Museum, library, community centre
Institutional fusions after abolishing the county museum system
MúzeumCafé 42.
What happened to institutes that used to belong to organisations which continue to operate as local museums again funded by a locality. Yet returning to local funding bodies can be put in inverted commas, many of those museums, collections or their exhibitions did not organically connect with the places where they were established. In Hungary there are several museum-like institutes whose independent operation was not regarded as possible or necessary by the funding locality, thus they were fused or abolished in their old form. It is clear that abolishing the county museum organisation mainly resulted in the smaller institutes getting in a disadvantageous position – the smaller they were the less they could enforce their interests and the more unfavourable their position has become. Independent existence in their case was to be considered mainly by the funding body, and regarding cost efficiency there was no question concerning whether to fuse them with libraries, community centres or both. The provincial archives became part of a central system, and the transformation took place almost without problems, moreover with some professional preparation and agreement. Maintenance of libraries is legally binding, yet it is not in the case of museum collection and museums. Hence the fusion of the two has actually seen a certain possibility of escape for the latter. Another question is why the power of the museum profession to represent interests is strikingly the weakest among significant public collections, and why the profession did not work out proposals during the 25 years since the political changes, as it was obvious that transformation was required. Yet why endure transformation in most cases? Why doesn’t the museum profession start to direct its own destiny?