinger
Anlage/n:
Studie „Report OECD project Museumsquartier Osnabrück
 1 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Report OECD project 
Museumsquartier Osnabrück 
 
 
 
Report by Prof. Dr. Gesa Birnkraut, university of applied sciences Osnabrueck 
May, 7th, 2019 
 
  
 2 
1. Introduction ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ............. 3 
2. Executive Summary and Action Plan ................................ ................................ ................... 7 
Overall results: ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 7 
Actions recommended for the local government: ................................ ........................  8 
Actions recommended for the museums ................................ ................................ ............ 9 
3. Methodology................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ......... 12 
The purpose of the Guide ................................ ................................ ................................ ....... 12 
The structure of the Guide ................................ ................................ ................................ ..... 12 
4. Results – Analysis and recommendations ................................ ................................ ..... 16 
4. 1. Economic development and innovation ................................ ...............................  17 
Results ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 18 
Analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 20 
Recommendations ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................  20 
4.2. Urban design and community development ................................ ......................  22 
Results ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 23 
Analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 25 
Recommendations ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................  25 
4.3. Cultural development, education and creativeness ................................ ..... 27 
Results ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 27 
Analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 30 
Recommendations ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................  30 
4.4. Inclusion, health and well-being ................................ ................................ ................. 32 
Results ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 32 
Analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 34 
Recommendations ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................  34 
4.5. Managing museums for local development ................................ ........................  35 
Results ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................... 36 
Analysis ................................ ................................ ................................ ................................ ................ 39 
Recommendations ................................ ................................ ................................ ........................  39 
5. Good Practices to consider................................ ................................ ................................ ........ 41 
6. Critical analysis of the self-assessment instrument ................................ .............. 43 
 
 
 
  
 3 
 
1. Introduction 
 
Germany has the special situation of having a federal system, where arts and 
culture and education are topics decided in the 16 Bundeslaender that Germany 
exists of. That means that not only Germany has different systems of supporting 
and subsidizing arts institutions, there are also different priorities in the 
Bundeslaender. That can also be seen in the different forming of ministries and 
offices. In Hamburg there is a ministry for arts and media, in Berlin they have a 
department which is directly under the mayor, in Lower Saxony there is a 
ministry for education and arts and so on. Financially one will find the same – as 
every Land can decide their budget and the share that they give to culture – so 
there is a variation from 64,33 € per capita in Rheinland-Pfalz up to 211,62 € per 
capita in Sachsen. Lower Saxony lies more at the end with about 74,03 Euro per 
spent capita. All the Bundeslaender spent an overall average of 108,03 Euro per 
capita for arts and culture.  
(Kulturfinanzbericht 2015: 23 f.) 
 
If one looks at the amount of money that is spent in the different Bundeslaender, 
one can find also a big variety: In 2015 for example North Rhine Westfalia had 
the highest amount in relation to their inhabitants: 1,6 billion Euro – followed by 
Bavaria with 1,4 billion Euro. On the low end Bremen (108,7 million Euro) and 
the Saarland (78,7 million Euro) were to be found. (Kulturfinanzbericht 2015: 
24) 
 
State level 
If one looks at the state level of Germany, the youngest ministry is the one for 
arts and media. Since 1998, Germany has a state ministry for arts and media 
which is involved in all topics that concern German in general like creative 
industry or media rights or international exchange. (Bundesregierung 2010) 
 
Overall you can say, that only 14,8 % is paid by the state, 40,3 % by the 
Laender and 44,9% by the cities and communities. (Kulturfinanzbericht 2015: 
21) Coming to the different areas, the expense for museums is the second 
biggest after theatre and music and before libraries. (18,3% are spent on 
museums and exhibitions, Kulturfinanzbericht 2015:29). 
 
Coming to the area of governance of museums this explains also the very 
different models that can be found in the different Bundeslaender. In the year 
2015 there were in general 6.710 museums listed in Germany at the Institut for 
Museum sciences in Berlin (Institut für Museumsforschung 2017:93). 51,5 % of 
these museums were public (3.455) and 44,6% (2.994) private. 3.9 % (261) 
were in mixed ownership. Concerning scientific focus the biggest group of the 
public museums were museums of local history or folk museums (2.110). There 
were 540 public arts museums and 716 museums with special focus on cultural 
history. (Kulturfinanzbericht 2015: 36) 
 
The number of museums is growing, 1998 there were only 5.376 museums. In 
the last years (since 2015) the number is quite constant. 
(https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/2821/umfrage/entwicklung-der-
anzahl-von-museen-in-deutschland/) 
 4 
 
The number of visitors in Germany for the overall number of museums is about 
114 million people per annum (the latest statistics are for 2017) – this is growing 
every year a bit (1998 it were 95 million people), still the growth is rather small. 
In the last ten years the visitors grew about 6%. 
(https://de.statista.com/statistik/daten/studie/37304/umfrage/besuchszahlen-
in-deutschen-museen-seit-1998/) 
 
What are the challenges of museums in Germany at the moment? In general one 
can say that there are the classical challenges that have been around for a 
couple of years now: audience development is one of them and diversity another 
one of them. Museums have to careful to attract enough people to come, as the 
number of visitors usually is also one of the performance indicators that are 
collected from the administration. Out of that a dilemma evolved over the years: 
More and more special exhibits were created, so that the museum itself is 
occupied with a kind of activistic organising of events to get enough visitors. The 
long term vision and the general exhibition or collection sometimes is losing the 
importance that it should have.  
 
The topic of diversity goes hand in hand with audience development, but also 
with cultural education activities of museums. Museum in general are quite 
strong in Germany concerning the educational programs. They serve schools and 
families through various ecudational efforts. This stays an important role in 
German museums.  
 
In addition to this the discussion of being a third space is getting more and more 
virulent. Ray Oldenburg wrote already in 1989 about third spaces as the coming 
most important space for the public life. In general the first space is home, the 
second space is work and the third space is the public area you go to enjoy, 
discuss, get in touch with your community etc. Putnam used the third spaces in 
his book in 1995 to talk about the decline of social capital. This OECD project 
most certainly is also connected with the idea that museums could be third 
spaces. So this discussion is slowly coming into the cultural field. North Rhine 
westfalia currently is supporting ideas and concepts for cultural institutions to 
convert themselves into third spaces. Museums more and more are challenged to 
change their attitude from expert rooms to open rooms. 
  
To describe the different governance models that exist in Germany, one has to 
differentiate between the following kinds of museums: 
 
 
 Private museums owned by associations 
Here the private museums are run by a board of citizens, usually the museums 
are financed through donations and there are a low number of full time 
employees and usually a lot more volunteers. If the museum gets a subsidy by 
the city it is located in, then usually there are no systems of controlling or 
evaluation. There always is an annual financial and content report, but other 
then that it usually is more a relationship of trust and informal communication. 
 
This is the biggest relation after museums owned by districts or municipalities. 
There are approximately 1.978 museums of that kind in Germany. (Institut für 
Museumsforschung 2017: 37) 
 
 5 
An example is the Heimatmuseum Winsen Luhe  - this stands for all the small 
local museums that are founded and run by volunteers (http://www.hum-
winsen.de). 
 
 Private museums owned by a foundation or a corporation  
Again usually there is no specific governance system. The museum is financed by 
the foundation or the corporation and is in good contact with the city. More and 
more you can find public private partnerships that combine private and public 
money to form museums. 
 
Data: There are app. 246 museums owned by foundations and 323 museums 
owned by private companies. (Institut für Museumsforschung 2017:37) 
 
An example in Lower Saxony is the Kunsthalle Emden wihich was funded and 
created in 1986 by private money from Henri Nannen, a VIP entrepreneur in 
Germany at the time. It now is a foundation which is also supporten on a long 
term basis by the Bundesland Lower Saxony. 
 
 Institutionally subsidized state museums  
For art museums, the most common system in Germany is the state subsidized 
museum which gets most of the budget from the city or state. The average 
income from tickets and other services in Germanies museums is about 7-9% 
(That means that over 90% of the budget is in general coming from the state / 
city). There are different systems how to enhance controlling and evaluation. In 
total there are about 51% of the museums in Germany financed and owned by 
the public sphere (state owned and forms of public owned independant 
institutions). The legal status varies and so do the controlling systems. (Institut 
für Museumsforschung 2017:37 and Naßmacher 2007: 138) 
 
The cities and Laender do have different governance models – a museum can be 
part of the city government which means that there are less possibilities for free 
budgeting and free decisions concerning personnel management. 
Another possibility is that the museums are restructured into legal persons like 
foundations or limited societies. That means more freedom in budgeting, 
personnel etc. It means also that the museum has to have a sufficient starting 
budget, otherwise the restructuring might turn into a very difficult situation.  
 
