Pandemic halved visitor numbers at the Museum of Communication in 2020
Months of museum closures are depressing visitor numbers. In 2020, the Museum of Communication in Berne recorded 55,000 admissions - more than 50 percent less than the previous year's 115,000 admissions. Now those responsible are hoping for a reopening in March.
With the lockdown in spring and the renewed closure in October, the Museum of Communication was closed for more than a third of the year, Director Jacqueline Strauss recalled at an online media conference on Tuesday. The closure affected, of all things, the months with the highest number of visitors, starting in the fall.
The financial balance sheet has yet to be drawn up. However, savings, short-time work and subsidies from the canton of Berne have enabled the company to make ends meet.
For the closure during the lockdown in spring, the Museum of Communication received a contribution of 90,000 Swiss francs from the Canton of Bern, as Strauss explained in response to a question from the Keystone-SDA news agency. Still pending is another application for the financial losses of the renewed closure in the fall.
Digital and analog
During the closure, the museum maintained contact with the public both analogously and digitally, as Strauss emphasized. During the lockdown, for example, 35 live streams were switched on, which were followed by 1,000 viewers. The caricature exhibition can still be visited online. 15,000 users have taken advantage of this option so far.
Analog contact with the public was the goal of the latest "Postcard for you" campaign. For two weeks, employees have been writing postcards by hand and dropping them into randomly selected mailboxes.
New exhibition extended until 2022
Already ready for three months is the temporary exhibition "SUPER - The Second Creation", which combines exhibition and theater. After the hoped-for reopening in March, the exhibition will be extended until spring 2022. A series of podcasts on the topic of artificial intelligence is already online.
The museum is also launching a project on the eco-crisis and climate change. Under the title "We need to talk", the aim is to find out together with visitors and experts what a responsible life could look like. After the start with individual actions, a spatial installation is planned for 2022. (SDA)
