Museums and cultural institutions provide exceptional educational experiences that go beyond a single physical visit or web search. Their value starts in one place but continues long after a museum tour is over or an online exhibit is experienced. For this reason, museums and cultural institutions are rethinking, realigning, and creating new types of both online and onsite activities to attract and engage different audiences who will continue to support and value them in the long term. 

Forum One works with museums and cultural institutions to harness these changes and journeys into effective digital solutions.

Integrated digital ecosystems

The technologies that you use to manage your institution’s digital strategy — from your website to your ticketing system and contact database — are more than just the sum of their individual parts. They are defined by the practices and people you interact with every day, as well as the integration points between the tools you use and the systems you develop to manage your work. Together, they comprise your digital ecosystem and, if approached as a whole, can be one of the most effective ways to support your organization’s vision and goals. Forum One helps to answer and develop solutions for some of the most pertinent digital ecosystem questions:

• How are your current tools supporting your vision? Are your tools aligned to provide a consistent brand experience and unified voice? 
• How does information flow throughout your institution? How can your digital ecosystem better support your internal workflows and operations?
• How do your audiences engage with your digital ecosystem? Where are the touchpoints? What are your audiences doing at these touchpoints? And how can your digital ecosystem be improved to provide a better user experience? 
• How are your systems managed? Is there a governance model in place to support your digital ecosystem? Do you have a roadmap for the future? Do you have the ability to address emerging needs as they arise?

Scaling data-informed decision making

Are you ready to execute data-informed strategies to increase engagement opportunities both in-person and across your digital platforms? Forum One works collaboratively with museums and cultural institutions to entrench data and analytics best practices across the entire organization in order to effectively and efficiently make data-informed decisions. 

We help you forge a path forward that allows for clearer data collection, reporting, and overall understanding of how data and analytics can help your institution reach its goals.

From traditional observation to engaging opportunities

Traditional cultural institutions and museum experiences are typically focused on observation, appreciation, and admiration of artifacts and events on display in an institution’s physical space. Today, exhibits and events are decisively shifting to active, interpretive engagement. In combination with a massive expansion of technology and its expansive capabilities in an ever-changing world, museums and cultural institutions have a real opportunity to enhance the visitor experience, as well as provide internal teams with valuable data and audience insights. 

Opportunities for innovation not only enhance the overall experience of in-person visits but create avenues for institution teams to learn more about their audiences and better serve them in an evolving digital landscape. Forum One not only focuses on digital interventions into the physical space that can be implemented today but on innovations that will ensure that your systems and practices prepare you to address the emerging needs of tomorrow.

Our cultural institution clients

• The National Endowment for the Humanities
• The National Endowment for the Arts
• MIT Museum
• The Frist Museum
• The American Jazz Museum
• The Arkansas Museum of Fine Arts
• Smithsonian National Museum of Natural History
• Smithsonian African American Film Festival
• Smithsonian National Museum of African American History and Culture
• Smithsonian National Air & Space Museum
• Smithsonian National Zoological Park
• Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian
  • Learn more about our Smithsonian Web Design & Development IDIQ
• Seattle Center
• The Alliance for California Traditional Arts
• The Vilcek Foundation