Public Trust

Public trust is a concern for everyone interacting with the community.  In the for-profit sector, businesses are numerous, usually offer services or goods to the public, and are dependent on a certain level of consumer trust to continually operate.  Their reputation is important.  However, cultural institutions such as museums are often alone or with very few competitors in any sample community, so their reputation is even more paramount. There is nowhere to hide, and they are entirely dependent on public trust for their future. As an asset to the community it serves, a museum is under more scrutiny and always needs to consider public trust.   Betrayal of trust, on any level is hard for partners, stakeholders, and most importantly donors to overlook.  Bad publicity spreads like wildfire.

 The same is true for the individual administrator.  No matter what size city you work in or what type of museum you lead, the museum field is small, and your reputation will precede you.  Ethical operation of a museum underpins the museum’s, and the individual’s, reputation.  Neither of which is easily repaired.  For this reason alone, entire books have been written about ethics by museum experts and industry associations always include explicit definition of ethics in development of a museum’s core ideologies.   Embracing this facet of the community dynamics won’t guarantee success, but it will nourish the ongoing and deepening relationships needed for a museum to flourish.  Trust encourages giving, whether it be of artifacts, financial resources, time, referrals, or any other element that the modern museum receives. It is a very simple concept.  Build public trust, sustain that trust, protect that trust. Anything less is beyond unsatisfactory.  It is extremely detrimental.