The “Museums of the Future” Project will combine the value of heritage collections of creative arts. Minister of Culture Sergiu Prodan said the project is financed by the development partners and is a pilot one for the Republic of Moldova. The digitization of arts and diversification of content in museums will make these more attractive, contributing to the country’s economic development. The museum admission ticket is expected to rise, but the state will offer discounts to different categories of people, IPN reports.
The minister noted that the “Museums of the Future” Project is designed to increase the visibility of cultural institutions by integrating innovations and modernizing spaces. The national museums will become spaces of the future that will house digital installations and new-media art exhibitions for the visitors to enjoy interactive cultural experiences.
“The art should become the engine that will move Moldova up from the rank of developing countries to the rank of developed countries. Besides this resource, we do not have many other resources we can explore. This initiative is supported by our foreign development partners. The Ministry of Culture, with the subordinate museums, is the beneficiary of this project. The Ministry of Culture hasn’t invested budget funds in this project. It goes to museum content digitization and diversification programs. The museums do not have the task of generating economic profit. But all those from the settlement or from nearby should have economic profit as a result of the work of museums. The museum is an attraction point, not a source of monetization,” Sergiu Prodan stated in the program “Public Space” on Radio Moldova channel.
As part of the “Museums of the Future” Project, nine teams consisting of representatives of museums, artists and professionals from the creative industry obtained the consent of the jury and the financial support needed to implement innovative projects. The winners will get a total of €200,000 for putting their creative ideas into practice. The minister of culture said the experience should contribute to increasing the attractiveness of museums. The price of a museum admission ticket should be raised so as to offer increased value to the art.
“The price of 10 lei, which is symbolic and offensive because we offer heritage values to the visitors, is what prevents us now from developing the museums. When the price is so small and is the same for everyone, this means the value and we ourselves do not appreciate our treasures, our heritage. It is a bad signal we transmit to society. The intension and wish of the Ministry of Culture is to change this state of affairs. This doesn’t mean the people with smaller incomes will not have access to heritage values for familiarizing themselves with them and admiring them. On the contrary, discounts should be provided to particular categories of people and there should be free entrance days and more museum nights. The access at the price of 50 cents is offensive for the collections we provide,” explained the minister.
The “Museums of the Future” Project is implemented by Artcor, the COR Creative Industries Association, under the aegis of the Ministry of Culture with support from USAID, Sweden and the UK, through the agency of the Moldova Future Technologies Activity and the Rural Competitiveness and Resilience Activity.
