Over the past two decades, our world has undergone rapid changes driven by significant challenges such as financial crises, pandemics, wars and escalating regional tensions between countries. These upheavals have profoundly affected the cultural and creative sectors, with many museums forced to close or reduce their operations and numerous museum professionals and partners facing layoffs. With each passing year, governmental support has steadily declined in some countries; for example, grant-in-aid funding for UK arts and cultural organisations fell by 18 per cent between 2010 and 2023 (House of Lords Library Citation2024), while in 2022, the EU allocated only 0.9 per cent of its total government expenditure to cultural services (European Commission Citation2022). These policies and decisions have significantly reshaped the cultural landscape of cities and communities worldwide.