An example is the MQ4, it is financed by the city (see below) but is responsible 
for its own actions. 
 
City of Osnabrück 
The city of Osnabrück has 170.000 citizens and has a long history (founded in 
780 by Karl the Great). Especially the historic event of signing the peace treaty 
in 1648 to end the horrors of the war that had been going on for 30 years gives 
Osnabrück even nowadays the title of the city of peace (Friedensstadt). 
Osnabrück is also known for its extensive students life. There are the university 
of Osnabrück with about 14.000 students and the university of applied sciences 
with also about 14.000 students. (source: die Stadt im Überblick 
https://www.osnabrueck.de/fileadmin/eigene_Dateien/Neubuergerbroschuere_O
snabrueck_2018.pdf ) 
Osnabrück has a lively cultural scene with a couple of museums besides the MQ4 
– there are 5 museums in Onsabrück (the MQ4, the museum of industry, the  
museum of the diocese, a natural history museum and a contemporary exhibition 
 6 
hall. Another 3 museum can be found in the county around Osnabrück: the 
museum of the county, a museum of clothiers and a museum of the 
Varusschlacht (a war battle).  Addionally Osnabrück has a public theatre and a 
public library. There is also a vibrant festival scene for example with the annual 
Schloßgarten open air and European Media Art Festival (EMEA), the Young Urban 
Performance (YUP) or the Morgenland Festival (medieval music). There are a 
couple of city and private art galleries. More can be found under 
https://osnabrueckkultur.wordpress.com/kulturorte/   
 
 
Museumsquartier MQ4 in Osnabrück 
The museums quarter consists out of four houses: The Felix Nussbaum house, 
the museum of cultural history, the Villa Schlikker (which will be renovated in the 
coming years) and the newly renovated Akzisehouse, which is an event space for 
about 50 – 80 persons. The house is an architectural highlight as it has an 
attached building designed by Daniel Liebeskind. This building is hosting the 
collection of Felix Nussbaum, which is the constant exhibition. In addition to this 
constant exhibition there are about 5-7 special exhibitions each year. These 
special exhibitions are of very different topics, the newest one being about Karl 
May. 
 
The MQ4 is an institutionally subsidized public museum. It gets an annual budget 
from the city of Osnabrück of about 2,5 million Euro. 88,2% of the budget comes 
from the city of Osnabrück, 4,7% is the amount of owned income and another 
7,1% come from contributions, sponsoring and other sources.  
 
The personnel consists out of 4 curators (which are not all full-time positions), 
one full time museum education specialist, one full time PR and marketing 
person (which was newly established just about a year ago), another about 6 
persons in administration, technical support, events and so on. There is of course 
the director (the position was created 2 years ago, before that there were two 
directors one for the Felix Nussbaum house and one for the museum of cultural 
history). In addition to that there are several people working in admission / 
custodians / cleaners, etc…  
 
They have a total amount of visitors of about 32.000 per annum. Due to the 
technological possibilities the museums does not know, where there visitors 
come from or how old they are (with the exception of the school classes 
obviously). 
  
 7 
2. Executive Summary and Action Plan 
 
This OECD pilot project is not a representative study, rather it is a field study 
that can give trends and tipps about the current situation. By interviewing three 
different perspectives (the museum itself, the city government and stakeholders) 
it is possible to have a quite good understanding of the different point of views. 
It can give quite a good overview of the areas that are already successful and 
the ones that might be improved. Through the self assessment tool, everyone 
was asked their set of questions, which gives a good overview even if not every 
question can be counter controlled by the other perspectives (see also critical 
judgement of the method). 
 
Overall results: 
 
The museum overall seems to have a very good reputation concerning the 
answers of the interviewees. The networking between the museum and other 
cultural institutions seems to be good if not excellent. In a town the size of 
Osnabrück naturally all cultural institutions are connected. Concerning the topic 
of the artist Felix Nußbaum there also is a strong connectivity into the field of 2nd 
world war arts. The director that came into the position 2 years ago combined 
with the new positions created (for PR and now starting the Museumslotse, 
explanation see chapter 4.3) already made a huge difference in the past years 
and will continue to do that.  
 
The education department gave guided tours for 140 school classes in 2018 and 
celebrated 5 childrens birthdays. 
There is a children museums club which met 10 times in 2018 and there were 8 
additional meetings in the summer vacation as part of the holiday pass. 
 
For the activity Kutur schnuppern (explanation on page 21) in total 13 groups 
took part in 41 appointments.  10 schools are part of this partnership, including 
secondary modern schools and professional schools. 
  
There are another three special partnerships with three schools – there is a 
museum working group with one elementary school, two other partnerships with 
secondary schools concerning exhibitions and special content. 
 
There are projects with the university of Osnabrück in the department of art and 
one of the curators has a teaching assignment at the university Osnabrück. 
 
There are also sporadic partnerships with companies (as for the photography 
award together with the Schöller group (an Osnabrück based company). 
 
The museum is part of the strategic cultural and city planning of Osnabrück, 
even if being an active part in this city planning could be even better. The city 
and the museums both have to think more actively about the role that the 
museum should play. This decision will also boost the inclusion of the museum in 
planning processes. 
   
As improvements the museum should proactively contact other institutions like 
universities, companies, social institutions, etc. to get into strategic partnerships. 
The museum at the moment seems to be still too much of a solitaire in society 
 8 
and therefor a more transparent communication of midterm planning should be 
chosen. The museum still does not communicate their midterm planning to 
partners and stakeholders, the topics for special exhibitions are created purely 
out of the curatorial team, the dialogue with the visitor is somehow inactive and 
sporadic due to technological problems. 
 
The city itself seems to be very serious in their support of the museum. They 
leave a lot of responsibility to the museum, which is completely right, but they 
seem to be willing to support whatever strategy the museums comes up with. 
Maybe here a clearer understanding how the city and the museum define the role 
that the museums should play would be an advantage for future developments. 
 
The museum is already a good partner for the society in parts. The museum is a 
lively place in the middle of town, the architecture is something that most 
citizens know even if they haven’t visited the museum itself. There are a lot of 
connections to festivals (current example is an installation of the European Media 
Art Festival, that was exhibited in the museum), still this can be taken to another 
level all to gether. At the moment there are still not enough signs that this is an 
actively chosen path that the museum and the city wants to pursue. Most of the 
positive signs are more or less just happening out of good ideas (20 Tage as an 
example, see explanation p.22). While these actions are very good and also 
innovative, there is not enough strategic approach connected to this.  
 
From all the recommendations made in the detailed report that follows, the 
following actions are highly recommended for the city government and for the 
museum: 
 
Actions recommended for the local government: 
 
Strategy and networks: 
 The local government should think about the role they want the museum 
to play. If it should be a more active partner with the community and if 
outreach should be a higher priority, this has to be stated together. 
 If it is important for the city that the museum is a strong driver in the 
community, the creative district etc, then a recommendation would be to 
invite the cultural department, the city development department, the 
social department and the museum for a round table to discuss together 
which options are thinkable and adaptable. 
 This project could also be a possibility to strengthen and clarify the role of 
the museum. Which of the areas mentioned in the self assessment tool are 
important and which of them can be taken out of the consideration. 
 If the city wants the museum to be more active in local development, it 
should be involved stronger into these local development discussions. 
 The local government can also give possibilities to the museum to present 
their strategic roadmap. There are existing rounds for the heads of the 
departments of the city, there are existing contacts to the chamber of 
commerce, to the political parties, etc. So the local government could 
actively invite the museum to present shortly their road map in these 
meetings. 
 
 
 
 9 
Visitors / audience: 
 The local government should have a strong interest in finding out more 
about the visitors of the museum themselves. Support should be given to 
enhance this situation. This support can be technological, can be funding 
wise, can be consulting on the proper technology. 
 Here it seems important that the city not only gives out quantitative aims 
and objectives to the museum. The museum and the city should talk 
together about qualitative changes that can be measured and visualized. 
Part of the qualitative change could be to make the change visible, that 
the school children go through whilst in the educational program. Level of 
knowledge, level of understanding for Art, emotional change, level of self 
awareness in talking about art, etc. 
 
Funds and budget: 
 To foster the social capital in the city, there might be needed a few 
incentives. The local government should for example think about cross 
sectoral budgets and fonds as incentives.. So maybe a round table 
between the different departments (arts and culture, social service, youth 
and education) could improve this situation and find mutual interests and 
therefor mutual funds. 
 
