Abstract
Museum evaluations have generally focused on the number of visitors, quality of museum activities, and management efficiency. However, each museum has a unique mission and faces diverse demands from stakeholders, including visitors, residents, and governing bodies. Accordingly, the value of each museum must be assessed individually using distinctive evaluation criteria that consider its mission and specific surrounding environment. This study attempted to develop an evaluation framework using a systems engineering approach to comprehensively measure the value of each museum from cultural, educational, academic, and economic perspectives while structurally mapping the relationships among stakeholders, missions, and activities. In collaboration with four museums, we conducted workshops with museum staff and local government officials to assess the effectiveness of the framework. The results showed that new qualitative and quantitative evaluation criteria could be efficiently developed by considering the museum’s mission and the value it should provide to stakeholders. Furthermore, the framework was also effective in encouraging workshop participants to discuss and reconsider the value of the museum throughout the workshop. Our proposed evaluation framework will aid museums in reaffirming their importance, discovering new potential value, building consensus, and fostering empathy among stakeholders.
