Museums Today 2020 - MúzeumokMa 2020

The aim of the research program entitled Museums Today 2020 (MúzeumokMa 2020)is to comprehensively assess the state of the Hungarian museum sector, to fully map the current professional situation, with great emphasis on the analysis of statistics and recognizing the maintainers’ opinion. Knowledge of research results supports responsible professional and cultural political decision-making, identifies possible directions for development, and contributes to shaping the approach of the museum sphere.

The topicality of the research is given by the fact that the period since the changes affecting museums came into force on 1st January, 2013 makes it necessary to examine the impact of the maintenance switch on museums and maintainers and the reasons for these. Although several studies have been carried out to assess certain areas of the museum sphere in recent years, we do not have a complete and comprehensive picture of the museum environment. With the research, we will also have the opportunity to supplement previous studies by expanding the issues of each area and involving not only the museum managers but the staff and the maintainer side in the response. In addition to these, we also consider it important to assess the proposed solutions to the current and acute problems of the museum and public collection sector.

The participants of the research are the musuem department of the State Secretariat for Culture, the Heritage Cultural Political Institution (Örökség Kultúrpolitikai Intézet) as the research coordinator, as well as the Museum Education and Methodology Center of the Hungarian Open-Air Museum in Szentendre (Szentendrei Szabadtéri Néprajzi Múzeum) and the MuseumOD dealing with museum organizational development.

The research focuses on the following areas:

•          Examination of the maintenance changes taking effect on 1st January, 2013

•          Tasks for the maintenance and up-to-date operations of museums

•          Opportunities for sustainable funding for museums

In the research covering all the museums of the country, in addition to the employees of the museums, we interview the mayors of the maintaining municipalities and the leaders of the service companies related to the museums with the help of independent questionnaires and interviews.