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Sofia and Plovdiv, Bulgaria

Exploratory Trip to Assess Needs and Potential of Museums.
April 2–11, 2009

Consultants: Marc Pachter, Alan Knezevich and Sally Yerkovich

With the assistance of the America for Bulgaria Foundation (ABF), The Fund for Arts and Culture returned to Bulgaria this April to assess the needs and potential of the nation’s major museums. The Fund’s consulting team included Marc Pachter, a Senior Advisor to The Fund and former Director of the National Portrait Gallery of the Smithsonian Institution; Alan Knezevich, Principal and Creative Director of Alan Knezevich Design Associates, and Sally Yerkovich, President of The Fund.

The team’s perspective was that of the visitor interested in learning about Bulgaria’s contemporary culture as well as its rich heritage, knowing that increasing tourism would spur economic growth and contribute to the development of a sustainable society. Further the team presumed that museums must not only be resources for the outsider -- they must equally cultivate audiences in their local communities and be places to gather, meet, experience, educate, and discuss and debate.

ABF staff organized the visits to museums and meetings with leaders in cultural posts in Sofia. Stanislava Nikolova, Manager of Administration for ABF, was the team’s companion and translator during the week as they made thirteen visits to major cultural institutions, met with fourteen representatives of cultural entities, and went on five tours of galleries and/or museums.

Tours and discussions in Plovdiv, Bulgaria’s second largest city, were organized through the Mayor’s office and gave the team a basis for comparison. Extended tours of the renovation of Plovdiv’s old town as well as discussions with members of the Plovdiv arts community also demonstrated the new potential that funding from various sources in Europe and Asia may offer for Bulgarian cultural groups.

The team found that the national museums of Bulgaria hold incomparable treasures, which reveal the intricate history of the region over 7,000 years. To help museums fully reach their potential, they recommended a new cultural model for Bulgaria, one that engages local communities, develops partnerships and collaborations with other cultural and educational institutions, creates programs that encourage learning and provoke thought about pressing social issues, and fosters tourism. Increasingly accepted as standard in Europe, Asia, and the United States, this model would enliven Bulgaria's national museums and make them players in contemporary society. Many of the seeds for the model exist in the creative thinking of Bulgarian arts and cultural professionals; these germs must take root, be nurtured and empowered.

The Fund hopes to continue its work in Bulgaria in the future, both leading seminars and regional workshops for museums directors and senior staff as well as arranging targeted consultancies.