Actions recommended for the museums 
 
Strategy and networks 
 The museum should be more pro active in their communication to 
stakeholders in the city. Therefor the museum should create a format to 
inform the other possible partners in the city of their topics, their plans, 
their need of co-operations, their want of input (finances, material, 
connections, etc.). This could be an annual event, that invites economic 
stakeholders, foundations, universities (strategic level), social institutions, 
etc... to make a clear and pro active statement, that the museum is there 
as a potential partner.  
 For the new position of the “Museumslotse” (see explanation on p.16) it 
will be really important to start out with a strategic plan and a roadmap 
that helps the agent. Here most of the recommendations come together, 
because the agent has a great potential to connect the city and the 
museum. 
 If being a driver for the creative district would be interesting, a 
recommendation would be to sit together with the incubator of the 
university of Osnabrück and the university of applied sciences of 
Osnabrück to talk about a possible cooperation – inventing a maker space 
in the Akzise house for example or something similar. This could also be a 
possibility for the museum agent to multiply his or her own ideas. 
 If there is an importance to be a stronger player for the rural development 
again here a pro active invitation to cultural associations from the rural 
areas could be recommended. 
 The partnerships from „20 Tage“ should be invited on an annual basis to 
see if you can go on from the big festivities to smaller continuous 
programs. This could also be a possibility to find budgets that combine 
cultural and social activities. 
 A strategic roadmap for the coming years would be a very good starting 
point for more creative connections into the environment of economic and 
 10 
other partnerships in the city. This roadmap should be created more as a 
visual map of upcoming topics at the museum (special exhibits etc.) but 
also upcoming  challenges (for example being a third space, or diversity 
etc.). This visualization would make it easier for the museum to 
communicate internally and externally what they plan and what kind of co-
operations would be appreciated.  
 Communicating the strategic roadmap then is the next step – this could be 
important for stakeholder, multiplicators but also for representatives of the 
city government who are not familiar with the museum. As mentioned one 
track should be to take advantage of the existing contacts of the local 
government (see above) and another track should be to create either a 
new format to invite partners to the museum or to develop a road show 
which could be shown at different partners throughout town. 
 
Co-operations: 
 There should be more strategic co-operations concerning the hospitality 
industry: The museum should get more active here – this would include to 
pressure the city marketing organisation to be more active here. One 
recommendation could also be to invite all taxi drivers, hotel employees 
and their families for free to the museum and give them a special guided 
tour, so that they know the museum and can recommend it. 
 Co-operation with schools and universities: There are already quite a lot of 
longterm co-operations with schools, this should be manifested. 
 Co-operations with health institutions and social institutions: The city 
government could be more active to inform the social and health 
institutions to be aware of the museum as a potential partner. 
 
 
Visitors and audience 
 There is the strong recommendation to get more information on the 
visitors. It would be very important to see, how many first time visitors 
are there, where do they come from, what did they like best. Even if the 
technical possibilities are limited here, this could easily be done by a 
voluntary questionnaire which can be done online on an ipad once you 
paid for your ticket for example.  
 Staying in contact – of course now with the new GDPR (General Data 
Protection Regulation) in place it is a bit more complicated to collect data, 
but again it is quite simple to create small visitor cards where you ask 
people if they want to stay in contact, when they pay their ticket. 
 Resource wise – and this is obviously a recommendation for the city and 
the museum together, the PR position needs help for integrating the new 
adresses into the database.  
 
Evaluation and outcome 
 Evaluation of the visit itself – again here it would be recommended to 
come up with an evaluation system that is manageable, but also showing 
the change. Maybe from the evaluation of „Kultur schnuppern“ 
(Explanation see p. 21) some aspects could be taken. Especially in the 
work with schools it would be more then interesting to see the change in 
the children concerning arts and culture and museums. So at least in that 
area an outcome should be measured. 
 
 
 11 
Volunteers as ambassadors 
 Concerning volunteers the recommendation is to not include them further 
in the museums acitivities on an operative level. There would be probably 
very well positions for volunteers but with the actual current resources 
these resources would be better invested into the other priorities. 1 
 A strategy should be created how volunteer ambassadors can be created, 
that take the road map actively into the city. Here the good practice 
examples ( see under 5.) can be used as a basis for a development like 
this. 
 
  
                                                        
1 German museums that are state funded include volunteers usually in the areas of the museums shop, being 
museums guides or helping behind the scenes. The MQ4 has a functioning team of paid museum guides, so it 
would not be wise to change that to volunteer positions out of the responsiblity to secure paid positions. The 
shop is integrated into the foyer, so there is no extra personnel needed. And the behind the scenes work is 
momentarily done by paid staff, again not advisable to change that. So the effort at the moment to start a 
volunteer program is far too big in relation to the output. 
 12 
3. Methodology 
 
Background 
Museums and cultural heritage sites are powerful assets for local 
development. They can inspire creativity, boost cultural diversity, help 
regenerate local economies, attract visitors and bring revenues. There is 
also increasing evidence that they can contribute to social cohesion, civic 
engagement, health and well -being. For several decades now, cities and 
regions have been drawing on these assets to put in place heritage -led 
actions as part of their wider economic development s trategies. National, 
city and regional governments, the museum community, and other 
stakeholders are increasingly interested in these issues.  
New ways to measure the impact of culture and museums on local 
development are being sought in order to effective ly channel public and 
private funding. The debate is shifting from only demonstrating the tax 
revenues, visitor spending and jobs associated with a museum’s economic 
activity to also capturing broader social and economic impacts. These 
impacts include comm unity development through improved social capital, 
urban regeneration, place branding, inclusion, well -being, innovation and 
creativity.  
To respond to these challenges, the OECD’s Local Economic and 
Employment Development Programme (LEED) and the Internat ional 
Council of Museums (ICOM) partnered to develop a Guide to inform and 
support policy makers and the museum community.   
The purpose of the Guide 
The purpose of this Guide is to propose policy and action options for local 
and regional governments and museums willing to maximise the local 
development impact of heritage. Not every museum or city can or should 
pursue the whole variety of themes address ed in this Guide. The Guide is 
meant to inspire and inform possible strategies and actions that will 
depend on the nature of museum collection, the needs of the local 
community and the broad socio-economic context of the area.    
The Guide provides a self-assessment framework: 
 For local and regional governments to assess and improve their 
approaches to maximising the social and economic value of 
cultural heritage as part of sustainable local development; 
 For museums to assess and strengthen their existing a nd 
potential linkages with the local economy and social fabric.  
The structure of the Guide 
The self -assessment framework is structured around the following five 
themes.  For each theme a series of policy, action and policy options are 
discussed and addressed to both museums and local governments.   
1. Leveraging the power of museums for local economic 
development  
2. Enhancing the role of museums in urban regeneration and 
community development   
 13 
3. Expanding the role of museums in cultural development, 
education and creativity  
4. Museums as places of inclusion, health and well-being 
5. Partnering for local development  
 
OECD-ICOM GUIDE FOR LOCAL GOVERNMENTS, MUSEUMS AND COMMUNITIES  
 
Self-Assessment Grid  
 
I. LEVERAGING THE POWER OF MUSEUMS FOR LOCAL ECONOMIC 
DEVELOPMENT  
Enhancing the role of museums in territorial branding and as a cornerstone of 
visitors’ economy 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Local government should promote 
museums locally, nationally and 
internationally 
 Local government should mobilise 
its various resources in order to 
favour the accessibility of museums 
to visitors and tourists 
 Local government should promote 
coordination between local cultural 
institutions in supplying integrated 
programs in order to lengthen  the 
stay of the visitors. 
 The link with the hospitality industry 
(transport, leisure, hotels and 
restaurant services, insurances, 
etc.) should be considered as 
intrinsic to museum activity 
 Museums should be committed to 
exchanges of knowledge with the 
hospitality industry, artisans, 
designers, enterprises, universities, 
NGOs and the public sector. 
 
Strengthening cooperation between museums and local economic actors 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Local government should promote 
partnerships between museums and 
economic actors in order to 
implement relevant projects for 
economic development 
 
 The museum demonstrates active 
involvement in partnerships and 
relationships with economic 
stakeholders 
 Museums should have strong links 
with universities, incubators, 
science parks and other initiatives, 
creating opportunities for dynamic 
knowledge exchange 
 Museums should care about 
evidence for and protection of their 
intellectual property rights. 
 
