Museums: time to shift gears

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Museums: time to shift gears

The great heritage of car museums is utilized very little and poorly. very little regarding the image of the brands, poorly for the limited profits they generate. The Key opens a discussion aimed at transforming the great number of museums around the world into a strategic force.

By Antonio Ghini

We look forward to receiving your messages: thekeyeditor@tcct.com

Museums are an important component of the history and image of automobiles. They are, and should continue to be, custodians of a message that has the power to swing the attention of those who visit them from the simple visualisation of vehicles from the past to the perception of what cars have and continue to represent, by enhancing the history and content that the various marques are taking into the future. These days communication demands content that can live on its own, riding on a spontaneous wave of enthusiasm and attention. Content with enough inertia to tell its own story without sponsorship or an additional marketing nudge. Museums possess this strength. We want to ensure they are given the chance to express it.

We thought about creating a Ranking of World Museums. However, we decided to approach the subject of museums in a different way, one that was more contemporary and projected towards the future.

There are two reasons for this, both of which are contingent and far from trivial: the first is the effect that the pandemic has had on opening hours and on the mobility of people. The concept of Ranking cannot be separated from the success of an activity of this type – even if public visits are an indicator but by no means the only data that can create the hierarchy – indeed there are numerous other elements to be taken into consideration. To do this requires the collaboration of every individual museum.

Getting the museums to collaborate is the second negative contingency: while many responded in a timely fashion and enthusiastically to our questions, others did not, even after repeated requests. This fact alone could be one of the parameters used to judge them, but we want to believe that this was an unfortunate result of a passing

bureaucratic or organizational cloud. What emerges, showing just how much room for growth these structures have, is that those at the helm do not always have sufficient delegation and power to take initiatives that go beyond the normal day to day running of the business. Paradoxically,a lack of purpose and strategic vision of many structures is linked to the concept of a museum of the past: well organized, silent and dormant, something that cannot be accompanied by the history of objects made for movement and freedom.

In my professional life I have been commissioned to relaunch three museums: both the Ferrari Museum in Maranello and the Lamborghini one in Sant’Agata doubled the number of visitors in 12 months after years of lethargic routine. Even more important was the rescue from bankruptcy of the MEF, the Museo Casa Enzo Ferrari in Modena. A magnificent architectural structure managed as a parking lot of beautiful cars which, just 12 months after an enthusiastic intervention, reached break-even. There was no witchcraft at play here: all it took was to think in terms of marketing and communication and give the public the emotion they expected and that very often, they do not find.

We therefore consider The Key 2021 as a starting point for the study and analysis of museums with the aim of creating a thriving scenario of the history of the automobile to leave behind for posterity. To begin with, we have published a list of museums on our website, TCCT.com, along with their addresses and a brief description. This is just a starting point. For simplicity, we have divided them into categories that are as consistent as possible: brand museums, national museums and public organisations, Independent non-themed museums and museums dedicated to events, drivers and celebrities.

Much like dealing cards before playing a game. Now, in the hope that the players – the heads of the museums at the highest levels – will follow us, we will push for change by remembering that the heritage of cars in the greatest museums exceeds the value of the top 100 collections in the world, a number that exceeds ten billion dollars, just to drive the point home. Is it acceptable that this heritage, on average, never makes a profit?

There is a lot of work to be done: the world of Classic cars can and must be a strategic one for manufacturers, no matter where their cars are located. The changes announced for everyday cars (that still have to be demonstrated), will remove that creative magic that emerged around the mechanics of internal combustion engines and new manufacturers, without any history of note, will undermine the experience of the big brands if the symbol that stands proudly on the front of the car cannot talk about its history. The heritage represented strategically by museums – I repeat, not only those run by the individual marques - is an asset that cannot be cast aside for the image and commercial success of tomorrow.

