Remuseum’s first research report clarified the need for more publicly available information about museums. In our second research report, we have gathered and presented some of that data, and with it a number of questions.

No conclusions? No, and intentionally so. The goal of Remuseum’s research is not to provide answers but to help inform the questions that museum leaders (both staff leaders and board leaders) are already asking themselves. These questions are currently hard to answer, mostly because there is not enough information to answer them. They include:

• What is the right amount to charge (if anything) for museum admission?
• Should our museum invest in a bigger building?
• What would it take to increase museum attendance from the museum’s own community or region?

Our starting point is a reminder that museums are philanthropic institutions that invest in every visitor. The most important question any museum can ask is how best to invest that money.

For decades, museums have chosen to spend their resources on scale, with bigger buildings, bigger collections, and bigger budgets (which have grown well beyond the rate of inflation). Presumably, these decisions are grounded in an assumption that bigger museums will be better at serving their missions, and the public.

That assumption may apply in many industries where economies of scale make their operations more efficient. In museums, however, growth appears to make the average cost per visitor go up, not down. It may be time for museums to ask whether there are equally good (maybe even better) ways to invest their limited resources to maximize the quantity and quality of their visits.

Most public museums also charge for admission, and those museums have generally been raising admission fees to address their growing budgetary needs. Presumably, these decisions are based on an assumption that getting the visitor to subsidize their visit will lower the cost of each visit, or will provide revenue the museum can use to attract more visitors.

Remuseum’s research challenges that assumption as well, and our report suggests the possibility that free admission may represent not just a morally appealing offering but also a newly considered form of sustainability, one that maximizes a museum’s effectiveness by increasing its number of visitors and lowering the cost of each visit.

These are just a few ways that new data can help museums ask themselves new questions. They also beget more questions regarding access, scale, and market share. Which will, in turn, require more research.

Remuseum’s report is intended not to criticize museums at a challenging time, but to inspire them with new ways they might matter to more people and thrive. Many museums faced difficult challenges (declining attendance and deficit budgets) even before cultural polarization (and threats to funding) made things even harder. I hope data will help museums, their directors and trustees, and the public, evaluate and discover the investments and practices that are most likely to generate the audiences and support they deserve.