Those who sit on chairs in the corners
Foreigners not quite satisfied with Hungarian museum attendants
MúzeumCafé 13.
It is rarely appreciated that museum visitors make contact mostly with museum attendants. With the support of a project involving a 1.3 million forint budget from the EU programme MAP for ID, the Museum of Fine Arts recently held a comprehensive four-day course for 100 museum attendants. The course included museum walks, English lessons and communication training. It was certainly needed since a museum survey revealed that foreign visitors quite frequently turn to museum attendants, though their experience concerning the latter’s helpfulness and politeness was less favourable than those of Hungarians. With the help of the EU’s Museums and Visitors tender, Izabella Csordás of the Fine Arts Museum set up a programme for training museum attendants entitled ‘Smile – the shortest way to a visitor friendly museum’. It consisted of three modules. The first element included six 30-minute museum walks so attendants would learn about the museum’s history and collection. This part was the most popular. Another section involved a ten-hour English language course given by the International Business School. Only 38 per cent of museum attendants accomplished this part. Middle aged or elderly attendants were rather reserved concerning the lessons, but those who overcame their fear and persevered were able to learn some basic English. The third part divided the attendants most. The organisers had not anticipated the elderly generation’s resistance to inter-active training. As it turned out, museum attendants did not dare articulate their problems. It seemed they felt that if they openly talked about them they would give the impression of not doing their job properly.