Trys muziejaus matomumo paslaptys: veik, kurk, dalinkis

ENWhat are public relations in a museum? Are they events, press releases, press conferences, internal communication, or something else? The answer is both simple and complicated: all these things are public relations. However, there are more subtle forms of the manifestation of these relations, – the forms, that are almost invisible and maybe hardly fit into certain ossified stereotypes. Public relations start both with the selection of an exhibition title and the selection of the subject matter. In Lithuania, shift from the classical and stern museum intended for highly educated persons to a democratic and open museum understandable even to persons, who have not written a doctoral thesis, is very slow. A shift from the museum, where hall minders or even visitor service department personnel insists visitors to hire a guide, otherwise they won’t understand what the exposition is about. In the 21st century, technological achievement can make even mummies speak. However, our museums are so rich that they can afford the luxury of maintaining double numb expositions. One of them is hidden behind the showcases, and the other in the form of an army of Mr. Bean-type stern minders, who can be compared to automats pronouncing a single phrase, “Do not touch the exhibits”. Even the exhibition planning contains certain aspects of public relations. When drawing up an exhibition plan for one, three or five years, one should reserve some space of unplanned exhibitions. These are exhibitions necessitated by concrete circumstances of high importance to the community.The public relations professional in a museum is the binding material that is capable of joining the interest of the community, the society and that museum into a single whole. One needs to change the – more often than not – arrogant attitude by the men of science towards the propagation of science and history. When forming the working team for an exhibition, the team should not be limited to experts; one should invite professionals in other fields, who will help to interpret scientific facts and to find links between problems relevant to both the science and the community. Another important point for the development of museum’s public relations, that are directly related to exhibits and collections are travelling exhibitions. Without any doubt, they can help to spread information on the museum both at home and on the international level. It is an excellent, comparatively not costly and undoubtedly efficient way of strengthening the visibility of the museum, presenting its collections or shaping the public opinion regarding a certain subject matter. [From the publication]