Strategic Plan, FY 2026–2030

On July 1, 2025, we launch the ��ϳԹ��վ College Museum of Art’s next strategic plan. In support of the museum’s ongoing growth and development, the staff engaged in a strategic planning process that started last fall and continued into the spring. Our team is pleased to share the following document which builds on past work and establishes a focus for the museum’s practices over the next five years.

Our commitment to welcoming broad audiences requires a fully integrated approach across all departments at the museum. It is in this spirit that we have outlined a plan to build a welcoming environment predicated upon the study of and engagement with the visual arts. As Maya Angelou urges: “Do the best you can until you know better. Then when you know better, do better.”

Mission Statement:

The ��ϳԹ��վ College Museum of Art (BCMA) encourages creative thought and learning for all through its exhibitions, collections, and programs.

Vision Statement:

The BCMA places an active emphasis on the study of original artworks, making it a vital educational resource on campus and beyond. Always free and open year-round, the museum is a space for reflection and innovation, and serves as an engine for new learning, scholarship, and creative practice.

Values:

Community: The museum endeavors to make our spaces, exhibitions, and programs welcoming to all.

Scholarship: The museum strives to make our global collection, representing 5,000 years of human history, available for study to promote new scholarship through rigorous research, exhibitions, publications, and programs.

Curiosity: The museum provides a space for people to ask questions, discover new ideas, refresh the spirit, and expand their understanding of themselves and the world around them.

Goal 1: Nurture a culture of belonging at the BCMA by opening the museum to broad engagement.

Objective 1: Assessment of physical spaces (i.e., wayfinding signage, seating, and presentation of didactics). Strive to ensure that visitor-facing resources embrace design principles that welcome all.
Objective 2: Commit to ongoing review of the museum’s online resources to promote continual development and improvement.
Objective 3: Explore how to take the museum outside of its walls to make the collection more accessible and develop a plan to advance this effort.
Objective 4: Evaluate the museum’s exhibitions to ensure alignment with strategic goals.

Goal 2: Ensure that we continue to serve ��ϳԹ��վ’s diverse student body, faculty, and on and off-campus audiences through curricula and extra-curricular opportunities.

Objective 1: Determine priorities for meeting the needs of the campus community through teaching, research, and extra-curricular activities.
Objective 2: Support professional development for ��ϳԹ��վ students through employment and other extracurricular opportunities.
Objective 3: Support students’ curricular and independent research.
Objective 4: Determine who among our targeted audiences (on and off campus) we are serving well and who we can engage through class visits, exhibitions, and programs.

Goal 3: Strengthen the Museum’s commitment to being a globally focused institution by refining our collecting across human history, exhibition selection, and programming practices.

Collecting objectives:

Objective 1. Develop a documented strategic collecting plan for purchases and gifts that identifies institutional collecting priorities.
Objective 2. Develop a collection management plan that takes into account conservation and storage resources.
Objective 3. Complete review of existing collection in accordance with the Native American Graves and Repatriation Act (NAGPRA) and develop plan for ongoing review.

Exhibition objectives:

Objective 1: Ensure that the exhibition selection process is fully adopted, and an implementation plan has been established.
Objective 2: Continue to develop exhibitions that generate new scholarship and align with teaching and learning interests across campus.
Objective 3: Discuss current interpretive strategies used across exhibitions and develop an institution-wide Interpretive Plan/Strategy.

Programming objectives:

Objective 1: Outline goals for the annual slate of programs and then build a programming schedule to meet these needs.
Objective 2: Pursue strategies to develop a broad array of programming that meets the interests and needs of our target audiences.

Goal 4: Create an institutional structure and workplace climate that empowers staff members to recognize new opportunities and to provide leadership across the Museum, the College, and the arts at large.

Objective 1: Continue to make BCMA staff members available to serve campus committees and initiatives.
Objective 2: Identify continuing professional development opportunities for all staff and ensure that this training is part of each employee’s annual performance plan.
Objective 3: Actively manage the strategic plan's implementation and ensure full staff engagement through monthly review of progress against objectives. Feedback from these conversations will inform revisions to the plan.

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