This thesis is a direct response to the COVID-19 pandemic. In the pandemic, it became abundantly clear that the museum sector as a whole needs to work on its financial resilience in order to be better prepared and responsive to future setbacks. While many examples can be found on large museums diversifying their income streams as a means of increasing this resilience, the same cannot be said for smaller museums. The objective of this thesis therefore is to find out whether these museums, with often limited resources, can successfully implement similar strategies.

This process involved two different research phases, followed by a design phase. The first research phase formed an explorative study of the landscape in which small art museums operate using interviews, desk research and visitations to five different museums. The second research phase describes further research into one of these five museums, Design Museum Dedel, which forms the case study for this thesis. In this phase the problems that are specific to this museum are laid out. The design phase finally describes the process in which museum volunteers ideated based on the problem directions introduced by the second research phase, and how these ideas led to a final concept.

The ideas that were eventually opted were:
• Ways in which the museum can use the collection hidden away in the depot
• Tours through the depot
• Setting up a friends of the museum program

Based on a number of selection criteria, eventually, the first idea led to the concept of poster packages, for which several alternatives were considered. These included using original posters vs reproductions and curating posters beforehand or on demand. After discussing both the benefits and drawbacks of each of these options, this led to the final concept of Posters on Demand, which uses reproductions in a hybrid curation form.

Due to remaining gaps, further development is needed before this design can fully shine. It does however show that small museums are more than capable of using their resources in creative ways to improve their financial resilience.