II.  ENHANCING THE ROLE OF MUSEUMS IN URBAN REGENERATION AND 
COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 
Partnering for sustainable urban design and regeneration 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Consider the museum as a driver 
for sustainable urban design  
 Make museums a brand for their 
area, highlighting its contribution to 
development and creativity 
 Treat the museum as a core feature 
in urban design, not just as 
‘starchitecture’ 
 Make the museum a driver for a 
creative district 
 Make the museum a contributor to 
rural/urban development  
 14 
Enhancing museums’ role in building social capital 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Mobilise the museum as a public 
place for building up social capital 
 Make the museum a lever of 
community life 
 
 
III.  EXPANDING THE ROLE OF MUSEUMS IN CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT, 
EDUCATION AND CREATIVITY  
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Recognise the museums’ role in 
cultural and educational 
development 
 Take into consideration that a visit 
to a museum should be organised 
as an experience 
 Support an equilibrium between the 
needs of local audiences and 
tourists 
 Provide support to creativity 
development  
 Expand the role of museum in 
education by addressing the needs 
of various groups of population  
 Reach o ut and engage diverse 
audiences   
 
 
IV.  MUSEUMS AS SPACES OF INCLUSION, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Recognise the social dimension of 
museums for social welfare  
 Support the connection of museums 
with employability issues 
 Support involvement of museums in 
well-being and health 
 Support initiatives by museums 
facilitating desistance from crime 
and rehabilitation 
 
 Museums can promote self -
confidence and upgrade capabilities 
for excluded or marginalise d people 
through the discovery and use of 
their collections and the experiences 
resulting from their use 
 Museums can contribute to the well-
being of people facing physical and 
mental sickness through the use of 
their collections or the development 
of experiences   
 Museums can contribute to well -
being through education and 
awareness raising  
 Museums can contribute to the 
rehabilitation of prisoners, ex -
offenders and people on probation 
 Work in partnership with 
corresponding social institutions  
 Adapt internal management and 
governance frameworks to support 
museum’s engagement in such 
activities  
 
 
 
 
 
 
 15 
V.  PARTNERING FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Recognise the potential of museums 
for local development 
 Provide a long -term perspective to 
the relationship between local 
government and museums 
 Encourage and implement the 
pooling of resources between 
museums and stakeholders 
 Make sure that local financial and 
revenue regulations are 
incentivising for museums 
 Enhance the mobilisation of 
volunteers 
 Creativity should be a major part of 
museum strategy within the 
cultural, social and community 
environment 
 Is conservation and knowledge 
production sustainable? 
 Work in partnership with local 
development stakeholders 
 Give support and recognition to 
volunteers. 
 
 
Osnabrück 
To gather the data in osnabrück, the self-assessment tool was distributed to 
interviewees from three different sections: 
 The museum itself 
o Nils-Arne Kässens, director 
o Dr. Thorsten Heese, curator 
o Claudia Drecksträter, PR and marketing 
o Antje Naudock, head of administration 
 Local government 
o Wolfgang Beckermann, Stadtrat oft he city of Osnabrück 
o Patricia Mersinger, head of the cultural department 
o Dr. Claas Beckord, strategic city development and statistics 
o Sigrid Neugebauer-Schettler, head of the music- and artsschool 
 Stakeholders from the community 
o Prof. Dr. Wolfgang Lücke, president of the university of Osnabrück 
o Prof. Dr. Andreas Bertram, president of the university of applied 
sciences of Osnabrück 
o Niclas Sievert, Sievert Foundation 
o Dr. Ulrike Hamm, head of the board of the Museums- und 
Kunstverein (Association of the museum friends) 
o Heiko Schlatermund, head of the board of the  Nussbaum 
Gesellschaft (association of friends of Nussbaum) 
o Dr. Friederike Texter, Schoeller group (sponsor and partner) 
o Dr. Ralf Waldschmidt, director of the theatre Osnabrück 
 
The interviews were lead in January, February and March 2019. The duration of 
the interviews was from 45 minutes to 90 minutes. 
 
On April 29th a feedback workshop takes place with the interviewed persons. 
Here the over all results will be presented and the feedback from the 
interviewees is taken into account for the final report.  
The results of the interviews, together with the self-assessment are analysed in 
this report and enhanced with recommendations from the interviewees and the 
local expert Prof. Birnkraut.   
  
 16 
4. Results – Analysis and recommendations 
 
The following analysis is divided into different sections. First of all the results 
from all three perspectives will be analysed. This is only the pure information 
gathered in the different interviews. These will be shown in tables. The tables are 
divided by the different subchapters of the self assessment tool. In these sub 
chapter the answers to the individual questions will be clustered and represented 
in a condensed way. As the three different perspectives (museums, city and 
stakeholder) did not have all the same questions, some perspectives are left 
blank. 
 
This is then followed by the opinion and the expertise of the local expert. First of 
all an analysis will be formed out of the results. After that recommendations will 
be voiced for the local government and for the museum. The local situation will 
be taken into account. These recommendations will then be part of the executive 
summary and the action plan which is outlined as a suggestion there.  
 17 
 
4. 1. Economic development and innovation 
This chapter in the self assessment tools is about partnerships with the hospitality industry but also other partners in the city as 
universities, incubators etc. It is about creating and supporting structures for tourists to stay longer in the city and to facilitate 
cooperations with multiple institutions, including the economic stakeholders. 
 
I. LEVERAGING THE POWER OF MUSEUMS FOR LOCAL ECONOMIC DEVELOPMENT  
Enhancing the role of museums in territorial branding and as a cornerstone of visitors’ economy  
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Local government should promote museums locally, nationally and internationally  
 Local government should mobilise its various resources in order to favour the accessibility 
of museums to visitors and tourists 
 Local government should promote coordination between local cultural institutions in 
supplying integrated programs in order to lengthen the stay of the visitors. 
 The link with the hospitality industry (transport, leisure, hotels and restaurant services, 
insurances, etc.) should be considered as intrinsic to museum activity 
 Museums should be committed to exchanges of knowledge with the hospitality industry, 
artisans, designers, enterprises, universities, NGOs and the public sector.  
 
Strengthening cooperation between museums and local economic actors 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Local government should promote partnerships between museums and economic actors in 
order to implement relevant projects for economic development 
 
 The museum demonstrates active involvement in partnerships and relationships with 
economic stakeholders 
 Museums should have strong links with universities, incubators, science parks and other 
initiatives, creating opportunities for dynamic knowledge exchange 
 Museums should care about evidence for and protection of their intellectual property rights . 
 
  
 18 
Results 
 
Thema Stadt Museum Stakeholders 
Collaboration with hospitality 
industry 
This is the responsiblity of the 
museum and the tourism 
agency of the city. 
This area is not very highly 
developed, there are some 
actions taken but not in a 
continuous way.  
 
Active involvement with 
economic stakeholders 
This is the responsibility of the 
museum, there are no special 
incentives, that the city gives. 
In general the opinion is there 
from all interviewees, that 
since the change of directors 
2 years ago, there are much 
more partnerships now. 
This area is rather not 
extensively developed. The 
museum would be interested 
in this, but it seems a 
resource question on the one 
hand and a content question 
on the other hand. The 
question of: „what do we have 
to offer“ comes up in the 
interviews...but there are a 
few well established 
partnerships as the Kunst 
award with the Schöller group 
etc...there is no special 
Fundraising position which 
also could be responsible for 
co-operations. 
The general opinion is that 
there is space for 
improvement here, the 
museum is not showing its full 
potential as a possible 
partner. It became much 
better with the new director 
and also the upscaling of the 
personnel, but still there is a 
lack of pro active engagement 
from the side of the museum. 
Partnerships with universities, 
etc. 
 There are a lot of co-
operations with other partner 
as the universities. 
Unfortunately there is no pro-
active contact making from 
the players in town towards 
the museum and the museum 
sometimes doesn’t know what 
to offer. 
Both universities say that 
there is more space for active 
partnership and that the 
universities don’t see that the 
museum contacts them on a 
strategic level. There are 
several partnerships on 
content level. 
 19 
Thema Stadt Museum Stakeholders 
Caring about Intellectual 
property rights 
 This topic is not interesting for 
the museum, as the 
intellectual property right of 
the collections are all very 
clear and there are no 
contemporary art works. The 
intellectual property right 
concerning exhibition design 
etc. is not clearly solved. 
 
