Our Strategic Focus
NEMO focuses on four values and two cross-cutting themes that are important in helping museums to be active and visible both today and into the future. NEMO’s mission is reflected in our Policy Statement.
Collection Value
Our Vision: Tangible and intangible collections are at the heart of museums. We want to see that collections are well taken care of for present and future generations and are as widely accessible to all people as possible. They reflect different perspectives, cultural complexity and are used in multiple ways for the benefit of society.
Our concerns: The collections are not seen as a core of the museums’ work or a funding priority. The visibility of collection-related work is at a low level and museums do not always have enough resources to take proper care of their collections or to make optimal use of them.
Our Mission: We advocate for the manifold values of collections and provide a platform for museums to exchange good practices for the conservation, preservation, research, accessibility, interpretation and innovative use of museum collections.
Social Value
Our Vision: Museums are integral to our quality of life. They communicate with all generations and serve society as a whole. They strengthen our social fabric and serve as places for meeting and dialogue for different cultures, as well as offering opportunities for individual growth.
Our concerns: Museums are not fully acknowledged and supported in their role as social agents.
Our mission: NEMO highlights the social value and supports the potential role museums can play in our society by promoting their contribution to different social agendas such as health, tolerance, education, democracy, active citizenship, social justice and poverty.
Educational Value
Our Vision: Museums help people to develop as individuals and understand their place in the world. They are life-long learning environments, complementary to all other forms of education and they offer additional learning opportunities for all.
Our concerns: Museums are still not acknowledged and supported as a part of the educational system.
Our mission: We support museums to be recognised as rich learning environments and places of public engagement, as well as providing a platform for the exchange of best practice.
Economic Value
Our Vision: Museums are important actors in the economy and the creative sectors. They are at the heart of successful urban regeneration and cultural tourism initiatives. They are places of, actors in and partners for the creative economy.
Our Concerns: Museums are not fully acknowledged and supported as actors in the economy and the creative sectors. There is still little comprehensive and comparable data available, while an appropriate framework to measure the aggregate economic value and spill-over effects of museums is lacking.
Our Mission: We want to ensure that museums are recognised and supported as key assets for urban and regional development, for a flourishing tourism industry and as drivers for the economy and the creative industries.
Professional Development
Our Vision: Museums contribute to a sense of belonging, shared values and solidarity in a society in constant flux, helping to preserve the integrity of the European project. The empowerment and capacity building of the people who work in museums and look after our cultural heritage are at the core of successful museum work and meaningful social impact.
Our Concerns: The importance of life-long learning and continuous training in all aspects of museum work – as a way to help museum professionals to embrace new demands and to enhance the value of museums to society – is not fully acknowledged or supported.
Our Mission: We advocate for support through targeted capacity-building programmes for museum professionals that will equip them with new and emerging skills as an integral part of contemporary museum work. NEMO offers European capacity-building programmes to museum professionals to share experiences and knowledge and to promote a European dimension in museum work.
Digitalisation
Our Vision: Digital technologies affect all aspects of museum work today. With their digital potential, museums contribute to different social aspects as sources of creative innovation, information and learning. They interact with different audiences and promote open access to their collections on a global level.
Our Concerns: Policies and programmes implementing the EU Digital Agenda still do not fully acknowledge the role of museums as learning institutions in the service of society.
Our Mission: We advocate for museums and heritage to become an integral part of the Digital Agenda of the EU. We help museums across Europe to build their digital capacities at all levels.