The Night of Museums – a Boost Factor for the Cultural Dimension of Tourism in Bucharest
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
HUMAN GEOGRAPHIES – Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography 8.1 (2014) 55–63. ISSN-print: 1843–6587/$–see back cover; ISSN-online: 2067–2284–open access www.humangeographies.org.ro (c) Human Geographies —Journal of Studies and Research in Human Geography (c) The authors THE NIGHT OF MUSEUMS — A BOOST FACTOR FOR THE CULTURAL DIMENSION OF TOURISM IN BUCHAREST Daniela Dumbrăveanua*, Anca Tudoricua, Ana Crăciuna a Faculty of Geography, University of Bucharest, Romania Abstract: Several media and research sources have recently flagged out and insisted significantly on a new process of concern to tourism planners in Bucharest. The Night of Bucharest Museums has initially been a quite isolated, museum focussed and rather individualistic event which has progressively developed over the past ten years into a cultural process involving several cultural institutions. Among the institutions involved in this growing event museums are still predominant but not sole. Most of the participant members into the event have developed complex and dynamic programmes comprising sections of joint institutional events mostly having to do with exposing the public to local culture. This brief comparative analysis of this progressive event development identifies changes to the extent and with particular regard to the cultural dimension of it in close connection to the potential of local tourism development. This paper is mainly attempting to answer the question regarding to what extent the public of such event has become tourist. The paper also aims to focus on more specific aspects and issues concerning the main aim by sketching a brief overview regarding the attitudes and perceptions of people regularly attending an event such the European Night of Museums in Bucharest. The paper attempts to determine the profile of par- ticipant to such event trying to identify the trends of this event on the Romanian wider market but particularly on the tourism market given the fact that museum visitor are mostly tourists. The study is making use of data collected during 2013 and 2014 editions of the event. The final aim of the paper is to emphasise issues regarding the wider concept of motivation in visiting museums and how they are linked with the cultural dimension of tourism, highlighting several difficulties faced by a multi- tude of institutions and how these are attempting to use tourism to overcome problematic situations. Key words: Night of museums, Tourist motivation, Event, Tourist behaviour. Article Info: Manuscript Received: April 12, 2014; Revised: April 25, 2014; Accepted: May 9, 2014; Online: May 31, 2014. Introduction adapted by other countries being a source of inspira- tion for many local authorities in considering it for fur- The European Night of Museums is known to the pub- ther development, including strategic development to lic as a cultural event annually organized under the attract tourist. Another pioneer of this initiative was patronage of UNESCO, Council of Europe and Inter- France where the Minister of Culture and Communi- national Council of Museums (ICOM). During this cation launched in 1999 ”Le Printemps des Musées” wide spreading event museums along with other cul- (The Spring of Museums), a similar event meant to en- tural institutions open their doors to the public until courage people rediscover the richness of the collec- late at night in their attempt to expose public to a cul- tions and the variety of museums (Ministère de la tural venture based on museum collections, perform- Communauté française, 2011). In 2001 the event was or- ing arts and a wide variety of creative initiatives. ganized by all the signatory countries of the cultural The first such event in the whole series was hosted convention of the Council of Europe and it had as main by Berlin in 1997 under the name of Lange Nacht der target group the people living in the proximity of the Museen – Long Night of Museums (Kultur Projekte institutions involved into the initiative. Another con- Berlin, 2014). Due to its success it was taken over and cept alike was born in 2002 when the Mayor of Paris launched the Nuit Blanche (White Night), a night de- * Corresponding author: voted to creativity and art aiming to promote and cel- Address: University of Bucharest, Faculty of Geography, ebrate contemporary art, focussing on ”rendering art 1 Nicolae Bălcescu Avenue, 010041, Bucharest, Romania. accessible to all, whilst enabling residents and visitors Telephone: +4 021 315 30 74 to see the city in a different light” (PMP Genesis, 2009). Email: [email protected] doi:10.5719/hgeo.2014.81.55 DANIELA DUMBRĂVEANU et al. From 2005 onwards the event has been promoted there is a shortage of literature addressing this partic- as The European Night of Museums, more and more ular topic. Evans (2011) has explored the way in which countries have joint it being currently held in 33 coun- the adoption of late night festivals and events in na- tries. The European Night of Museums is aiming to at- tional and regional capital cities forms the latest move tract a new public for the museums: ”a younger and a in rediscovering city centres that had been in decline. more nocturnal one” (Blanquin, 2014). It is organized He highlighted the fact that the community engage- and held concomitantly during the closest Saturday to ment during White Nights distinguishes this event the International Museum Day (18th of May) which has from other night-time manifestations, maintaining been established in 1977 by ICOM to encourage public their particularity while promoting and sharing uni- awareness of the role of museums in the development versal values and experience with other cities. Moreo- of society (International Council of Museums, 2014). ver, he pointed out that events such as Night of Muse- Most of the 33 joining members in organising the event ums ”represent in some cases a shift in the legitimate envisaged initially and mainly their capital cities in an use of the city at night, but in others, an established attempt of developing a networking type event given late night city culture that has found a new and in- the fact it is held concomitantly everywhere. The event creasing audience.” (Evans, 2011:47) This is also the it does not exclude other towns and cities of the par- case of Night of Museums in Bucharest, where the ticipant members. event has reached a new type of audience who is con- The 2014 edition of The European Night of Muse- stantly increasing every year as shown below. ums, held during the night of the 17th of May, managed Jiwa et al. (2009) focused more on the ability of the to have a great impact on all participant countries, es- Light Night event to be used as a place marketing ex- pecially in Eastern Europe where Bulgaria gathered perience, by exploring the economic, cultural and so- 150.000 participants in the 65 museums opened and cial benefits of the manifestation using different case Russia hosted 100.000 people only in Ekaterinburg studies, such as Notte Bianca (Italy), Nuit Blanche (2014). (France and Canada) and Longe Nacht (Germany). Romania itself has joint The European Night of Mu- They concluded that these cultural-led events provide seums in 2005 by organising such event with the mem- an opportunity for different stakeholder groups to cel- bership of few museums and other public cultural. The ebrate city and town centres as spaces and places early editions of the event seemed to have been more through a common sense of belonging and shared vi- attractive and more successful in Bucharest even sion by focusing on shared culture, heritage and iden- though not all of the most popular museums where tity. This is also the case of Bucharest where the local open to join the and be part of the event. The early Bu- town hall authorities have envisaged that such an charest editions of The European Night of Museums in- event would contribute to the development of histori- cluded museums such as The Romanian Peasant Mu- cal city centre by adding a sustainable cultural dimen- seum, Antipa Museum (Natural History), National Art sion to it. The same authorities have included this type Museum of Romania, National Contemporary Art Mu- of event along with other events into a more elabo- seum of Romania and Astra Museum Sibiu. Currently rated programme scheme of urban cultural develop- there is a total of 150 museums, culture institutions ment envisaging several strategic points as part of and education bodies in all together 48 different loca- their more comprising strategy of developing the tour- tions in the country which are bond together to organ- ist industry of the city. Thirdly this type of events was ise a wide range of free of charge specially designed meant to improve the not only the cultural identity of events inside the Romanian version of the European the capital city but also its tourist image as destination. Night of Museums. Out of these 33 institutions, organ- isations and bodies are located in Bucharest. The Romanian 2014 edition of The European Night Events, event tourism and museum visits of Museums, the 10th in a row, proved to have had a powerful drawing power compared to the previous Events are unique phenomena which result from the ones with 191.956 people taking part into the activities interactions among the setting, people and manage- suggested by the museums and their partner institu- ment systems, offering specific experiences to the par- tions involved in this joint cultural event. However, ticipants and certain benefits to the organizers. Each besides the cultural dimension of the event, the im- event is organised having a certain purpose resulting portance of the manifestation also lays in its role as a from the organiser’s vision and needs.