Mission, vision and goals

Mission and vision

“Dare to dream for the future!”

When developing the mission and vision, you will think about the desired future for the estate and what you want to achieve with the artistic legacy. It is a way to determine the reasons for the legacy’s existence and the ambitions surrounding it, and to evaluate them regularly. The mission and vision are your starting point for the (future) estate, which help to determine the further running of your organisation. They are a dream of the future that you want to work towards.

 “Give yourself the freedom to brainstorm. Think big about what you want to accomplish with your inventory project before you begin drafting your goals. Take the time to review and refine your list until you feel ready to move forward into the next stage of goal setting.” (The Joan Mitchell Foundation, 2022, p.9)

Formulating a clear mission and vision for your legacy is a challenge. Lacking a mission and vision often leaves you at a loss as to where to start, what activities are priorities and what exactly you can do. Dare to dream about the future and get brainstorming. Write a mission and vision that you believe in fully, dare to make choices and align them with your specific needs and goals.

When writing a mission and vision, it is recommended to do so for the entire legacy, but also to approach the four components individually. This means taking the time to consider what you want to achieve with the artist’s archive and oeuvre, for example, and what steps you can take to do so. Consider your time, resources and possibilities here.

Mission

The mission expresses the definition of the estate. It answers the questions: ‘Who are we?’, ‘What do we stand for?’ and ‘In what sense are we unique?’. It is a clear text that reflects the core of your organisation.

Vision

For the vision, you will think about the future of the estate and legacy. The key questions here are: ‘What do we want to achieve?’ and ‘What are we aiming for?’. Consider the values of the organisation, and the impact and changes you want to bring about.

A few questions to help you formulate your mission and vision are:

• Why is the artistic legacy important or not important to preserve?
• What do you want the estate to achieve?
• What is the artistic legacy’s potential?

Formulating the mission and vision is an important process that you need to make time for. Take the time to brainstorm, scrap and reformulate things. Once the mission and vision are complete, ask the people involved, stakeholders or partners (including external ones) for their feedback. The important thing is for the mission and vision to be clear to everyone. They are a way to share the values and standards of the artistic legacy, clarify ambitions and promote the legacy in various ways.

A clear, transparent mission and vision make it possible to take focused steps and make decisions for the legacy. A well-written mission and vision statement motivates people to get to work.

Goals

You can use the mission and vision to set goals and develop activities. These goals help to determine the running of the (future) estate and may be achieved in the short, medium or long term. It is necessary to have a clear overview of what the artistic legacy includes in order to make your goals specific, realistic and feasible. Considering priorities may also be important.

The primary goal of an estate is to keep the artist’s artistic legacy alive. The basis of this is the long-term preservation, management and accessibility of the legacy, and making it visible to the general public. You can expand upon this ultimate aim with short and long-term goals and activities, including recurrent ones. Here are a few examples:

• Exhibiting works of art in public exhibitions and loaning them to museums and other institutions: by organising exhibitions (yourself), making works available for loan to museums, etc.
• Inventorying, digitising and opening up the archive: by repackaging, organising and describing the archive and making it accessible, you commit to long-term preservation and management.
• The development of a catalogue raisonné (catalogue of works) and/or website: a way to make the artist’s oeuvre (and archive) available and accessible.
• Opening up the legacy for research and promoting this facility: contributions to partnerships with the academic world can offer possibilities for academic research.

Some estates also encompass other aspects and goals, such as maintaining a building or managing a museum. For example, the artist’s (former) home or studio can be included in the running of the estate. This location can be used as a storage space (depot), exhibition space or even to organise residencies, for instance. It is also possible to establish a museum focused on the artistic legacy in the home or studio, with the aim of creating a meeting place where the artist’s story can be told.

To set goals and determine activities, it is important to start by asking ‘why’. For example: ‘Why do you want to make an inventory of the artist’s oeuvre?’ The answer may be very simple: you might need the right information to organise an exhibition or need a picture and the accompanying information for curators or the press. Whatever your motivation is, write it down when you start the project so that you can refer back to it.

Besides ‘Why’, it is also recommended to think about the time you need to achieve the goal. You can ask yourself here whether it is a short, medium or long-term goal.

A short-term goal is specific. For example: ‘examine the condition that the works of art are in and their storage conditions. Note this in a condition report’, or ‘photograph each work of art in the artist’s oeuvre in order to document it further’. For long-term goals, you need more time and resources. Such goals usually consist of a series of short-term activities you do to reach the goal. For example, a long-term goal might be ‘make an inventory of the artist’s archive’. Various activities and steps are needed to achieve this.

Furthermore, when setting goals and activities, it is a good idea to consider the estate’s strengths and weaknesses, as well as what you need to succeed. This means looking at the skills that the team behind the estate can provide and where you might need partners or partnerships (including external ones) to find the support you need to achieve the goal. On the ‘Management’ page, you will find a list of the different roles, skills and required knowledge that are recommended within the organisation.

SMART-METHOD

The SMART method is a way to set goals that are Specific, Measurable, Acceptable, Realistic and Time-bound. This method ensures that goals and activities are feasible and can genuinely be achieved.

Specific

Make your goals specific by describing them in detail. That means answering the following questions: ‘What do you want to achieve?’ and ‘Who and what do you need to achieve this?’.

Measurable

How do you know when you have achieved your goals? To ensure your goals are measurable, look at the final result. What conditions or percentage do you need to achieve your goals?

Acceptable

Ensure the goals are logical for yourself, the running of the estate and the staff involved. Make sure the goals are acceptable to everyone.

Realistic

Make the goals realistic to implement. Ensure the goals are feasible and that the people who have to achieve them have the resources they need to do so. The goals should not be too difficult or too easy.

Time-bound

Consider the time you need to achieve your goals. Are they short, medium or long-term goals? Set a start and end date. This lets you know exactly where you stand, and the deadline will keep you motivated.

Bear in mind that establishing goals and activities is a learning process, and the experience you gain will help you grow. To ensure that your mission, visions and goal stay aligned, it is best to take the time to review and evaluate them at regular intervals. Once the goals have been achieved, it is possible to extend the estate’s activities or dissolve it. This has to do with your organisation’s lifespan, which will be discussed in further detail in the relevant section. That section considers the limited and unlimited duration of an estate.

Interested to read more? Go to the next page: Partnerships.