Key Takeaways…

Connaissance des Arts and IESA interviewed Céline Gautier, head of Communications at the Musée de l’Armée, who describes her duties and the evolution of communication professions. Also discover the program to become a Communications Manager in a museum or a cultural institution.

The duties of a communications manager in a museum:

Communication professions have taken on a considerable place in museums (internal communication, patronage fundraising, public relations). Communication, a strategic tool, carries the institution’s actions and supports management in its goal: making the museum known to as many people as possible (visitors and future partners).

Céline Gautier presents the missions of the Communications Department of the Musée de l’Armée (press relations, publishing, annual activity report, video shoots, etc.) and the Athena modernization program, whose goal was to change the museum’s image in the eyes of the general public and to make it no longer a somewhat sanctified museum of objects but a true history museum with an educational aim, through a new design of the reception areas and the introduction of suitable mediation tools.

Two major developments in communication professions:

Digital communication

“We have to multiply our contacts and our messages to try to be on all fronts of information dissemination”

With the digital era and the multiplication of distribution channels (blogs, social networks, smartphones), communication professionals are multiplying actions and contacts, remaining in constant watch mode to adapt their messages and the ways they reach the public according to the evolution of the technologies themselves. Communication professionals must therefore today be trained in digital communication in order to be operational!

Marketing

“For some museum professions close to the collections, ‘marketing’ and ‘competitive offering’ are dirty words!”

The entry of the notions of marketing, competitive offering and services into the world of communication has upended working methods. Cultural institutions must take into account commercial considerations that they had until then set aside and regarded as notions belonging to the business world and not to culture. Communication professionals must therefore now put in place management, communication and marketing methods that are essential to the longevity of any cultural enterprise.

How to Become a Communications Manager?

IESA arts&culture trains for the profession of Communications Manager through its Bac+5 careers in culture program: the Master in Cultural Production and Financing

This program develops 3 key skills for this position:

  • Setting up a communication campaign, in particular a digital communication campaign
  • Knowledge of cultural project financing policies (partnership, patronage, crowdfunding, etc.)
  • Mastery of project management tools

This program bases its pedagogy on courses and practical work led by recognized practicing professionals in the cultural sector, as well as on work-study internships that ensure better integration of knowledge and open-mindedness and promote career entry.