Museum Communication Research at the Estonian National Museum
The Estonian National Museum (ENM) has a dedicated research strand focused on museum communication, exploring how museums adapt to changes in the cultural heritage sector. This particular strand addresses key issues affecting museums today, as well as their long-term development. Some of the research topics are specific to this strand, while others align with broader institutional challenges, shaped by ongoing structural and cultural transformations.
The research within this strand focuses on museum communication, including the planning, execution, and analysis of exhibitions and other museum activities. It takes a multidisciplinary, collaborative, and co-creative approach, engaging in global discussions and policy debates about museums and cultural heritage.
This research is interdisciplinary and is strongly informed by audience and communication studies, offering a theoretical framework to understand participation, engagement, and the representation of diverse cultural groups. The strand aims to enhance engagement with existing audiences and stakeholders while also reaching new visitor groups, including different socio-cultural communities and both the public and private sectors.
As digital communication and access to cultural heritage reshape the museum field, this research also critically examines how digitalisation and datafication impact museum practices. This includes understanding how digital tools influence exhibitions and museum communication, while also looking at the broader phenomenon of digitalisation itself. Data science and computational methods also play a role in this research, especially in the representation of cultural heritage in both physical and digital spaces.
The museum communication research strand is built on international collaborations with research institutions, museums, and scholars, working together on projects of various scales to advance our understanding of these emerging issues.