ROMANIA     2007  

Bucharest
October 21–25, 2007

The Fund, the Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs of Romania, and The National Museum of Art of Romania presented a four day regional museum conference in Bucharest from October 21-25. Eighty museum representatives from 13 countries participated in “Enriching Museum Experiences: A Symposium on Museum Education and Marketing.”

The conference was designed by The Fund in cooperation with the Ministry and made possible with generous support from the Getty Foundation together with financial support from the Ministry. The Ambassador of the United States Nicholas Taubman and Mrs. Taubman also hosted a special dinner at their residence for conference participants.

This was the third regional museum conference held by The Fund in Bucharest. Designed in response to requests for further information on museum education and marketing, the conference addressed the interests and needs of representatives from Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldova, Russia, Serbia, and Romania. All participants were interested in how to better reach and serve their visitors and their communities.

Faculty members included: Kathy Dwyer Southern, President of the National Children’s Museum, United States; Elaine Heumann Gurian, international museum consultant and former Deputy Director of the Holocaust Museum and the National Museum of the American Indian, United States; Stephen Feber, international museum consultant and former director of the Magna Trust, York Museums and Quarry Bank Mill, England; and Diana Walters, Program Director of International Museum Studies, Museion, Goteborg University, Sweden. Special presentations were also made by Monika Hagedorn-Saupe, Deputy Director, Institute for Museum Research, Berlin, and Liviu Chelcea, Director, The Center for Research on Culture, Romania.

All sessions for the conference were held at the National Museum of Art. The Ministry, in addition to paying lodging for participants provided lunch, evening receptions, and dinners throughout the conference, thus offering many opportunities for networking and discussions among participants.

The conference was designed to use a variety of formats to ensure strong interaction among participants; these included interactive presentations, facilitated group conversations, case studies, and working groups, exercises. Twelve groups of five met each day to apply and interpret the presentations through group exercises. Evaluation forms were distributed at the end of each day followed by a brief discussion to assure that participant expectations were being met. Conference proceedings were presented in English and simultaneous translation was also provided. The conference focused on two major topics. “The Visitor and the Visitor Experience” was explored through sessions on “The Visitors, Who are They and What do We Know About Them,” “Learning Theory,” The Setting,” “Visitor Studies Research,” “Broadening Access” and “What Makes the Visitor Welcomes?” The second half of the conference explored “Marketing the Museum, Advertising and Communications Strategies for Museums.” Sessions here included “Case Studies of Romanian Advertising Campaigns,” “Group Discussions,” and “A Marketing Case Study, The Diana Exhibition.” Through small group work participants designed their own exhibit focused on specific visitor groups; explored issues of access from the sensory, intellectual, cultural, and physical perspective, and designed an advertising and marketing campaign for their exhibit. Through all of this work participants shared experiences, discovered common strengths and needs, and established new networks which The Fund hopes will continue over the longer term.

The conference began Sunday afternoon with welcome and introductory remarks from Mircea Angelescu, General Director of The General Directorate for Cultural Heritage, Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs of Romania; Alis Vasile, Director of Directorate for Museums, Collections and Governmental Guarantees, Ministry of Culture; Roxana Theodorescu, General Director of The National Museum of Art of Romania; and Kathy Dwyer Southern for The Fund. A tour of the newly installed European Art Gallery of the National Museum of Art was provided, followed by a concert and opening reception.

On Monday, Ms. Southern provided an introduction to the conference, its major themes and goals. Dr. Virgil Stefan Nitulescu, General Secretary, Romanian Ministry of Culture and Religious Affairs, gave the keynote address. Dr. Nitulescu provided a historical context for the conference theme and traced the importance of the visitor and the community to the success and sustainability of the museum. Dr. Nitulescu noted that 65% of the Romanian public does not attend museums and this is both a critical problem for the country’s museums and an important opportunity. He concluded by saying that this opportunity is the reason for this conference.

Three Romanian museum representatives addressed the question of “The Visitor and the Visitor Experience: Who is Coming?” Ana Maria Iuga, Public Relations, and Ovidiu Lazar, volunteer for The National Museum of the Romanian Peasant, explored their visitors with a special emphasis on successful outreach efforts for teenagers. Angelica Iacob, Head of the Education Office for The National Museum of Art, discussed the growing demand for children’s programs from both schools and the general public. The museum has recently launched a teacher training program which has begun to train the trainers to address this increased demand. Dr. Aurora Stanescu, Head of Public Relations for The National Natural Science Museum, discussed this museum’s aging visitor profile and the museum’s work to expand and extend its visitor mix.

In the afternoon, Elaine Heumann Gurian provided an overview to exploring ways of characterizing visitors and understanding their expectations and needs. She used Calvert Cliffs, a small museum in Maryland, as a case study to examine multiple inexpensive ways to address a wide range of visitor needs and expectations. This session was very popular with conference attendees because of its application to all of those present. The day concluded with evaluation, a visit to the Museum of Art Collections, a Romanian traditional music concert, and dinner at the National Museum.