The museum going into the 
city 
 There have been a few 
activities especially for the 
festivities in 2018 where 
pieces of Nussbaum were 
shown in the city. There could 
be more, but again it is  a 
resource question. 
There were a few activities in 
2018 which were interesting, 
but not sufficiently 
communicated and therefor 
after all not enough 
frequented by students, 
professors, citizens, 
companies. 
Integrated programs for 
tourists to stay longer in the 
city / Mobilisation of resources 
to favour the accessibility of 
museums 
This is the responsibility for 
the museum and the tourism 
agency, there is the 
Kulturcard2 which is not nearly 
as much known as it should 
be. Incentives for longer 
opening hours are not given, 
that again is in the decision of 
the museum and the given 
budget.  
Changing the opening hours is 
not a current topic of 
consideration for the museum. 
Partnerships with cultural 
organisations in town are 
considered very important. 
 
 
The circle of friends also 
demonstrate that the 
Kulturcard might not be as 
well known as possible.  
 
                                                        
2 The Citycard is an initiative oft he city of Osnabrück – it is a one day ticket or a two day ticket availble for single persons or families. Included in the city card ist he local 
transportation plus rebates at the museums, cinema, theatre and shops  
 20 
Analysis  
 
It has to be taken into account, that the museumquarter is its own organisation 
and is relatively free to decide where their priorities lie. They get an annual 
budget which they can operate in a self responsible way. So a lot of the 
questions concerning the local government state that this is the responsibility of 
the museum. This does not mean that the city doesn’t care, but that the 
responsibility is given into the power and decision making of the museum. 
 
The main question coming up from this part of the self assessment tool is what 
the main task of a museum is. How much resources and energy are going into 
the general core of activities which in the German understanding are still: 
Collecting, Researching and preserving. On top of that exhibitung and 
communicating are important. Being an active partner in city development is still 
unusual and therefor a mutual understanding between funder (the city) and the 
museums has to be taken. 
 
So the priorities of the museum, especially a museum as the MQ4 with limited 
personal resources have to be set in a clear way. Only then can the resources be 
planned accordingly.  
If the city of Osnabrück together with the museum decides that it is important 
for the museum to be a more connected active partner of different institutions in 
the city, then there has to be space in the budget for a community manager or 
for percentages of the existing personel to work on these connections as part of 
their daily routine. 
 
There is an opportunity here as the museum just got the funds from two 
foundations and the city of Osnabrück for a „Museumslotse“. This is a position 
which will be responsible to work on the outreach and the diversity of the 
audience. The city will be responsible for the personnel costs of the agent for 2 
years and the foundations provide project budgets. This is an excellent possibility 
to strengthen this area and to start a new approach of the museum going into 
the city. (see also good practice under 5.) 
 
Recommendations 
Whatever the priorities of the city and the museums are at the moment, there 
are several recommendations that can be made: 
 
Local government 
 The local government should think about the role they want the museum 
to play. If it should be a more active partnership with the community and 
if outreach should be a higher priority, the question is, how much 
resources can flow into this account if there is only one position for the PR 
/ marketing / and outreach, audience development (Partly done with the 
implementation of the museums agent). 
 The city of Osnabrück has record numbers of tourists (over 2 million 
overnight stays in 2016), still activities like the KulturCard should be even 
more advertised.  
Museum 
 The museum should create a format to inform the other possible partners 
in the city of their topics, their plans, their need of co-operations, their 
 21 
want of input. This could be an annual event, that invites economic 
stakeholders, foundations, universities (strategic level), social institutions, 
etc... to make a clear and pro active statement, that the museum is there 
as a potential partner.  
 The museum does not have to know all the time what they can offer, a lot 
of times the potential partner will have an idea that might be fitting. 
 For the new position of the museum agent it will be really important to 
start out with a strategic plan and a roadmap that helps the agent. Here 
most of the recommendations come together, because the agent has a 
great potential to connect the city and the museum. 
 Hospitality industry: The museum does not have an active connection with 
the hospitality industry. The museum should get more active here – this 
would include to pressure the city marketing organisation to be more 
active here. One recommendation could also be to invite all taxi drivers, 
hotel employees and their families for free to the museum and give them 
a special guided tour, so that they know the museum and can recommend 
it. 
 Activities like the Kulturcard don’t seem to be interesting at the museum 
at the moment. When the museum knows more about their visitors, the 
recommendation clearly is to focus also on a more active advertisement of 
these touristic possibilities. 
 
Feedback from the workshop: 
The recommendation to find partners through pro active involvement is stressed 
in the workshop. It is underlined by the suggestion to find partner through 
multiplicators like the chamber of commerce, etc.  
Maybe even a speed dating between the museum and other partners could be a 
good idea. 
For the regional activities a co-operation with the county is suggested. 
There is a wish for an always updated list of activities and information about the 
activities. 
There is the idea that the museum could create a leading annual topic that can 
then be defined and concretized. 
 
 
 
 22 
 
4.2. Urban design and community development 
This chapter concentrates on the museum as an important driver for sustainable urban design, for building up social capital. 
There are sub chapters for researching the role as a driver for a creative district or contributing to rural development. 
 
II.  ENHANCING THE ROLE OF MUSEUMS IN URBAN REGENERATION AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT 
Partnering for sustainable urban design and regeneration 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Consider the museum as a driver for sustainable urban design  
 Make museums a brand for their area, highlighting its contribution to development and 
creativity 
 Treat the museum as a core feature in urban design, not just as ‘starchitecture’  
 Make the museum a driver for a creative district 
 Make the museum a contributor to rural/urban development  
Enhancing museums’ role in building social capital 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Mobilise the museum as a public place for building up social capital  Make the museum a lever of community life 
 
 
 
  
 23 
Results 
 
Topic Local Government Museum Stakeholder 
Urban design not just a star 
architecture / driver for 
sustainable urban design 
The city recognises the 
museum as a neutral place 
and uses it for other events. 
But it is evident that this is 
more the case for cultural 
events and not so much for 
urban design discussions or 
city development discussion. 
There is no incentive for art 
residencies even if it is 
considered interesting.  
All museum interviewees 
agree that as far as it is 
possible all building projects 
are tested concerning the 
usability and the welfare of 
the visitor. 
There is a clear difference 
between the opinion of the 
interviewees stronger 
connected with the cultural 
field and the ones not so 
strong connected. The cultural 
stakeholders see the museum 
as a quite strong driver for 
sustainable urban design. The 
others don’t realize that, they 
do not get the impression or 
the impulses that this is the 
case.  
The museum as a lever of 
community life / creating 
social capital 
Again from the interviewees 
coming more from the cultural 
side there is a strong 
agreement, that social capital 
is created, but the examples 
are more cultural and not 
from other fields.  
In general there is an offering 
for dialogue with the 
community, there are 
programs which are also 
binding visitors to the 
museum, for example the 
Zeitzeugen program3. These 
are predominantly smaller 
programs which are 
nevertheless important for the 
content of the museum.  
Same here, the closer we get 
to the cultural field, the more 
projects are coming up as 
best practices, for example 
the project „20 days“. If there 
is a direct cooperation 
between the museum and one 
of the interviewees again a 
strong agreement is 
mentioned. For the others this 
is not obvious. 
  
                                                        
3 The Zeitzeugen program is part of the educational program of the city history museum. Between 1932 and 1945 the Villa Schlikk er was the centre oft he NSDAP of Osnabrück. 
Today there is room to discuss the memories and discussion with the NAZI history. It is an Oral History -Project that is documented.  
 
 24 
Topic Local Government Museum Stakeholder 
The museum as a driver for a 
creative district 
There is an existing creative 
district concentrating on 
creative industry. This topic is 
under the area of city 
development. At the moment 
there is no active connection 
between the creative distric 
and the museum. c 
There is an agreement that 
there is a high level of 
educational programs with 
schools etc. but there is no or 
very limited connections to 
the local economy and / or 
the local artists scene. There 
is interest to do more in this 
area, but it is a question of 
priorities concerning the 
limited resources. 
This is a difficult area for the 
interviewees, most of them 
cannot answer this as they 
don’t have enough insight, 
but everyone is rather 
hesitant in this area. 
The museum as a contributor 
for rural development 
 There is an agreement that a 
highly developed network with 
other cultural institutions and 
museums is existent. The 
museum is not a meeting 
point for rural associations or 
groups and they also do not 
engage volunteers. This is a 
choice decision. 
None of the stakeholders 
really is of the opinion, 
 that the museum is active 
here. The network with other 
cultural institutions is well 
appreciated by the circle of 
friends. 
The museum as a brand for 
the area 
All interviewees from the city 
agree, that there is a strong 
interest from the city to 
highlight the museum as a 
brand into the national and 
international area. It is agreed 
that the museum is already a 
very strong label in the city 
and outside the city. 
  
