There are some who look on museums with a degree of disdain, or simply ignore them. In this day and age of instantly accessible virtual entertainment and endless supplies of information, images and videoed material constantly available at the click of a mouse button or swipe of a smartphone screen, that should hardly come as a surprise.
Then again, according to Raz Samira, museum attendance is actually on the up.
No doubt, part of that is due to the advent of International Museum Day (IMD), which was initiated back in 1977 and takes place around the globe under the auspices of the UNESCO-affiliated International Council of Museums (ICOM). For the past three-plus decades, the event annually homes in on a specific theme, beginning in 1992 with “Museums and the Environment.” This year it is “The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities.”
Israel has been on board the international initiative for quite a while and, this time round, inadvertently steals a temporal march on everyone else.
“International Museum Day, everywhere else, is on May 18, but that is a Sunday, when museums in Israel are closed,” explains Samira, chairwoman of Israel ICOM, whose daytime job is deputy director and chief curator of the Eretz Israel Museum (MUZA) in Ramat Aviv. Hence the local edition has been scheduled for May 15.
Samira says IMD here is growing in leaps and bounds. “There are over 130 museums taking part this year – all sizes – all offering free admission. There are the big ones likes Tel Aviv Museum, the Israel Museum, MUZA, all the science museums. And there are lots of small museums, like the Rishon Lezion Museum, Petah Tikva Museum, Bat Yam Museum. You name it.”
The more the merrier, she adds. And there is an added emotive element to this year’s IMD.
“There are places like the museum at Ein Harod, and the museum at Baram [Bar David Museum] was closed until now [due to the fighting in the North], and the Holocaust museum (Beit Lohamei Hagetaot near Nahariya). We have a wide range of museums involved in this. This is a record for the number of museums taking part in IMD.”
That’s encouraging news, particularly following the lengthy closures during the coronavirus episode and in the wake of October 7.
Samira notes that museums have been taking an active role in helping to boost national morale. “It is a particularly happy development, in view of the fact that we are now in the second year of the war, and museums are a great source of pride in terms of help, contributions, volunteering in the context of the war.”
In these sorry times, Samira points out, our museums have not just been offering the public displays of compelling and alluring arts of work. “Museums also provide comfort,” she posits. “In contrast to going to a show, which lasts, say, two hours and then you go back home, visiting a museum is a process. You need much more time.”
Variety is the name of the game. “We [at museums] can open up regular cultural activities, and we can do things in the long term, which can also help to boost cultural resilience and also help to alleviate trauma.”
The latter is a sorely needed facility these days.
“Almost every museum today has some program which, if it doesn’t directly relate to the [emotional fallout of the ongoing security] situation, addresses it through art and allows people to express themselves through art. That is a powerful element of museums today.
“Let’s not forget that, unlike other [cultural] institutions, museums are committed to instruction and education – informal education through works of art, activities in galleries, play and that kind of thing.”
There are more positive vibes where that lot came from, despite all the problems relating to shrinking attention spans spawned in no small part by the increasingly invasive presence of digital technology and communication in our lives.
“More and more museums are tailoring their services to youngsters and to students,” Samira continues. “In our [ICOM] organization we have boosted the number of students who visit museums. Just today I heard from someone at the Museum on the Seam [in Jerusalem]. She told me that, following the discount cards we issue for students, the number of students who go to the museum has risen threefold. We started a campaign two years ago to attract more students.” That seems to be providing the desired results.
That makes perfect sense. Classical music venues and orchestras discovered some time ago the importance of targeting the younger crowd and nurturing their interest in orchestral wares. Museums, says Samira, have also taken that on board. After all, none of us is getting any younger, and if institutions don’t invest in the up-and-coming generations of culture consumers, they will eventually run out of customers.
“That was my thinking when I started this [student] program with significant discounts for them. When I took over the association [four years ago], half of the members were senior citizens. I felt it was important to balance out the age groups [of museum subscribers]. We are moving in the direction of growth,” she adds with a smile.
This year's theme
THIS YEAR’S theme takes an expansive view of museums’ potential clientele. “There are more and more virtual communities and communities looking inward and opting for seclusion. We have seen that happening in the United States and here, too.”
Samira keenly feels the need to reach out to those groups and draw them to museums.
“There is the community of the parents of the hostages, at Hostage Square next to Tel Aviv Museum. The museum actually tends to the square on a daily basis. A lot more people with special needs go to museums. We need to tailor our services to the public, across all its sectors.”
That includes recent and relatively recent arrivals to this country who have yet to master Hebrew. “There are language-oriented programs for new olim in French and Spanish, and Amharic, in Russian and English. We are really trying to adapt to the elements that are changing in parallel with the geo-social changes that are taking place here and around the world.”
Of course, it is wonderful and heartwarming seeing so many people walk through the doors of museums, of all sizes and ilks, up and down the country on IMD, but naturally the trick is to keep the ball rolling thereafter.
“On Museum Day there is a sharp rise in attendance at museums – in some places it is up to 40%. That is good for us all, for revenues; they go to the museum shop and to the café, and they tell their friends about it. That gives us very good exposure.”
Samira says she has yet to quantify that, but believes there are plenty of reasons to be cheerful in the museum sector. “There may not be a meteoric rise in the number of visitors to museums that we would like to see, but attendance at museums overall is rising, even without tourists from abroad and a [with a] drop in domestic tourism because of the situation. Museums are holding their own.”
The ICOM Israel chairwoman says it is time to rediscover our forgotten repositories of art.
“Museums like at Baram were closed for so long. And there is the Beit Ussishkin Nature Museum [at Kibbutz Dan in the far North] which has reopened. I invite everyone to go to the North and see the wonderful things they have there. There is a lot to see.”
For more information: https://www.icom.org.il