2009 - Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden

tH E StA AtLICH E KU NStSAMMLU NGEN
DRESDEN AS A StAtE-OWN ED ENtERPRISE
OF tH E FREE StAtE OF SAXONY
In the process of discussions about the optimum organisational
and operational structure for museums and their
business management, the cultural institutions in the Free
State of Saxony have decided upon the form of the stateowned
enterprise (‘Staatsbetrieb’). After the Staatsschauspiel
Dresden and the Semper Opera House, which became
state-owned enterprises in the 1990s, the Saxon State
Ministry for Science and Art also adopted this course for
the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden in 2009. This
decision was reached after carefully weighing up the respective
advantages of establishing a foundation under public
law and assuming the organisational form that has now
been instituted. Both operational structures involve a close
relationship with the responsible legal authority, which is
very much desired by the management of the Staatliche
Kunstsammlungen Dresden. They differ, however, in the
degree of independence.
Ultimately, the main factors influencing the decision were
the general economic situation and the demands of the
Saxon State Ministry for Finance regarding the New
Management Model (NMM). Basically, the NMM means
changing from governmental budget management to a
commercial accounting system combined with the coordinated
introduction of business management methods
in the Saxon state administration. The main priority for
the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden was to adopt
an organisational form in which the general conditions for
budgetary responsibility, and – perhaps even more important
– the development of the personnel structure, would
be improved in comparison with the situation as it previously
existed. As regards budgetary responsibility, additional
income acquired during the current year will in future
remain in the hands of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden and not lead to a reduction in the subsidy provided
by the Saxon Government, additional income and
decreased expenditure can be carried over into the next
business year by means of a ‘bonus procedure’ and the
subsidies towards operating costs and for investments can
be mutually coverable. In respect of the development of
the personnel structure, it has been decided that the
Page 26: In the »Encounters« exhibition paintings from the Gemäldegalerie
Alte Meister were displayed for the first time alongside works
from the Staatliche Ethnographische Sammlungen Sachsen
employment plan can be exceeded by up to 10% costneutrally
and that the values of the individual positions
can deviate by up to 10%. It is hoped that over the next few
years this new system will at least partially compensate
for the 30% reduction in the number of jobs that has taken
place in recent years.
A significant change in comparison with the previous organisational
structure of the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden as a subordinate institution is their future management
by a collegial body, the Executive Board, rather
than by the Director-General as a department head. The
Executive Board is made up of the Director-General, the
Commercial Director and up to three Deputy Directors-
General. The Executive Board is advised and overseen by
an administrative council consisting of up to twelve
members who are appointed and recalled by the State
Ministry for Science and Art. The museum directors continue
to be responsible for their museums and represent
their museum within their own sphere of responsibility. In
matters affecting several museums and in major tasks such
as the planning of the exhibition schedule, the research
programme and long-term cooperative agreements, the
Directors’ Conference must be involved.
The decision in favour of the state-owned enterprise will
be gauged over the next few years on the basis of
whether the development of the personnel structure in
accordance with the altered and new tasks required of the
Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden can be accomplished
under the new conditions. It also remains to be
seen whether the present degree of independence and
managerial flexibility of the museums and the Executive
Board is sufficient to secure and perhaps even extend the
successes achieved recently at both domestic and international
level without the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen
Dresden actually becoming legally independent.
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