Tuesday Ms. Gurian continued the exploration of the visitor with an “Overview to Learning Theory.” She noted that without an understanding of how visitors learn, it is impossible for the museum to adequately address visitor needs and expectations. Many learning theories exist today and she provided a succinct summary of these theories and their implications for learning in the museum. The important debate, for instance, between inherent truth, fact, and information that exist outside experience versus the position that there is no inherent truth separate from experience was explored. The implications of these two theories are profound in exhibition development and visitor involvement. On the one hand the museum is committed to creating an internal dialogue with the visitor to learn next steps and reinforce or alter what they already think. On the other, the museum may see itself as the educator of immutable facts which it is there to teach for the edification of the visitor. Each of the theories also has related implications. To apply these theories and the implications for museums, Ms. Gurian and the conference faculty presented a group exercise, “Postcards: Developing a Visitor Oriented Exhibit.” Groups of five individuals were formed. Each group was provided with a pack of postcards and asked to select one of their museums for which they would create an exhibit based on 5-7 of the postcards. The groups were asked to target a specific visitor group and discuss the approach and learning theory selected. The presentations of these exhibits provided the basis for further group work.

Diana Walters’ presentation focused on “Broadening access: practical responses to audience development for disabled people.” She contrasted the social model of disability with the more traditional medical perspective. She noted that museums are increasingly examining their responsibility to create environments which are accessible to everyone, to identify the existing barrier,s and to seek creative solutions. Possible barriers for visitors include sensory (to address hearing, sight, and touch), intellectual (to address understanding for children and adults), cultural (to address multilingual and monocultural representation), and physical (to address the built environment) issues. Ms. Walters stressed that solutions need not be expensive and that the commitment of the institution to reaching all potential visitors was critical for universal access.

On Tuesday afternoon, Stephen Feber presented “A Case Study from Europe: Magna.” Mr. Feber explored the development of this extensive museum and installation in England, an old mining site, which successfully attracted a broad cross section of visitors. He examined why the museum was successful and how it thought about and engaged its visitors. To conclude the day following evaluation, attendees visited the National Village Museum. Tuesday evening the United States Ambassador and Mrs. Taubman provided a reception and dinner at their residence for conference participants. This was a very special evening for the participants.

On Wednesday morning, visitor studies presentations were made from two perspectives. Monika Hagedorn-Saupe provided a comprehensive overview of museum visitation in Germany. Liviu Chelcea provided a contrasting view to visitation in Romania. These two presentations provided a worthwhile examination of visitor trends for the two countries.

Mr. Feber concluded the “Visitor Experience” section with a discussion of “What Makes the Visitor Welcomed?” Issues of architecture, shared authority, interactivity, and staff training were all discussed. Conference participants formed again in their small groups to discuss accessibility issues for their institutions and to present their findings to the full group. This proved to be an especially meaningful discussion where the real problems of “front of house” staff, docent training, and overall lack of visitor orientation and amenities were debated. These problems were confirmed by each institution from each of the 13 participating countries. The candor of this discussion was meaningful for participants and faculty alike.

On Wednesday afternoon Ms. Southern introduced the second part of the conference, “Marketing the Museum: Advertising and Communications Strategies for Museums.” She provided an overview to marketing, the marketing mix, and the components of a standard mix and noted that the presentations to follow will focus on the promotion and sales component of the mix with special emphasis on advertising and communications strategies. The afternoon began with the presentations of advertising campaigns for two Romanian museums. Irena Rennic of Leo Burnett Romania and Dr. Aurora Stanescu of The National Natural Science Museum presented the campaign for the Natural Science Museum, followed by Christina Diaconescu of Mercury 360 and Ana Maria Iuga of the National Museum of the Romanian Peasant presenting the campaign for the Peasant Museum. Following the presentations of these very creative campaigns, Ms. Southern moderated a group discussion. Conference participants were surprised to learn that both campaigns were provided pro bono by the advertising agencies. Agency representatives outlined the reasons why they were willing to work pro bono for the museums and their commitment to continue this work. In addition to advertising spots the agencies also provided guidance in product placement, branding, logo development, and communications strategies. The agencies found the experiences to be highly creative and enjoyable for their staffs and encouraged participants to pursue their own relationships with other agencies. They stressed that it might take several inquires to involve an agency in this work but to not be discouraged. Museum representatives offered their experiences and help on this issue as well.

Mr. Feber reconvened the small groups and instructed each to develop their own advertising campaigns for the postcard exhibit the groups had created on Tuesday. These campaigns were then presented to faculty and participants. The day concluded with evaluation and another excellent concert followed by dinner at the museum.

On Thursday morning Mr. Feber presented “The Diana Exhibition—A Marketing Case Study” followed by a group discussion. This exhibition, which was currently on view at Kensington Palace, marks the 10th year anniversary of the death of Diana, Princess of Wales. Mr. Feber outlined the development of the exhibit and the negotiations necessary to assure the involvement and approval of all the appropriate parties. He also explored the communications campaign developed for the exhibition and some of the complications and issues which arose. A group discussion followed this presentation.

Finally, because of the previous day’s interest in staff training for effective visitor service, Ms. Gurian led the faculty in a discussion of techniques and approaches which had proven successful.

The Fund is grateful for the generous financial support from both the Getty Foundation and the Ministry. The Ministry, in addition to paying lodging for participants and coordinating logistics in Bucharest, provided lunch, evening receptions, and dinners throughout the conference, thus offering many opportunities for networking and discussions among participants. The conference was well-received by participants, and the Ministry has stated that it will hold a fourth conference next fall.

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