The key to knowing them

An expert in museums, active with the very popular “AutomotiveMuseums.com”, Claudio Rava has collaborated with The Key on the project to develop and enahnce the standing of automobile museums. His valuable work, which we begin to document in this issue, can be further explored on TCCT.com and provides a valuable way to deepen our understanding of the world of international museums through addresses, emails, and links. The QR code will take you directly there.

By Claudio Rava

With the aim of increasing the visibility of the many museums that celebrate automobiles throughout the world, we have classified the structures according to vocation and content. This list also follows a detailed subdivision criterion, as in the case of brand museums, separating them into official ones and those created by private enthusiasts. The subdivision by category also makes it easier for scholars and interested readers to carry out more targeted research. Publishing this initial output of our work is also a prerequisite to stimulating those associations that represent the various motor museums across the globe – the World Forum for Motor Museums, the Australian Motor Museums Association A.M.M.A. and the National Association of Automobile Mu-

Indianapolis Motor Speedway Museum, USA Louwman Museum The Hague, NL Cité de l'Automobile Mulhouse, FR

seums N.A.A.M – into being part of this initiative, which wi only benefit from our passion. The conditions for more effective promotion programmes through well-targeted and interesting offers, are ready and waiting. Collaboration is, therefore, the preferred weapon of choice. Let’s take a quick look at the situation divided by categories: the first is brand museums which, when well managed and promoted, become a significant marketing tool for the company itself. In this sense, German manufacturers are a prime example. On the other end of the spectrum are American manufacturers, with companies such as General Motors which don’t even have a museum that’s accessible to the public. Important progress has been made by Ferrari and Alfa Romeo in terms of the supply of content and the quality of their exhibition spaces. Others have a good heritage on display but suffer from a lack of space or poor quality settings. Many of these museums have archives that can be consulted, which are extremely useful when trying to deepen one’s knowledge of the history of the brand.

Among the various brand museums, some were extremely collaborative when providing data, while others, including the big ones, demonstrated just how much the limits of bureaucracy and rigidity distance them from the needs of a period of great change. Among the absences in the documentation of TCCT.com, we should cite FCA Heritage Hub which has a rich heritage of interesting models and documentation but is not yet open to the public. Given that all the museums in this category are important and well worth a visit, some of the facilities would benefit from a small investment to enhance their image. The private brand museums on the other hand, are almost always cared for and attractive because they are the result of passion and dedication to a specific brand. They are often catalysts for events dedicated to collectors or are used as their destination.

National museums and public organisations are difficult to identify without the direct collaboration of the museums themselves: in fact, it’s extremely hard to identify the corporate composition, which is rarely declared. These are structures that frequently offer educational paths by adding exhibitions and temporary events to their permanent displays. Given the public intervention that corresponds to a commitment with a strong social connotation, they deserve, at least in this first year, equal status: identical respect for the French State and the magnificent Cite de l’Automobile in Mulhouse and the Principality of Monaco or the Vatican City with their fascinating collections.

Another category encompasses independent museums, which represent an extraordinary heritage. Almost always lacking in resources, they must resort to creativity and the communication tools linked to it. What is surprising is the variety of structures and content: those belonging to collectors in general are well presented and easy to navigate, as in the cases of the Fred Simeone Museum in Philadelphia or Peter Mullin in Oxnard. Overall, there is almost always something interesting on display, and sometimes something truly unique. Many are the result of family histories, such as the Louwman in The Hague, Holland. Important and praiseworthy are the museums dedicated to drivers and celebrities. It is not surprising to find one dedicated to five-time World Champion Manuel Fangio in Argentina and the one dedicated to Ferdinand Porsche in Austria. Finally, there are the museums of motor racing and racing cars. To preserve the legend of major events, several dedicated museums have been created which often collect data and precious archives in addition to cars: Indianapolis, 24 Hour Le Mans, 1000 Miglia, even the Tourist Trophy, on the Isle of Man, are part of this group and allow visitors to relive epic stories.

The world of automobile and motoring museums is a world worth knowing and visiting. A world which, in this period of uncertainty about the future of motorization, becomes the anchor of an absolute truth: the extraordinary nature of the history of the automobile and its contribution to the evolution of the economy and our collective well-being.

