Museum Case Study Parque Explora - Medellín, Colombia

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Museums and cultural centres need to (re)think about their role in society. They are places that could spark new ideas and imagination in their community through exhibitions and experiential learning spaces. This is a case study about a strategic foresight program with Parque Explora, a science and technology museum in Medellín, Colombia.

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​Now is the time, more than ever, to bring a sense of optimism and agency to the forefront of the museum’s work.  
Andrés Roldán, Executive Director, 
​Parque Explora​

Parque Explora was embarking on a strategic initiative that aims to have far-reaching impacts on the organization's culture and the surrounding community. The challenge was understanding its role in helping its participants, especially children, think about and shape the future in their cultural context. We began with their insight that “Building futures literacy can support learners not only in terms of solutions, or understanding the world, but also imagining new worlds.”

FUTURES EXPLORER LAB
What is the future of meaningful learning experiences in Colombia in 2050?
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Approach 
The Futures Explorer Lab is an introductory strategic foresight and futures program co-designed with Parque Explora that took place in-person and online over six months. The training addressed their interest in acquiring knowledge and integrating tools and methodologies of futures thinking, enabling the museum to implement them across various programs, projects, and internal processes. 

Outcome
We recognize the importance of adapting these methodologies to address specific scenarios, strengthening our ability to anticipate and plan within the context of our cultural, social, and scientific work, not only at the national level but also internationally.

In the case of Parque Explora, the connection to futures thinking offers, on the one hand, the ability to envision and contribute to a more inclusive, sustainable, and equitable future, positively influencing our actions for collective well-being and social development. On the other hand, this anticipatory capability allows us to adapt to change and influence our actions as a museum.

Results

• Developed an approach to reflect on the application of future thinking within their communities and the organization.
• Adapted futures methods to create new programs and tools for the community.  
• Established a new practice of horizon scanning, emerging trend analysis, and identifying drivers that are shaping the current landscape.
• Identified critical forces to anticipate external factors that could significantly impact the museum and its stakeholders.
• Analyzed the stakeholder ecosystem, recognizing their influence and power dynamics in shaping the museum’s communities. 
• Outlined plausible future scenarios, delineating possible trajectories that could materialize in the future, providing them with a comprehensive view of the potential directions events could take.
• Developed a series of strategic recommendations aimed at providing future opportunities for Parque Explora.

Next Steps for Parque Explora
We would like futures thinking practices to become a systematic and tailored process for all levels of the organization. In other words, we aim to have a set of clearly defined tools applicable to the museum environment, with specific objectives and a knowledge management process encompassing the exploration of futures.

About Parque Explora Consulting and Design
Parque Explora: an interactive science museum, planetarium, education and conservation aquarium, and public experimentation workshop in Medellín, Colombia. //  Parque Explora: un museo interactivo de ciencias, un planetario, un acuario de educación y conservación y un taller público de experimentación.

Together with our allies, we design and build museums, exhibitions, interactive centers and mobile and editorial strategies. We explore new ways of telling, we conceive inclusion as a central premise of design, we call for a transdisciplinary view to put preconceived ideas in tension and we are committed to an immersive museography that allows memorable experiences. We design guaranteeing a balance between user experience and project viability. We have created more than 122 thousand square meters of new spaces for culture and knowledge in five countries.

During the last ten years we have capitalized on our experience to accompany others in the development of their public appropriation of knowledge initiatives. We focus on our lines of projects—and their connections—: exhibition and cultural settings, educational communities, active citizenship and conservation. We accompany you from the structuring of a basic idea to the development of research for public policies. We work with all types of organizations to build social ties and to reflect, plan and materialize citizen participation and public trust.