Intro

Half of the experts surveyed for the World Economic Forum’s Global Risks Report 2026 expect turbulence or worse over the next two years, and only one in a hundred expects calm. Museums feel that turbulence at close range, because polarisation, anger and new technology arrive with their visitors and their staff. They also remain among the few institutions people still trust. In October 2026 the Museum Leadership House brought museum leaders from Europe, North America and Asia to LABIOMISTA – Studio Koen Vanmechelen in Genk, an artist’s studio on the site of a former zoo, to work out what a leader should do in such a landscape. The report follows their thinking from the world to the leader and then to the organisation, and it ends with an idea borrowed from the studio: more order enables more chaos, and a museum with its house in order can afford to be brave.

The report is written for directors, boards, senior leadership teams and everyone leading change in a museum or science centre. It is published with ICOM INTERCOM, the dissemination partner of the Museum Leadership House. It is free, and it is delivered immediately.