 
 
 25 
Analysis 
 
The museum is clearly well connected in the cultural field and the activities are 
well appreciated in the cultural scenes. This is not the case with the overall 
stakeholders. So the universities, companies and foundations are farther away 
and do not get the impression that the museum is an active factor in urban 
development etc. This might be because there is not enough pro active 
communication between the museum and other institutions. This might be due to 
the lack of resources and of course not everything can be done / changed in 2 
years.  
 
Concerning the creative district, in Germany there tends to be still a clear 
division between the for profit creative industries and the non profit arts 
institutions. One will rarely find combinations between co working spaces and 
museums. That is a pity as maker spaces for examples are definitely 
developments which are connected to museums and their acivtivities.  
 
The city seems to be hesitant to use the museum more often for important and 
interesting over all discussions. Maybe there could also be a possibility to include 
the museum more actively into the city discussions.  
 
Recommendations 
 
Local government 
 If it is important for the city that the museum is a strong driver in the 
community, the creative district etc, then a recommendation would be to 
invite the cultural department, the city development department, the 
social department and the museum fir a round table to discuss together 
which option are thinkable and adaptable. 
 This project could also be a possibility to strengthen and clarify the role of 
the museum. Which of the areas mentioned in the self assessment tool are 
important and which of them can be taken out of the consideration. 
Museum 
 If being a driver for the creative district would be interesting, a 
recommendation would be to sit together with the incubator of the 
university and the university of applied sciences to talk about a possible 
cooperation – inventing a maker space in the Akzise house for example or 
something similar. This could also be a possibility fort he museum agent to 
multiply his or her own ideas. 
 If there is an importance to be a stronger player for the rural development 
again here a pro active invitation to cultural associations from the rural 
areas could be recommended. 
 
Feedback from the workshop: 
The cultural administration would like to find more common ground with other 
departments (like social service or education)and try to think about 
commonalities 
Facebook and social media in general should be strengthened. 
The universities (university of Osnabrück and the University of applied sciences 
of Osnabrück) just developed a transfer strategy, how the research and topics 
 26 
from within can be transferred to the society – here could be good possibilities 
for co-operation.4  
There is also the cautioning, that the museum should not be overloaded with 
new tasks / strategies 
If the main focus of the museum is to be a laboratory for peace, then it is 
recommended to work together with the other players in this area in Osnabrück, 
for example the “Friedensgespräche”5. 
 
 
 
                                                        
4 This is a project called PROACTUS that is running until 2024. The aim and objective is to transfer ideas and 
knowledge from the universities into the region. More under https://www.hs-
osnabrueck.de/de/nachrichten/2019/04/osnabruecker-hochschulen-gewinnen-foerderantrag-transfer-in-
niedersachsen/  
5 The Friedensgespräche are a string of discussions created by the city in co -operation with the University of 
Osnabrück. The topics always revolve around peace 
 27 
 
4.3. Cultural development, education and creativeness 
This chapter is about the experience of the visitor in the museum, how the visitors opinion is valued and how the outreach for 
audiences who normally don’t visit museums is achieved. 
 
III.  EXPANDING THE ROLE OF MUSEUMS IN CULTURAL DEVELOPMENT, EDUCATION AND CREATIVITY  
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Recognise the museums’ role in cultural and educational development 
 Take into consideration that a visit to a museum should be organised as an experience  
 Support an equilibrium between the needs of local audiences and tourists 
 Provide support to creativity development  
 Expand the role of museum in education by addressing the needs o f various groups of 
population  
 Reach out and engage diverse audiences   
 
 
 
Results 
 
Topic Local government Museum Stakeholder 
The reflective visitor / visit as 
an experience 
The interviewees agree 
strongly that the local 
government works together 
with the museum to enhance 
the experience and that the 
museum itself is also very 
concerned with this aspect. 
All four agree that the 
experience of the visitor is 
taken very seriously at the 
museum. And while the 
museum is interested in the 
opinion of the visitor, there is 
only a guestbook for 
comments, no continuous 
feedback system. Even at the 
cashpoint information cannot 
be collected on where the 
visitors come from. This 
seems to be a technical 
question. The importance is 
understood. 
All the stakeholders are very 
convinced of the museum as a 
very good place to be, to feel 
welcomed and to have a good 
experience. The feedback 
culture could be improved. 
 28 
Topic Local government Museum Stakeholder 
The educated visitor  There is a strong emphasis on 
cultural education for the 
visitors and also for the staff. 
The full time educator has 
programs established for 
different school forms. These 
projects like „Kultur 
schnuppern“6 are also 
evaluated. 
One voice questions the 
connection with the local 
economy. 
The enlightened visitor  Even for the very innovative 
project „20 Tage“ in 2018 
there was no evaluation 
system whatsoever – no 
possibility to collect the 
addresses of the first time 
visitors to keep in contact. 
Other then that school classes 
have to come at least once to 
the museum, so there is a 
constant connection. There is 
no cross sectoral budget 
(from social services for 
example). 
Everyone names the project 
of „20 Tage“ as an excellent 
example of getting new 
people into a connection with 
the museum. Unfortunately 
there are some voices who 
say that the activities going 
into the city could have been 
promoted even more.  
  
                                                        
6 Kultur schnuppern is an educational program, that focuses on comprehensive schools and secondary modern schools. Pupils are g iven the possibilities in the afternoon to get to 
know the cultural live of Osnabrück. Many of the cultural institutions take part and once a week the pupils visit one of these institutions. There also was an evaluation done on 
this project.  
 29 
Topic Local government Museum Stakeholder 
Recognises the museums role 
in cultural and educational 
development 
Here everyone agrees 
strongly that this is a rather 
important point and the city 
does support the museum to 
fulfil this role. 
 Here the opinions are clear 
from all the interviewed 
stakeholders that the city 
could be more proactive in 
supporting cooperations 
together with the museum. 
There should be more 
proactive impulses from the 
museum and the city to other 
stakeholders to form 
longlasting co-operations. 
Needs of local audiences and 
tourists 
The local government 
interviewees do agree that 
this is an important topic and 
that they also do support the 
museum. 
As there is no knowledge at 
the moment about the visitors 
there is also no opinion about 
different news of local 
audiences and tourists. c 
 
 
 
 30 
Analysis  
 
Everyone agrees that the museum is a very special and wonderful place. The 
visit is organised as an experience. And once again it is mentioned quite often 
that since the last two years more and more activities were planned and 
organised to get the museum more into the public eye. 
 
An activity which is named very often is the „20 Tage“ project. This seems to be 
an excellent sample of a project to get non visitors connected with the museum. 
For the 20th anniversary of the Felix Nussbaum Haus in 2018, 20 friends of the 
museum (dancers, movie makers, NGOs on migration etc...) all produced one 
day of activities. Because of these cooperations with very different partners, a lot 
of new audience came into the museum. It was obviously a success (for more 
informations see https://www.museumsquartier-osnabrueck.de/20-jahre-felix-
nussbaum-haus/).   
 
Unfortunately here no actions were taken to get the contact of these newcomers 
to stay connected. No evaluation has been done on this, no learning effects have 
been implemented. Out of all the partnerships it seems that no long term 
partnerships evolved. 
 
This is very unsatisfactory; understandable is that an evaluation like that needs 
time and resources. These resources would have been very effective to see if 
activities like these should be organised more often (as smaller project for 
example). 
 
The MQ4 has a strong educational program. They are reaching about 150 school 
classes a year and have different partnerships with different schools (see page 
7).  
 
Recommendations 
 
Local government 
 The local government should have a strong interest in finding out more 
about the visitors of the museum themselves. Support should be given to 
enhance this situation. 
 To foster the social capital in the city, there might be needed a few 
incentives The local government should think about cross sectoral budgets 
and fonds.. So maybe a round table between the different departments 
(for example arts and culture, social services, youth and education…) 
could improve this situation and find mutual interests and therefor mutual 
funds. 
 
