Bridging Theory and Practice in Open Culture Management: Challenges and Strategies in Museums

The article fits into the global discussion on the challenges and opportunities of open culture management for museums in the 21st century, which flares up around the increasing tension between everyone’s right to access to and participate in culture and individual exclusive interests (Macmillan, 2021; Yu, 2022). The debate is, however, mainly theoretical and addressed from a predominant legal perspective (Sappa, 2022; Wallace & Euler, 2020). Thus, it calls for interdisciplinary strategies and operative solutions (Roussos & Stamatoudi, 2022). This study builds on a study that reviews the state of the art of open culture in the museum sector at the crossroads of management and copyright law, and designs an exploratory matrix to handle “the open culture dilemma”, as the hesitation to open up, i.e. make available cultural resources (e.g., collections) with the least possible restrictions for their reuse. The theoretical matrix posited various degrees of openness and closure, revealing divergence and ambivalence from a managerial and legal perspective.