The International Council of Museums, ICOM, proclaimed 18 May the International Museum Day 41 years ago. The day is celebrated in more than 35,000 museums in at least 140 countries, including Slovenia with its network of museums, museum collections, exhibition grounds and galleries inviting people to visit them on this day free of charge. The theme chosen for 2018 is Hyperconnected museums: new approaches, new publics.
The latest data on museums, galleries and museum collections refer to 2016. At that time these institutions organised 1,960 exhibitions (304 permanent and 1,656 temporary), which is 48% more than in the first year of independent Slovenia, when museums and other exhibition grounds organised 1,326 exhibitions. The data on average attendance per exhibition show that in 1991 an individual exhibition was seen on average by 1,283 visitors, in 2006 slightly fewer (1,247) and in 2016 1,418; in total, in 2016 almost 2.8 million visitors were recorded, 27% of them children and youth.
Museums and galleries in Slovenia organised 467 tours of own exhibitions in other institutions. Most of these tours (358 or 77%) were organised in other places in Slovenia, 83 were organised in other EU Member States and 26 outside the EU.
In 2016 museums and galleries earned just over EUR 4.2 million from selling tickets; a visitor paid on average EUR 3.65 to see an exhibition. However, not all visitors had to buy tickets. According to our data, museums and galleries issued over 520,000 free tickets.
Wealth in museums
Most of the museum exhibits (around 44% in 2016) are visual art (including photographs). Of all exhibits close to 76% were inventoried and of all visual exhibits almost 89% were inventoried. Museums and galleries mostly acquire exhibits through donations (69% in 2016) and purchase (17%); other exhibits are acquired in other ways (9%) and through archaeological excavations (4%). Museums and galleries estimate that the total value of exhibits acquired and purchased in 2016 was around EUR 2.8 million.
Museums also organise various workshops, guided tours, interactive programs, lectures and discussions for their visitors. 36,857 activities organised in 2016 were attended by more than 872,000 people, over 56% of them children and youth.
A more detailed overview shows that most of the events (70%) were guided tours (general and special), and that they recorded the greatest attendance (over 57% of total attendance). Guided tours were also the most interesting for children and youth (over 59% of total attendance by children and youth), followed by workshops (23%), interactive programs (14%), and lectures and discussions, etc. (around 4%).
Museum staff
According to the latest data for 2016, museums, museum collections and galleries employed 1,055 persons and had 2,200 external associates. Among employees just over 16% were less than 35 years old and the majority of them (946) had full-time jobs. Most of the external associates were students (33%), followed by associates under a contract for a copyrighted work, self-employed professionals in culture, sole proprietors, volunteers, etc.
Access to all museums and galleries for everyone
In 2016, 51% of museums and galleries had partly arranged access for physically impaired and 33% of these institutions had fully arranged access for them. As regards access for visually and hearing impaired, museums and galleries are far from this level: 4% of them had arranged access, 38% had partly arranged access and 58% had not arranged access.