Museum 
 There is the strong recommendation to get more information on the 
visitors – at the moment the museum doesn’t even know how many 
visitors come from Osnabrück and how many from outside. It would be 
very important to see, how many first time visitors are there, where do 
they come from, what did they like best. Even if the technical possibilities 
are limited here, this could easily be done by a voluntary questionnaire 
 31 
which can be done online on an ipad once you paid for your ticket for 
example.  
 Staying in contact – of course now with the new DGSVO in place it is a bit 
more complicated to collect data, but again it is quite simple to create 
small visitor cards where you ask people if they want to stay in contact, 
when they pay their ticket. 
 Resource wise – and this is obviously a recommendation for the city and 
the museum, the PR position needs help for integrating the new adresses 
into the database.  
 Evaluation of the visit itself – again here it would be recommended to 
come up with an evaluation system that is manageable, but also showing 
the change. Maybe from the evaluation of „Kultur schnuppern“ some 
aspects could be taken. Especially in the work with schools it would be 
more then interesting to see the change in the children concerning arts 
and culture and museums. So at least in that area an outcome should be 
measured. 
 The partnerships from „20 Tage“ should be invited on an annual basis to 
see if you can go on from the big festivities to smaller continous programs. 
This could also be a possibility to find budgets that combine cultural and 
social activities. 
 
Feedback from the WS: 
A new cash system in in progress and combined with that also a possible 
monitoring of the visitors. 
One recommendation says, AI should be used (co-operation with the AI campus 
of the university of Osnabrück) 
Co-operations with the university and the university of applied sciences 
Osnabrück for bigger evaluations are recommended.   
To enhance the co-operations with schools, there could be a round table for a 
continuous and intensive dialogue. 
 
 
 32 
 
4.4. Inclusion, health and well-being 
This chapter is about the connection of the museum with social institutions, with the well being of the citizens, or the 
rehabilitation of crime offenders. 
 
IV.  MUSEUMS AS SPACES OF INCLUSION, HEALTH AND WELL-BEING 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Recognise the social dimension of museums for social welfare  
 Support the connection of museums with employability issues 
 Support involvement of museums in well-being and health 
 Support initiatives by museums facilitating desistance from crime and rehabilitation  
 
 Museums can promote self -confidence and upgrade capabilities for excluded or 
marginalised people through the discovery and use of their collections and the experiences 
resulting from their use 
 Museums can contribute to the well -being of people facing physical and mental sickness 
through the use of their collections or the development of experiences   
 Museums can contribute to well-being through education and awareness raising  
 Museums can co ntribute to the rehabilitation of prisoners, ex -offenders and people on 
probation 
 Work in partnership with corresponding social institutions  
 Adapt internal management and governance frameworks to support museum’s engagement 
in such activities  
 
 
 
Results 
 
Topic Local government Museum Stakeholder 
Museums can promote self-
confidence and upgrade 
capabilities for excluded or 
marginalised people  
Concerning the labour market, 
there is the question if the 
museum should be involved 
with this? Other then that 
there is no need seen to do 
more here. 
There are no projects for this 
area. There is one example 
that costs are shared 
concerning apprentices, but 
other than that, this is not an 
area which is focussed on. It 
is mentioned, that if there is a 
possibility of course an active 
partnership is possible. 
 
 33 
Topic Local government Museum Stakeholder 
Museums can contribute to 
healing people facing physical 
and mental sickness through 
the use of their collections  
Here also the question arises 
if it makes sense for the 
museum to think about this? 
And the connection is not 
necessarily seen. 
Again this is not an area that 
the museum has a focus on. 
There is one example of free 
entrance for patients of a 
clinic. 
 
Museums can contribute to 
well-being by disseminating 
types of information and 
behaviours, making people 
more conscious of their own 
state of well-being 
The same here There are no projects in this 
area 
 
Rehabilitation of prisoners And here again also no 
connection is seen. 
As their is no prison in 
Osnabrück (only a temporary 
one), there is also no co-
operation. 
 
Work in partnership with 
social institutions 
 No co-operations are in place The stakeholders do not see 
partnerships here and do not 
see the necessity. 
From an internal point of 
view, undertaking such 
actions implies new prospects 
and requirements for the 
organisation of museums 
 The museum is always looking 
for new co-operations, but in 
this area there are not enough 
ideas. 
 
Recognise the social 
dimension of museums 
There is a strong agreement 
to recognise the social 
dimension fo museums on the 
level of the local government, 
but it is more to do with the 
educational issues and the 
connection with pupils and 
schools. 
  
 
 34 
Analysis  
 
This area is for German museums very strange and foreign. Co-operation with 
social institutions, health institutions, prisons is rarely in the focus of museums 
and / or their educational programs. 
So there is no real surprise that the results show a definite lack of understanding 
and necessity. 
It is debatable if museums should actively play a role in the social dimension and 
the well being dimension.  
 
In the eye of the expert there are two different levels to be seen: the artistic 
core and the work around it which is at the heart of a museum. And the social 
work which can use artistic methods to work on the social challenges. So here 
probably a more pro active way from the social institution should be considered 
and in this area not the other way round. 
 
Also one has to take into consideration that in Germany cross sectoral budgets 
are very rare. So that you have budgets that include the social area and the 
cultural area for example is very rarely realised. Cities and countries seem to be 
very hesitant, probable reasons might be the power over your own budget and 
the hierarchy of the different areas. 
 
 
Recommendations 
The recommendations are therefore rather non existent, because also the expert 
sees not many possibilities to grow here.  
 
The city government could be more active to inform the social and health 
institutions to be aware of the museum as a potential partner. 
 
Of course should social institutions contact the museum and find ways for mutual 
projects this could be an interesting field to pursue.  
 
Feedback from the Workshop: 
Inclusion is a UN commitment – it should be anchored in the daily work of the 
museum (budget / personnel) 
Co-operation with health institutions could be also done over mutual projects 
with the university Osanbrück (for example the institute for research on 
migration and intercultural studies) 
The existing projects should be fostered (for example there is a workshop on art 
organised by the circle of friends for migrants) 
 
 
 35 
 
4.5. Managing museums for local development 
This last chapter is about the relationship between the city and the museum and its long term perspectives. It also is about the 
topic of volunteers and the local development. 
 
V.  PARTNERING FOR LOCAL DEVELOPMENT 
Policy options for local government Action options for museums 
 Recognise the potential of museums for local development 
 Provide a long -term perspective to the relationship between local government and 
museums 
 Encourage and implement the pooling of resources between museums and stakeholders  
 Make sure that local financial and revenue regulations are incentivising for museums  
 Enhance the mobilisation of volunteers 
 Creativity should be a major part of museum strategy within the cultural, social and 
community environment 
 Is conservation and knowledge production sustainable? 
 Work in partnership with local development stakeholders 
 Give support and recognition to volunteers. 
 
 
  
 36 
Results 
 
Topic Local government museum Stakeholder 
Creativity should be a major 
part of museum strategy 
within the cultural, social and 
community environment 
 There is a strong agreement, 
that creativity is a strong part 
of the work of the museum. 
There seems to be an 
understanding of a mission 
statement although not 
everybody agrees that there is 
a written mission statement. 
The new director came up 
with a top down mission 
statement when he started 2 
years ago.  
There is no strategic roadmap 
that is widely published. 
The museums also sees itself 
as well connected in the 
society and also as a vital part 
concerning cultural 
development of the city. 
Most of the stakeholders say 
that the museum has a strong 
presence in the society 
although there is also an 
opinion stating, that the 
museum has a rather narrow 
circle of visitors and is not 
widely known in Osnabrück. 
The knowledge if the museum 
is actively involved in the city 
development cannot be seen 
by the stakeholders. 
Is the Conservation and 
knowledge production 
sustainable? 
 This doesn’t seem to be a 
huge topic, there is no 
conservation department, if 
there are things to be done 
they are given to contractors. 
 
  
 37 
Topic Local government Museum Stakeholder 
Working in partnership with 
local development 
stakehoders 
 The importance of working 
with partners is seen by all 
interviewees and the overall 
opinion is also, that there is 
already a strong connection 
with other partners. Of course 
these can always be 
improved. 
 
Give support and recognition 
to volunteers 
The city in general is very 
much pro volunteers, there is 
a volunteer agency and 
different possibilities to 
support volunteerism in the 
city institutions. This topic is 
organised in a very 
professional way in the city. 
The museum does not work 
with volunteers, so there is 
also no support and 
recognition needed. This 
decision is made consciously. 
 
Financial incentives The museum does have its 
own budget, so a lot of things 
are already provided for 
through this budget. 
  
Encourage and implement 
pooling of resources 
The topic of pooling is not 
really important for the city, 
there were some activities 
that do make sense. But in 
general pooling is not an 
important synergy. 
  
  
 38 
Topic Local government Museum Stakeholder 
Provide longterm perspective 
between local government 
and museums 
There definitely is the 
inclusion of the museum into 
the long term cultural strategy 
of the city, the museum is 
included in this. But there are 
also opinions stating that this 
could be rather more 
intensive.   
The museum feels, that the 
city does involve the museum 
concerning the cultural 
strategy. Concerning the local 
development and city 
development there could be 
improved possibilities. 
 
