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Author Topic: Corporate Events on Museums  (Read 863 times)
aristotelis
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« on: April 23, 2008, 10:40:07 AM »

The museums (especially larger ones) have been used more and more for corporate events ( eg. dinners, personal public relation events, presentations, filming, seminars, religious arrangements etc.) as attempts to open to the public and bring additional income. On the other hand the presence of a larger amount of people than the usual and the temporary alternation of the museum routine is possible to affect the environment of the collections, and the object themselves.

I would be very interested to hear and share events and opinions you might witnes as conservators.
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Aristotelis Georgio Sakellariou
(MA Preventive Conservation, BA Conservation of Antiquities & Works of Art)
Rui Bordalo
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« Reply #1 on: April 28, 2008, 05:40:23 PM »

Interesting topic! Much can be said about this. In some countries, this external financial support is working since very long time ago while in other countries only very recently have been introduced. I believe this happens also due to political will, and not only because of the museum decision. It is always a positive thing once the collection conservation is assured.
In case the museum is accommodating "corporate events" it does not imply necessarily that the museum will receive more visitors, especially if they do it for financial need. For example, there are museums that are renting their gardens or some conference rooms that are apart/independent from the visitor circuit. Not very long time ago I went to a conference in the Hermitage and it was in a part completely independent from the main building, with its own entrance and everything. Of course in the last day we could go to visit the museum but we were so few when compared. I have also been in others where the conference is only held in the museum but there is no visit included, also because the schedule may not fit with the normal opening of the museum.
In case the museum is hosting some events that will increase significantly the number of visitors, of course it has to be certified that the increase of the visitors will not have a negative effect over the collections. I'm hoping the museums have always this concern. However, it always depends from which kind of collection is and the number of visitors. Were you having in mind a specific case?

« Last Edit: April 28, 2008, 05:45:58 PM by Rui Bordalo » Report to moderator   Logged

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aristotelis
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« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2008, 12:39:46 PM »

This is an issue that comes more and more often in discussion. For the museums i work with currently, the Museum of Helenic Folklore Art (MHFA) and the Jewish Museum of Greece (JMG, www.jewishmuseum.gr) some interesting corporate events are the following:

The MHFA houses storytelling in one of its buildings which is actually an Othoman Bathhouse. There are no collections currently there but there will be in the future. Still the Bathhouse is a historic building.

The JMG , houses the main furniture (eg. habimah and architectural ornaments) from the destroyed synagogue of Patras at the Greek Synagogues section. About a year and a half, a jewish religious ceremony of 'name giving' took place at the museum and it was requested to be done at the synagogue of Patras. By the end, out of good organisation and a bit of luck no collections were affected. Yet, i consider this to be beneficial for the museum, but risky.

I would really like to hear other cases as well from other museums, from the inner sight by conservators.
« Last Edit: May 02, 2008, 06:43:05 PM by aristotelis » Report to moderator   Logged

Aristotelis Georgio Sakellariou
(MA Preventive Conservation, BA Conservation of Antiquities & Works of Art)
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« Reply #3 on: May 02, 2008, 03:25:31 PM »

Apart from the changes of RH and temperature levels that will occur in the case of the gathering of large numbers of visitors in the museum, another subject that arises is the 'quality' (if I may say so) of the visitors. What I mean by that, is that people who choose to visit a museum in order to admire its exhibits, are more or less sensitised on the subject and they will treat the exhibits with respect. Does the same thing occur when people enter a museum in order to attend a party?
 
Last summer, the Museum of Natural History Museum of the Lesvos Petrified Forest, organised the "Volcano festival", which included a video-art temporary exhibition and an alternative punk-rock concert with three bands from Athens (there is a small stone-built amphitheatre in the museum yard, constructed to host various cultural events). A lot of young people came in the museum for the concert; people who I do not personally believe that would normally bother going to a museum. At the night of the concert the exhibition rooms were closed, but the people who attended the concert could see some of the petrified tree-trunks that are located in the museum yard. It was nice to have all these young punk-rockers in the museum. They may had come just for the music, but they also took a look at some of the fossils as well, and some of them were actually thrilled. However, during the party, the museum staff had to keep reminding the people not to touch the fossils, not to sit on the long petrified trunk that was in front of the amphitheatre, not to leave their bags and booze on the fossils, not to smoke next to the fossils, not to.... blah, blah blah, blah.... Luckily both the fossils and our ears survived the alternative punk-rock concert and in the end everyone was happy!
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Evangelia Kyriazi
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Natural History Museum
of the Lesvos Petrified Forest
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