Museums and Digital Maturity

Lauren M. Vargas is an independent researcher and strategist specialising in digital transformation, community engagement, and strategic foresight in the cultural sector. She is the Founding Principal of Your Digital Tattoo, a consultancy and research practice that supports mission-based organisations in navigating continuous change through inclusive and regenerative methods, systems thinking, and futures literacy. Her work critically examines how digital technologies intersect with institutional values, civic participation, and collective imagination. Vargas currently serves as Head of Research Practice for the Future Museum initiative, a two-year international action research programme supporting over 40 cultural organisations in exploring the futures of institutional value, digital infrastructure, audience development, and cross-sector collaboration. She is also an Honorary Research Fellow at the University of Leicester's Institute of Digital Culture, where she contributes to research on digital maturity, leadership, and organisational capability across the museum and heritage sectors. Her professional background spans over 20 years across public, private, and academic sectors, including senior roles at Aetna, Fidelity Investments, and the US Department of Defense. She was named one of the top 25 social business leaders by The Economist Intelligence Unit. She holds a PhD in Museum Studies from the University of Leicester and an MA in Creative Writing from Open University. Based in the Netherlands, Vargas brings a transdisciplinary and international perspective to her work, combining research, consultancy, and pedagogy to support ethical, inclusive, and futures-oriented digital practices in cultural institutions.

Katherine Burton Jones is the director of Harvard University's Museum Studies graduate program at Harvard Extension School, the largest of the University's twelve degree-granting institutions. Her research lies at the intersection of technology and museum practice, particularly in applying artificial intelligence, machine learning, and natural language processing to enhance museum databases. Jones is exploring how these technologies can address challenges related to deaccessioning, improve visitor engagement, and analyze the language used in collection descriptions to make them more accessible and less derogatory.