Recognise the potential of the 
museum for local 
development 
Definitely yes, but most of 
this recognition is defined 
through the long term 
financial subsidy. The 
conservation topic is as before 
not a topic with a high 
importance. 
  
 
 
 39 
Analysis 
The museum is obviously well connected in the field of the arts. It is also part of 
the cities activities concerning the development. But here it cannot be seen as an 
active participant in the planning. Rather it seems to be a passive part, when 
asked. The museum does not take an initiative part in city planning or 
development. Questionable is of course if the museum should do so. 
 
There seems to be a common understanding about the mission of the museum 
even if it is not clear for everyone if there is a written mission statement. This 
might be also because it is a top down created mission statement. The director 
himself already mentioned that the next developments in the coming years will 
be created more participative (renovation and restauration of the cultural history 
museum). The mission statement stresses a commitment to be a laboratory for 
peace in the city. This is to be understood in combination with the focus on peace 
in Osnabrück. This is a good topic, and it could be a good means to transport the 
museum into the city. Maybe this still has to get stronger through activities and 
programs. At the moment there is not enough proof that this mission is taken 
seriously. 
 
The museum obviously is missing a roadmap of strategic plans that is widely 
published and discussed. This is definitely also something which is highly unusual 
for a German museum, but it makes sense in more then one sense. To be an 
open museum and a place for the city, the museum has to actively communicate 
to multiplictors and ambassadors out of the stakeholders. For that an easy to 
understand road map would show the way and open opportunities.  
 
The topic of volunteers is not something that the museums seems to be 
interested in. And it would have to be something that really is something 
valuable for them without taking away paid positions. Organising volunteer also 
needs resources. Perhaps though the thought of volunteers always went into an 
operative direction. Maybe engaging volunteers should rather be seen through 
the lense of citizen science and ambassadors. 
Recommendations 
 
Local government: 
 If the city wants the museum to be more active in local development, it 
should be involved stronger into these discussions. 
 The local government can also give possibilities to the museum to present 
their strategic roadmap. 
 
Museum: 
 A strategic roadmap for the coming years would be a very good starting 
point for more creative connections into the environment of economic and 
other partnerships in the city.  
 Communicating the strategic roadmap then is the next step – this could be 
important for stakeholder, multiplicators but also for representatives of the 
city government who are not familiar with the museum. 
 Concerning volunteers the recommendation is to not include them further 
in the museums activities on an operative level. There would be probably 
very well positions for volunteers but with the actual current resources 
these ressources would be better invested into the other priorities.  
 40 
 A strategy should be created how volunteer ambassadors can be created 
that take the road map actively into the city.  
 
Feedback from the Workshop: 
The members of the circle of friends are already partly doing the job of 
volunteers as ambassadors, but this could definitely be enlarged.  
  
 41 
5. Good Practices to consider 
Three good practices shall be introduced here. Both work in a connection 
between arts and citizens and both break with the traditional border between the 
omnipotent curator and the learning visitor. Both take into account that the roles 
might also be changed and enhanced. 
 
Badisches Landesmuseum 
The Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe is the major museum for cultural, art and regional history in the Baden 
region of Baden-Württemberg. They see themselves as a universal museum in which history, art and everyday life 
throughout the ages are brought together to provide a comprehensive cultural historical synopsis.  
 
The Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe is just undertaking a project called 
creative collections (sources are the Jahresmagazin 2019 
http://www.landesmuseum.de/website/dyndata/BLM_Jahresmagazin_2019.pdf 
and the website of the museum). As part of this creative collection they 
developed a citizen advisory circle that was invited to participate in a barcamp 
(or here called citizencamp). This was the starting point to several design 
thinking experiments with the citizens and the museum employees. Out of this a 
completely new way of showing the exponates was created. In July 2019 a so 
called Expothek will start with digital possibilities to show more of the archive. 
Several so called explainer will be there to help the visitor with the digital 
possibilities.  
 
What can be used for the MQ4 in Osnabrück: 
Especially the advisory board consisting out of citizens and stakeholders would 
be a good possibility to create ambassadors and multiplicators. Also the idea of 
creating barcamps and design thinking workshops could be a good link to the 
creative industries in Osnabrück. The area of citizen science might be interesting. 
 
Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz 
The Kunstsammlungen Chemnitz initiated a program calls #Kunst and 
#Demokratie – an answer to the right wing radical challenges that the city is 
facing especially after a riot in summer 2018 (see 
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/2018_Chemnitz_protests for more information). 
The Kunstsammlungen collected money from different foundations and ministries 
and started together with the Bundeszentrale der politischen Bildung (a German 
public institution for political education) a dialogue format that connects politics 
and arts (more under http://kunst-und-demokratie.eu ). The museum is going 
into other rooms getting closer to the citizens and trying to initiate discussion 
between citizens on the basis of art. 
 
What can be used for the MQ4 in Osnabrück: 
To create a strong platform of dialogue and discussion on the topic of peace and 
democracy always on the basis of art. This could be again a possibility to connect 
the mission of the director (city laboratory for peace) with existing formats and 
new contents. 
 
360° agents 
The Federal Cultural Foundation developped in 2016 a new fund called 360° -
fund for New City Cultures. This fund is running until 2024.   
„With this programme the Federal Cultural Foundation wishes to encourage 
institutions in the areas of the fine and performing arts, music, literature, 
architecture, New Media and related forms, as well as cross-genre institutions, 
 42 
cultural- and art-historical museums, which address contemporary issues in their 
related field, to take a perspective that encompasses all of society. The aim is to 
actively integrate the controversial, but promising issues of immigration and 
cultural diversity into these institutions and their city cultures, and thereby 
reduce infrastructural exclusion in the cultural sector. The funding programme 
will support a broad range of approaches, strategies and methods which 
demonstrate in an exemplary manner how institutions can effectively participate 
in shaping urban society in the future in terms of thematic focus and staff 
appointments.“ (https://www.kulturstiftung-des-
bundes.de/en/programmes_projects/sustainability_and_future/detail/360_fund_f
or_new_city_cultures.html) 
As part of this program the foundation finances positions of so called agents that 
are created for 4 years in different cultural institutions. Their objective is to 
consult the institution on their diversity and bing an active partner of society.  
 
What can be used for the MQ4 in Osnabrück 
The new position of the Museumslotse is actually a variation of the 360° position. 
So this is already in place and a very good opportunity for the museum. 
  
 43 
 
6. Critical analysis of the self-assessment instrument  
 
The self-assessment tool as it was developped by the OECD in itself is a useful 
tool. Nevertheless as this is a pilot project compliments and improvements 
should be mentioned as well. 
 
Compliments: 
 The five areas are well chosen and cover the overall aspects of museums 
and their active participation in the development of cities and societies. 
 In general a division between the policy options for the local government 
and action options for the museums makes sense. 
 A sels assessment tool is a good choice  
 
 
Improvements: 
 There are several questions which are similar or the same – these should 
be eliminated (this goes for example for the questions: 1.1.2 q2 and 1.1.3 
q2, 2.4 q2 and 5.2.4, 3.2.3 q4 and 4.2.6 q3, 4.2.5 q1 and the other 
questions for each area)  
 For the German case it was a bit difficult to do the self assessment without 
a translation. 
 Even with a translation my guess is, that most of the interview partners 
would not have filled the questionnaire out beforehand. Therefor the 
questions are too complicated and the language used is too formal. 
 It would have been better if the sections for the local government and for 
the museum would have been in different excel sheets. As it is now it is 
difficult to send out the self assessments sheets and explain which 
questions should be answered and which should not be answered. 
 It was difficult to decide which of the questions should be asked to the 
stakeholders – my recommendation would be to have a third set of 
questions for stakeholders, which are more general. 
 It would be helpful, if there was a simple guideline how to use the 
questionnaire. 
 In my opinion the tool as it is cannot be used without the help of an 
expert, which is unfortunate, as it should be possible to have a tool which 
is self-explanatory and helpful to improve its own situation. 
 In general the spider diagrams are a very good idea, but it is unclear how 
you can combine the different results of the individual interviews in a 
general spider diagram, that includes all the interviews in one diagram.  
 It seems strange that there are different questions for the local 
government and the museum – for example in area 3 it would have been 
interesting to see also if the museum is of the same opinion as the local 
government concerning the whole support topic. These results seem to be 
very one sided.