country
activities

Belgrade, Serbia

Seminar on museum audience development, programming, and advocacy
March 24-27, 2009

Consultants: Ward Mintz and Brent Glass

The Museum of Yugoslav History in Belgrade hosted thirty-eight museum professionals for a seminar on museum audience development, programming, and advocacy. Ward Mintz, Executive Director of the Coby Foundation in New York, and Brent Glass, Director of the National Museum of American History in Washington, D.C., led the seminar on behalf of The Fund. The Fund is grateful to Ivan Stanic, Director of the Museum of Yugoslav History, and his team for their help in organizing the seminar.

Ward Mintz with seminar participants in Belgrade.

Serbia is a country with a rich heritage and a very troubled recent history. The cultural institutions of the country have suffered from a lack of resources and, in some cases, from poor leadership. Nevertheless, the energy, enthusiasm, and creativity of the professionals attending the seminar made it apparent that the future of museums in this region is a positive one.

Each session of the seminar included material that offered case studies as well as overall general principles regarding best practices. Some of the topics of the greatest interest were promotion, audience development, exhibition planning, and fundraising. Seminar participants actively raised questions and offered commentary Ward Mintz with seminar that reflected their own experiences. participants in Belgrade Although many expressed frustration when large and successful museum programs in the United States were described (“You are presenting a fairy-tale,” said one participant), they accepted the idea that they could take on certain initiatives that would result in positive change in their institutions.

One of the most successful components of the seminar was the opportunity to work together in groups. On the opening day, the assignment to create an “elevator talk” for new museums in Serbia resulted in good ideas and a very spirited atmosphere among the seminar participants. On the final day, the group exercise called for the development of a new exhibition along with strategies for promotion and fundraising. A peer review panel selected one proposal as the best: a communications and postal history exhibition documenting various milestones in information technology “from the Sumerians to Facebook.” The concept for this exhibition included an internet training program for seniors who are trying to locate friends and relatives displaced by the recent conflicts in the Balkan states.

Future Activities

Upon his return to New York, Mr. Mintz met with Slobodan Nakarada from the Museum of Contemporary Art, who expressed interest in inviting The Fund back to do an additional seminar on audiences and developing new sources of income. Discussions for such a seminar are currently underway.