Over the last thirty years, cultural institutions have realised they have to move with the times, both in terms of the content displayed and the way they present it, if they want to appeal to younger generations.

“Culture” is hard to define. UNESCO's Sustainable Development Goals consider it a basic necessity: no one disputes that culture and its consequences - knowledge and talent - are the main source of richness for any country. This is the view of Saudi Arabia’s Vision 2030 strategic plan, which believes it’s “indispensable to our quality of life” and considers Saudi culture a productive sector that could benefit the country.

In short, culture is a foundation for social and economic progress, something that must be protected. It’s thanks to this need to protect that cultural institutions have become true guardians of countries’ different legacies, both tangible and intangible. 

But how have cultural institutions in general, and museums in particular, evolved over the last thirty years to reach their audiences and, above all, remain relevant to younger, hyper-connected and highly digitised generations? The changes have mainly come through technology, but in two different ways. Technology has disrupted the way we run museums, and the museums themselves have also been changing with technology. Over the last thirty years, they’ve become increasingly interactive, with exhibitions aimed at making them more participatory and welcoming, where there’s always room for fun and surprises.

As a company specialising in creating museums, ACCIONA Cultura - which was founded in the nineties following the Seville Expo ‘92 in Spain - has witnessed first-hand (and spearheaded) these changes, both in the way projects are designed and implemented, and in the way they’ve become increasingly interactive with an ever more diverse audience. It’s hard to imagine now, but at the '92 Expo, practically everything was hand-drawn or sketched paper plans, and orders for something as complex as a World Expo were done by fax. Since then, we have signed more than 2,000 projects in 44 countries on five continents. These include nine World Expos, including Dubai 2020; major national museums such as those in Qatar, Oman and the Zayed Museum in the United Arab Emirates; and iconic projects such as the Real Madrid Experience. These are projects where there’s more and more focus on the public and visitors, where they’re the centre of these spaces and encouraged to participate. Technology has also played an increasingly important role, both in what visitors don’t see - such as managing these spaces - and in the exhibition resources. Some examples of technologies that have radically changed the way exhibition content is presented include flat and touch screens, LED technology in lights and video projectors, and the huge increase in digital media storage capacity.

Connecting with new generations of museum-goers should be a balance between harnessing the many possibilities offered by new technologies, and using content that captures the attention of the youngest visitors.

This doesn’t mean that museums have to become more like entertainment venues.  Museums can’t and shouldn’t compete with the stimulation and instant gratification of video games, but they must consider new social realities, new methods of communication, and new concerns, interests and sensitivities. In short, modern-day museums must be fun, diverse, participative and include a certain element of surprise. They need to be spectacular.

By Alex Manresa, ACCIONA Cultura Director of Strategy