an insight into museums and collections

[wolviex]

Originally Posted by Jens Nordlunde

How do you see the future, do you think the museums will get better possibilities for conservation, better exhibitions?

I'm not optimistic either. I think that Museums are institutions of higher purposes, and it should be funded by government. Of course it's day-dream while not every museum is under government protection, but I can talk only about the biggest, National ones. Museums in Poland, judging from what I can see everyday, won't earn money on tourists. There is not so many of them. And you can't force people to visit museum. Some of them (most of them?) just aren't interestet. Museum is not a cinema where you're going just to relax and fun, it's cultural institution, and because of that for many people it is equal to boring institution! You'll have to change mentality of people to change the rest. There are some ways to increase the income from tourists, but it will be always not enough to keep the institution in life without additional money.
Here in my Museum, when we have to preserve some important object, but project is very expensive, we are depending on sponsors and it works. There are also some other, not museum way of earning money - hiring the local. So we've got fairs and conferences in museal rooms. Sometimes it is grotesque when the exhibition is removed (!!!) for e. g. two days, and then we are installing exhibition again. But there are real big money from such events.
But for real these are very complex problems. I'm not museum theorist but just historic who is trying to get some knowledge about weapons gathered in my Museum, so maybe I'm not the best person for discuss