Projects

The challenge

DIVA, Antwerp’s museum for diamonds, jewellery and silver, was created in 2018 from a merger of the former Diamond Museum and the Silver Museum. To give direction to the 2029 policy plan, DIVA joined us in looking to the future and exploring options to navigate towards a desirable future.

The process & results

What possible futures can staff and stakeholders imagine for DIVA? With this question, we set to work to explore and deepen the options for the museum’s long-term positioning. We focused our horizon on the year 2035 and interacted with DIVA staff and some 40 experts from different fields such as culture, tourism, heritage, education, makers, library, youth work, craftsmanship and the diamond sector, both inside and outside Antwerp.

To do so, we used the methodology of ‘strategic conversations’, a form of in-depth interviews rooted in the field of Futures Studies. During these conversations, we explored step-by-step challenges, opportunities, drivers of change, emerging issues, inspiring examples and best- and worst-case scenarios.

This gave us insight into the steps needed to work towards a desired future or, conversely, to avoid undesirable futures.

The insights gathered were thoroughly analysed and classified according to identified obstacles, opportunities and visions of the future. This resulted in an overview report with concrete, electable options for the long-term positioning of DIVA. The report offers recommendations for both the broader context and the intended concept, audiences, management and presentation of the collection, collaborations and use of the museum’s infrastructure.

With this strategic exploration, DIVA is taking an important step towards a sustainable and inspiring future in which the museum can dynamically intertwine the rich history of diamonds, jewellery and silver in Antwerp with contemporary and future innovation and creativity.