Questions.  We all have questions that need answering:

  • What is my museum doing that is meaningful to visitors?
  • Why is my museum struggling to attract visitors, and funding?
  • I believe my museum matters, but what evidence do I have?
  • How do I keep up with the rapid change around me?  
  • How can I harness data and research better to make my museum more meaningful to individuals ... and a more pivotal leader in my community?

And ultimately the biggest ones of all:
  • What is the role of museums in American society?  
  • How can that role matter more?

Museums desperately need high-quality research that explores their role in our society.  At Wilkening Consulting, my research focus is on all of these questions.  From the big, hairy questions that we, as a field, wrestle with to the questions that individual museums face in their own, unique, situation.  

But research in and of itself cannot live in a vacuum. It needs context. Yet in this Information Age, we are overwhelmed with content clutter: all the research, trends, reports, blogs, data, and articles that we feel we must review to provide that context, but instead builds up in our inboxes and in piles in our offices.

This is where Knowledge Curation™ comes in. Through my constant assessment of a wide variety of external source, I know what is out there.  And when I get to know an individual museum well, I can sort through the external data and research to pull out what matters most for them, and their situation.

High-quality research.  Knowledge Curation™.  Pulled together to help museums, together and individually, thrive in the future.


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New at Wilkening Consulting ...

Enrollment in the 2019 Annual Survey of Museum-Goers is now open! Enroll today for an easy, low-cost way to gain high-quality insight in your visitors ... along with rich contextualization against your peers and the broader population. Only $1,000/museum.
To enroll, click here.
Need more information?  Download this informational PDF  or get in touch.

Wilkening Consulting and AAM release Museums and Public Opinion (February 2018)
This study examines the responses of more than 2,000 Americans, who overwhelmingly demonstrate the high degree to which Americans believe in and support their museums, regardless of political affiliation, geographic location, and whether they visit museums or not.

The Museum of Pizza: The Wall Street Journal asks Susie Wilkening if the fun food museums will run their course (April 2018; paywall)

Free Admission: Susie Wilkening weighs in for the Christian Science Monitor (March 2018)

Susie Wilkening featured on NPR (February 2018)
A budget gap plus some expensive real estate equals challenges for the Newseum. 


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