Museum of London's Five-Year Digital Plan: Interview with Trish Thomas
Trish Thomas, Head of Digital Innovation at the Museum of London, outlines a five-year digital strategy as the museum prepares to close its London Wall site and open a new museum in Farringdon in 2025. She emphasizes the need for sustainable, long-term digital investment rather than one-off projects, and calls for redefining KPIs to value online audiences who may never visit physically. Thomas notes that the pandemic exposed chronic underinvestment in digital technology and staff, leading to a talent drain as workers leave for better-paid sectors. She advocates for personalized content and consistent brand experience across online and offline touchpoints. Digitalization is crucial for providing broader access to collections, but must be paired with data strategies to connect objects, people, places, and dates. Thomas contrasts the Museum of London's social history collection—where objects like burnt bricks from the Great Fire gain meaning through human stories—with visually stunning collections like the National Gallery's. She recommends Ed Catmull's 'Creativity Inc.' for insights on fostering creativity in risk-averse cultural institutions.
Key facts
- Trish Thomas is the first Head of Digital Innovation at the Museum of London, appointed December 2021.
- The Museum of London will close its London Wall site in 2022 and open a new museum in Farringdon in 2025.
- Thomas is implementing a five-year digital strategy covering online and gallery experiences, content strategy, collection access, commercial integration, and personalized audience relations.
- She previously served as Head of Digital at Southbank Centre for six years.
- The museum's collection includes approximately 7 million objects, many visually unremarkable but rich in human stories.
- Thomas stresses the need for sustainable digital funding from internal budgets and external partnerships.
- The pandemic caused a loss of skilled digital staff in the cultural sector due to low pay and job insecurity.
- She recommends 'Creativity Inc.' by Ed Catmull for its lessons on harnessing creativity in business.
- Digitalization must be paired with data strategies to dynamically connect objects to related entities.
- Thomas advocates for a unified brand experience across online and offline touchpoints.
Entities
Institutions
- Museum of London
- Southbank Centre
- National Gallery
- Pixar
- Artribune
Locations
- London
- United Kingdom
- London Wall
- Farringdon