We love museums in Britain. According to recent data, 48% of UK adults visit museums at least once a year, with 35% visiting twice or more. Our country is packed with incredible museums, from the British Museum and Natural History Museum in London to the many niche offerings up and down the UK.
And the appetite of the Great British public means there’s always room for more. If you’re researching how to start a museum in the UK, exploring how to start a private museum, or thinking about launching a museum business, here we’ll look at the best ways to approach it. Discover our 10 steps to start a museum, to help you create a cultural space that’s engaging, sustainable and successful.
10 steps to start a successful museum
Before you start developing your museum, dive into our top 10 tips. They should help you build a space that engages your audience and keeps them coming back.
1. Define why you want to start a museum
Before you start thinking about funding your museum or looking at potential locations, you need to define why it is that you’d like to start a museum and what you’re hoping to achieve.
A great starting point is to consider the museum's story or history you’d like to share with visitors. Ask yourself who your audience will be, why your museum should be opened, and what will make people come through your doors.
These points are incredibly important if you’re planning to open a history museum, for example. A strong focus on a specific subject matter, such as local industry or wartime stories, is far more engaging than a random assortment of items.
2. Choose your museum type
The structure, funding, and legal setup you need for your museum will vary depending on what you’re hoping to create.
Private museum
A private museum is usually owned by an individual, a family, or a private trust and built around a personal collection. Private museums can be for-profit or not-for-profit, with one of the main challenges being balancing your vision with public accessibility.
It’s also important to consider whether you want your private museum to be open year-round or by appointment only. This will impact staffing, insurance and compliance.
History museum
History museums typically focus on local, national or thematic history. A strong history museum needs to offer something that people haven’t seen before. Or provide some unique insight into a specific time in history. A great example of this is the industrial exhibits at the Manchester Science and Industry Museum that tell a unique story of the Industrial Revolution in the city.
When setting up a history museum, you’ll likely need to work with archives, councils, and heritage organisations to gather the information you need. Excellent research and curation standards are key, too.
A good history museum requires high levels of credibility and accuracy, so it can be helpful to partner with historians or local heritage groups early on.
Specialist museum
A specialist museum focuses on a specific niche, such as transport, military, pop culture, film, science or technology. A great example of this is the Museum of Magic, Fortune-telling & Witchcraft in Edinburgh.
One of the biggest obstacles with a niche museum is attracting visitors, especially in the beginning. Building a community around your niche and engaging with existing online communities are great ways to start.
Building a network and community before you set up your space should also help with your fundraising efforts.
Interactive museum
An interactive museum focuses on hands-on learning and immersion. This type of museum is usually popular with families and schools, as they often include digital or sensory exhibits. We love Camera Obscura & World of Illusions in Edinburgh and the Twist Museum in London.
Interactive museums can have higher setup and maintenance costs than other options. But they often perform well commercially, as people are likely to visit more than once.
3. Find the right building
When starting a museum business, the building itself will be one of your highest costs.
Traditional options include converted heritage buildings (such as barns and churches), high-street retail spaces, and purpose-built museum sites. More unique choices include shipping containers, pop-up or touring exhibitions, and shared cultural spaces with galleries or libraries.
You don’t necessarily need a permanent building to start a museum. Many successful museums began as temporary exhibitions or digital-first projects before committing to a physical space.
4. Consider your location strategy
When choosing a location for your new museum, it’s important to consider options with high footfall that complement what you’re trying to achieve while meeting any requirements you have.
High-footfall areas, like city centres and tourist destinations, are visible to many and are likely to welcome spontaneous visits as people pass by. However, these spaces often come with high rental costs and intense competition.
Destination museums in rural or niche locations offer lower costs and a unique identity, but you’ll need to give people a reason to travel to visit.
A smaller museum with strong local engagement can perform better than a larger one with limited community support, so it’s important to build a loyal audience first.
5. Look into the legal and structural setup
UK museums will usually fall under one of the following structures:
Charity – this is the most common option for public museums
Community Interest Company (CIC)
Private limited company – for-profit model
You’ll also need to think about your governance model and consider whether you want a formal board, an advisory committee, or a project-based collective.
You may also want to consider:
Collections insurance
Public Liability insurance
Loan agreements for borrowed items
Policies for conservation and handling
Accreditation from Arts Council England can boost credibility, but this requires meeting strict standards.
6. Build and manage your collection
Your collection is your museum’s main asset, so it’s important to consider:
Ownership vs loaned items
Storage and conservation conditions
Cataloguing systems
Ethical sourcing
If possible, try not to display all of your items at once, as rotating exhibits help to keep content fresh and encourage people to return.
7. Create an experience
Many museum visitors enjoy an experience that offers more than simply looking at items in glass cases. When starting a museum, you should think about:
Telling a story through your exhibits and taking people on a clear journey with a beginning, middle, and end
Interactive elements to bring the story to life – this can also be super helpful to engage with kids and families
Accessibility – it’s key to making it accessible for all. This may impact your building considerations
Emotional impact – what do you want people to feel when they first step through the doors, and once they leave the museum?
8. Develop a strategy for funding and revenue
While bringing in an income may not be the main reason you’re thinking about starting a museum, you’ll need multiple income streams to ensure your idea is sustainable. These could include:
Ticket sales
Grants and funding bodies
Donations and memberships
Gift shop and merchandise
Events and venue hire
Educational workshops
Museums that rely on a single source of income often struggle. Try to create several revenue streams to keep the money coming in from a range of different sources.
9. Build an audience in advance
Don’t wait until opening day to start building your museum's audience. You’ll want to create anticipation well before you launch.
You can begin to build an audience early on with:
Social media storytelling
Behind-the-scenes content
Local partnerships
Community events or talks
10. Get your staffing and skills right
Every museum needs a mix of skills to be successful, for example:
Curatorial – research and collections
Operations – tickets and logistics
Marketing and outreach
Education and programming
If you’re in the very early stages and want to enhance your own skills in the area, or you’re interested in how to start a museum career, you can begin with:
Volunteering at local museums
Studying museum studies, heritage, or history
Building experience in archives or galleries
Museum careers require a variety of skills, from digital and storytelling to audience engagement, and these are just as important as academic knowledge.
Developing your own museum
Learning how to start a museum in the UK requires a vision, sustainability, relevance and logistics.
Whether you’re planning to start a private museum built on your own collection, a history museum telling local stories, or a museum business with commercial goals, it’s important to ensure your space connects with your audience, tells engaging stories, and remains sustainable over time.
Specialist museum insurance through Ripe
Looking to start your own museum? Find out more about museum insurance and get a quote online.
Please note the information provided on this page should not be taken as advice and has been written as a matter of opinion. For more on insurance cover and policy wording, see our homepage.