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Museo Juan Manuel Fangio, Buenos Aires, AR Museo Enzo Ferrari Modena, IT Petersen Automotive Museum LA, USA

Museums. Old names or a lack of ideas?

Ideas and experiences to get car museums in gear.

Euterpe was a muse who used the arts to “give delight”. She was one of the 9 muses in Greek mythology that inspired the name Museum, all of them bearers of positive and cheerful messages. If we start from this assumption, it’s clear that the word Museum has ended up almost completely betraying the role given to it by these mythological deities. It wasn’t enough to replace the name“ Museum” with acronyms created to remove the dust that a classic definition fatally attracts to disguise the betrayal. Paradoxically, the more valuable the works exhibited in a museum, the more they tend to remain true to themselves. Even the great MoMA, completely renovated after months and months of hard work, has returned to being a sequence of rooms full of priceless wonders. Beautiful, but traditional. The same tends to happen with car museums: silent and noble no doubt, but grievously desolate. The cars seem to beg you to take them out and to live once again. At the very least, they ask themselves why so few things happen around them.

Perhaps, or rather, certainly, instead of racking our brains to invent and popularise an acronym to replace the name Museum, our time would be better spent trying to return the Museum to its original meaning of liveliness, participation, multi-sensoriality, adventure and anything else that the muses may have inspired.

Are there any examples of these? There are numerous cases, and more coming. It would therefore be unwise to leave automobiles languishing in the past. To fully understand the potential offered by the stimulation and participation of those who visit one of these structures, just reflect on the fact that in Milan, there is a museum for the blind. They accompany you through dark rooms where you see absolutely nothing while your smell, hearing, and touch are all stimulated, transforming what was previously fearful and disturbing into a sensation of being alive, to the point where our imagination fills in the perception of sight, exactly like what happens in our dreams. With this premise, we can only ask ourselves why, with all the heritage they encompass, we can’t imagine anything more than plain exhibitions, where even the educational ones struggle to entice and engage.

We have entitled these pages “Let’s turn the Museums upside down”. Now, we should attempt to do just that, perhaps with contaminations, for example combining cars with, playful and, why not, moving works of art such as compositions by Jean Tinguely - famous for the Stravinsky Fountain in front of the Pompidou Centre – or the Museum of Madness created by the art critic Vittorio Sgarbi, where classical works of art coexist with modern realities such as motorcycles, typical of a “ready-made” Duchampian memory. Other examples help us understand that there really are no limits to the imagination, as in the case of the Swarovski Museum in Austria or the optical illusions of Zagreb, which are as simple as they are engaging. In this new type of museum proposal, we could not possibly neglect music: in the Museum dedicated to ABBA in Stockholm, you can momentarily become one of the band members by getting up on stage with them at a concert. Another example of the fact that there are no limits to the imagination, although we are well aware that this example for cars could not work, is the underwater museum in Cancun, Mexico where you can find a life-size VW Beetle coated in algae and coral, resting in about 30 feet of water. Returning to Automobile Museums, one question we should ask is this: what ingredients do

MUSA Cancun, MX

Swarovski Museum, AT

Museo della Follia, IT

Museum of Illusions, HR

we have to invent what today’s public wants? As a matter of fact, we have many: speed, noise, heat, touch, odours such as burnt oil or hot brakes, not to mention the curiosity, dreams, fun and history of both the past and the future.

Are we talking about dreams? Absolutely not: the beautiful MAC museum, Museum of Art and Cars, in Singen, Germany, is a stunning reality. It is a cultured and intelligent project that exalts fascination in a way that only art can. And what else is the car if not art? Applied art, undoubtedly, but art that has a thousand ways of expressing itself. Ways capable of going far beyond and attracting so much more than the positive yet inevitably monotonous surprise of seeing magnificent cars. ■

MAC Museum Art Cars Singen, Germany