MusLi (Museums Literacy) - Fondazione Fitzcarraldo

MusLi - No qualifications needed: museums and new audiences
Museum at Night
The Hungarian Ministry for Education and Culture now organizes two of these nights ‘that are different
from others’: one in June at Midsummer Night and one on St. Martin’s Day in November.
Midsummer Night and St. Martin’s Day are two cheerful holidays rooted in folk tradition. The first
is a celebration of early summer, and the latter has been an autumn festivity for many centuries.
On these nights people can visit all the participating museums with only one ticket. Museums prepare
special programmes for visitors from 6 to 12 pm. The National Railway and the Budapest Transport
Company provide free or half-price service to visitors of these events. In 2009 a major telephone company
sponsored the event.
In 2009 all over Hungary 81 museums in Budapest and 179 in the country entertained visitors with
nearly 2000 programmes at the June Museum Night. The first Summer Museum Night was organized
in 2003 and had some ten thousand visitors in the first year, whereas in 2008 it had 379,000 visitors.
In Budapest a visitor survey was carried out in 11 museums in Budapest. Results showed that 27%
of visitors came from different cities or towns, who have visited an average of 4 museums. 94% of the
guests arrived with their family or with friends. Nearly half of the visitors are new to the event. A majority
of the visitors attend more museums than in the whole year.
In 2009 in Budapest 30 and in other cities a total of 47 museums held programs late into the night at the
autumn festival. Taking a cue from the early summer museum night, the organizers hoped to establish
a tradition with the autumn festival as well. Their goal with both of these festivals is to entertain adults,
children and young people in an attractive and refined setting, making sure they receive valuable impressions,
become regular museum visitors and gain fresh energy after a night-out.
Museums’ Fair
The Museums’ Fair exists since 1996. It is a two-day event in the garden of the Hungarian National
Museum around the International Museum Day (May 18), where every year more than 100 museums
are introduced to a wider public through activities, brochures, publications as well as personal contact.
2) Generic and specific research findings
The Hungarian Ministry of Education and Culture during 2007-2008 commissioned a great survey
in 123 museums, parts of county museum directorates – excluding Budapest -. Almost 13.000 visitors
were questioned. Based upon the given answers the Ministry aimed to investigate the characteristics,
activities of the visitors and their satisfaction with the museum and its exhibitions, services.
The Foundation for Museums and Visitors, based upon the Ministry’s and the Bolzano questionnaires (n.b.
the questionnaires used by the Autonomous Province of Bolzano to survey the audiences of the exhibition A
Touch of Baroque – editor’s note) made its own survey in May and June 2009, at more venues.
In May 2009, at Museums’ Fair – two-days Festivity taken place at the garden of the Hungarian National Museum,
Budapest. In June 2009, at Museums’ Night, three different towns – including Budapest - in Hungary.
Both surveys used self-fill questionnaires, in Hungarian.
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