For much of the 20th century the generally accepted definition of the museum has been an institution which serves to collect, conserve, research, interpret and exhibit society’s material culture (ICOM and Weil:57–58). Museums have traditionally been spaces where a society can celebrate its past and form a sense of its cultural identity (Urry 1996). Over the last decade, however, there has been increasing attention to a “cultural revival” of heritage experiences as popular leisure and urban tourism activities (Hewison, R., 1987. . The Heritage Industry Methuen, London.Hewison 1987). Politicians and planners have taken the opportunity to integrate museums into economic development initiatives in both large and small urban centers (Vaughan and Zukin). In simple terms, the role of the museum is evolving, with cultural institutions expected to perform a broader range of economic functions, often as part of complex urban redevelopment strategies ( Bassett; Bianchini and Bianchini; Urry and Watson). While the Canadian government asserts that the “true value” of the museum is “measured in terms of our culture and heritage”, it still stresses that museums “generate almost a billion dollars in revenue each year” ( Communications Canada 1990:21).

The expanding role of cultural institutions in advanced capitalist economies has forced researchers to focus more on the links between the cultural and the economic. Sayer (1997) characterizes the “cultural turn” in much economic geographic research not so much as a result of a “culturalized economy” but rather as the “economization of culture”. Although Sayer concedes that the relationship between culture and economy is “highly complex”, he maintains “economic forces continue to dominate contemporary life” (1997:16). The purpose of museums reflects various cultural agendas (such as nation building and education); but the ability of institutions to adhere to public mandates and play a central role in the overall tourism product often is determined by the operating environment (including access to sources of funding). For the purposes of this paper, the Montreal museum sector is treated as a set of cultural institutions operating under increasingly complex and, at times, contradictory economic constraints. The treatment is, in part, a response to the recent call for tourism research to adopt more rigorous approaches to studying restructuring in tourism-related sectors ( Ioannides and Debbage, 1998). The focus on the “economic forces” currently affecting museums in the city is not meant to reduce these institutions to a purely economic function.

The growing importance of museums as cultural attractions has drawn the attention of tourism researchers for some time, but most of the work to date emphasizes demand side issues (Harrison and Urry). Following a brief review of how researchers have attempted to understand the importance of museums in urban settings, an outline is given of the “supply-side” operational context in Montreal in the 90s. Focus is on the search for new funding opportunities, the use of new information technologies, labor management, alliance formation, and museum agglomeration. The findings show that these institutions are being forced to adopt a range of strategies in an increasingly challenging environment in order to secure stable funding year to year and fulfil their public mandates.

The data are drawn from in-depth open interviews held with professionals (directors and curators) from 26 Montreal museums (Table 1). This sample was drawn from the 61 institutions in the Greater Montreal Area that are listed as members of La Société des Musées Québécois. The museums contacted during the, 1993–94 study period were predominantly the larger ones located in Montreal’s major tourism areas (Figure 1). Smaller museums in suburban communities are deliberately under represented. Discussions were also held with representatives from the Canadian and Quebec museum associations and recent issues of their respective journals, Muse and Musées were reviewed

Museums in the urban economy

Museums have been used as the main attractions drawing tourists into the city. For example, the recent Renoir exhibit in Canada’s National Gallery in Ottawa reportedly increased local hotel revenues by $4.8 million dollars (Calgary Herald 1997). However, the economic importance of museums in the local economy is much more complex than their ability to attract visitors with popular traveling exhibitions. Museums reflect an essential sense of a particular time and place unavailable elsewhere, and help to define the overall tourism product. Their unique architectural styles and permanent exhibits give tourists “something distinctive to gaze upon” ( Urry 1990:128). Recent research has demonstrated that they expect “to learn something” when visiting museums (Jansen-Verbeke and van Rekom 1996) and to see an honest representation of a “good local place” (Harrison 1997). Regardless of the specific nature of the “pull factor” attracting visitors, planners have included museums in the overall promotion of urban destinations, leading researchers to classify these cultural institutions as primary elements of the tourism product (Jansen-Verbeke 1986).

Museums enable cities to “market” themselves, as cultural centers which both delight residents and tourists and appeal to professionals and investors (Kotler and Kearns). Harvey (1987), building on the work of Bourdieu (1984), argues that cultural consumption is often a means for capital to profit from upper and middle class attempts to reject mass culture. Elite classes differentiate themselves through the consumption of “cultural capital”, high art, and antiquities which are often relatively inaccessible to lower classes (Fyfe and Ross 1996). Cultural institutions also provide a place for elites, who administer and frequent these non-profit institutions, to network and re-affirm their social position (Zukin 1995). In depressed urban economies, such as Montreal’s, cultural amenities provide high-skilled professionals with an incentive to remain in a “liveable” city.

In the process of attracting tourists and nearby residents of different backgrounds to the city, museums become potential instruments for combining consumption activities with personal, lived experiences. To some extent the different components of the city (cultural attractions, shopping centers, and the like) converge, each offering the services and experiences of the other (Featherstone 1991). A tourist may enter a museum for a negligible admission fee, but during the visit include lunch, buy a souvenir, and take a taxi back to a nearby hotel. Thus, Ashworth and Tunbridge (1990) view the National Gallery and Canadian Museum of Civilization as the Ottawa–Hull region’s effort to develop the Ottawa River waterfront’s boutiques and restaurants. Similarly, on West Sherbrooke Street in Montreal ( Figure 1), gallery owners, antique dealers, high-end clothing retailers and museum professionals have formed an informal association to develop and promote the area as a place for the consumption of up-market consumer goods and a refined cultural aesthetic.