Cultural institutions are — doubly — about time.
Here is a primer for you.
“Cultural” =
1) relating to the arts, ideas, tastes and entertainment of the past and the present
2) tasked with creating continuity between traditions that are crucial for the self-identification and self-understanding of groups of people, from the most local to widest humanity level
3) engaged in the generative act of producing new works, spaces, styles, and analysis for the future and future people
Taste, tradition and continuous public artistic reflection create community and cooperation without suppressing the individual. Not something you want to deprioritize.
“Institution” =
1) forming public organizations that are durable, trustworthy and accessible to any member of the community, setting the processes and timeframes it takes for a private idea to become a public asset
2) building what essentially is a time buffer for ideation, talent incubation, experimentation and R&D in the relative safety afforded to institutions by political legitimacy, capital and expertise so that great ideas, art, and tradition stewardship can develop not directly exposed to the market yet
3) and managing the architecture of this stewardship of the values of the past that is independent from day-to-day fluctuations of partisan politics, technology development, or the demands of the economy
Without institutions, however much taste or tradition you may have, they will have no home in which to grow, be reliably found, and be preserved for the future. Not something you want to deprioritize.
If you have these six components covered by your organization one way or another, then you are a cultural institution.
There should be many more.
