The institutions that move first will gain greater visibility, stronger oversight, reduced risk and the ability to activate their cultural assets strategically.  

A new institutional discipline is emerging

Across the world, banks, corporations, universities, museums, foundations and public institutions manage significant cultural assets. Yet unlike other institutional asset classes, cultural assets have historically lacked a structured governance model. 

As expectations around accountability, transparency, risk management and oversight continue to increase, organisations require a practical framework for managing cultural assets at institutional scale. 

Cultural Asset Governance establishes the structures, accountability, safeguarding measures and operational controls required to ensure cultural assets are documented, protected, accessible and strategically utilised.

The Cultural Asset Governance Framework 

• A practical model for institutional maturity:

The Cultural Asset Governance Framework provides a structured approach for assessing and improving governance capability across five interconnected pillars. 

• Documentation:

Maintain complete, structured and current records to support institutional knowledge and decision-making. 

• Accountability: 

Establish clear ownership, responsibility, oversight and governance controls. 

• Safeguarding: 

Track, protect and manage risk across collections, archives and heritage assets.  

• Accessibility: 

Provide controlled visibility and structured access to information.  

• Activation: 

Unlock cultural, educational, reputational and strategic value from institutional collections.

Together, these pillars provide the foundation for mature Cultural Asset Governance.

Tatiana Rudneva, Unsplash, Crop

Designed for organisations responsible for cultural assets 

The framework and assessment have been developed for institutions that hold, manage or oversee cultural assets, including: 

• Banks and financial institutions 

• Corporate collections 

• Universities and research institutions 

• Museums and galleries 

• Foundations and trusts 

• Government institutions 

• Archives, libraries and heritage organisations 

• Healthcare institutions 

These organisations increasingly require governance mechanisms capable of meeting modern expectations for accountability, visibility and risk management.

Understand where your institution stands 

The Cultural Asset Governance Assessment provides a structured evaluation of your current governance maturity across all five pillars. 

The assessment identifies: 

• Your overall governance maturity 

• Your strongest governance capability 

• Areas requiring priority attention 

• Governance gaps and risk indicators 

• Practical recommendations for improvement

Upon completion, participants receive an immediate maturity profile and a personalised Cultural Asset Governance Assessment Report.

Take the Assessment 

Adrien Olichon, Unsplash, Crop

Formalising a new category

Cultural Asset Governance is not simply a technology initiative.

It is the formalisation of an emerging institutional discipline that sits alongside established governance practices such as financial governance, IT governance and records governance. 

By establishing a shared language, measurable standards and a structured governance framework, institutions can move beyond fragmented collection management toward governed cultural assets. 

Read the Manifesto

The future of cultural assets is governance

Institutions already govern their finances, property, technology and data. Cultural assets are the next institutional asset class to undergo the same transformation. 

The question is no longer whether governance will be required.

Maturity Self-Assessment