Domestic Media on the New Croatian Natural History Museum
Domestic media on the new Croatian Natural History Museum
30 January 2019
Portal: novac.jutarnji.hr
Author: Jozo Vrdoljak / Privredni vjesnik
The text was taken from the printed edition of Globus.
An investment worth almost one hundred million kuna: A new tourist attraction in Zagreb
The new Croatian Natural History Museum will be completed in 2022. This year, the building permit was obtained, and the goal is for the renovated and expanded museum to contribute to strengthening Zagreb’s tourist identity as an attractive destination.
The new Croatian Natural History Museum should make this possible by introducing tourists to Croatia’s long-standing natural history tradition and national culture.
The project, or investment, is worth around 96.5 million kuna. The preparation of project documentation cost around 4.7 million kuna, of which the Ministry of Regional Development and EU Funds secured 3.7 million kuna in grants.
The project should be completed in 2022, when citizens and visitors to Zagreb will have the same opportunity as in other European capitals to enjoy a modern interpretation of the new permanent display and content of the Croatian Natural History Museum.
“Since museums are institutions of general public interest, it is impossible to expect them to be fully economically independent, or to be financed exclusively from their own earnings. However, it is possible, and it is a global trend, for museums to approach communication strategically by using public relations and marketing tools. The Croatian Natural History Museum is developing towards self-sustainability, and this requires layered and carefully planned communication. We have chosen to use both a programme-based and institutional approach to communication. Through the programme-based approach, we focus on communication aimed at increasing the number of visitors, while through the institutional approach we strengthen the recognition of the Croatian Natural History Museum as an institution,” notes Tatjana Vlahović, director of the Croatian Natural History Museum in Zagreb.
According to the director, the museum’s daily visitor capacity will be increased many times over, mostly because of uninterrupted circular movement through the museum and the use of bridges connecting the first and second floors, allowing visitors to view the exhibits in the museum atrium from a different perspective.
“We are convinced that by creating additional cultural, educational and scientific content, we are contributing to cultural tourism, thereby indirectly contributing to the development of small and medium-sized entrepreneurship in Zagreb. By developing scientific activity, we will also increase the number of research projects for the needs of the economic sector and help them implement infrastructure projects,” says the director.
By increasing the number of projects, they also intend to secure greater income from commercial activity, which, according to Tatjana Vlahović, is another way in which they want to ensure financial sustainability.
“We intend to encourage the interest of Croatian residents with a new attractive permanent display, temporary exhibitions and other activities such as DNA workshops – CSI HPM: Crime in the Chicken Coop – which have proven very attractive to visitors because they can actively participate in them. In these activities, we use the Museum’s holdings and the creativity of our employees, which has proven to be an inexhaustible source of new ideas and approaches. We still intend to organize field trips with expert guidance to important geological and biological sites in Croatia,” explains the director.
As Tatjana Vlahović says, a museum can be a reason to visit a destination.
“The new Croatian Natural History Museum can be that as well. The restored Amadeo Palace and new, unique content provide a completely new dimension of content presentation and additional cultural, economic and tourist value in the Upper Town. All of this content will offer visitors a unique experience and emotion, because of which they will want to share and recommend the experience, new knowledge and insights about natural history to their family, friends and acquaintances.
This is also a way to strengthen Zagreb’s image as an even more attractive tourist destination in which the new Croatian Natural History Museum enables visitors to learn about Croatia’s long-standing natural history tradition and national culture. The Croatian Natural History Museum can also be a reason to visit Zagreb because of geotourism.
Strictly speaking, geotourism in Croatia almost does not exist, although its development prospects are relatively good. This still underused niche can be used for the active promotion of geology, the protection of Croatian geological heritage, research and popularization of geological sites in Croatia, as well as visitor education.
Given its key competencies, the Croatian Natural History Museum can independently organize visits to certain geological locations in Croatia with expert guidance and thereby significantly contribute to the popularization of geology among domestic and foreign visitors who show interest in this way of experiencing natural and cultural heritage,” explains Tatjana Vlahović.
In addition to the restored and revitalized Amadeo Palace, an important historic building of the City of Zagreb, the project brings new content that will allow visitors to travel through time by moving through the permanent display, enter two time capsules or memorial rooms, and see a laser display of a DNA molecule and large exhibits such as a dinosaur replica, whale skeletons, the Zagreb whale skeleton and a dolphin model.
“Educational workshops intended for primary and secondary school students will help spark curiosity about the natural world, while content for all ages will contribute to natural science literacy, an important tool for understanding the physical and natural world and placing natural history within a social and cultural context.
An Open-Air Museum – the Tuškanac Natural History Trail – will also be opened, as well as a new entrance to the Museum from Tuškanac. A museum café and souvenir shop are also planned. Twelve new employees will be hired.
Accredited laboratories equipped with the latest technologies will be available to interested users, so that businesses, the scientific community and the academic community can directly benefit from the renovation of the Croatian Natural History Museum. This will enable the transfer of knowledge and new technologies through active cooperation on scientific projects.
All of this content, as the director of the Croatian Natural History Museum explains, will provide visitors with a unique experience and emotion, because of which they will want to share and recommend the experience, new knowledge and insights about natural history to their family, friends and acquaintances. This is also a way to strengthen Zagreb’s image as an even more attractive tourist destination, in which the new Croatian Natural History Museum enables visitors to learn about Croatia’s long-standing natural history tradition and national culture,” explains Tatjana Vlahović.
In the new Croatian Natural History Museum, many natural objects will be exhibited so that visitors can better understand the processes that define certain components of nature such as stone, water, plants and animals, natural diversity, the diversity of minerals, rocks, fossils, plants and animals, and methods of researching biological and geological diversity.
Visitors will also experience the feeling of travelling through time, and will be able to enjoy two time capsules, restored memorial rooms dedicated to great figures of natural history: the museum’s first director Spiridion Brusina and the renowned Dragutin Gorjanović-Kramberger.
The essence of the project is that the permanent display will be expanded by an additional 2,600 square metres and presented using modern presentation and multimedia equipment.
The new permanent display will present representative objects from numerous collections with explanations, accompanying graphics, maps, illustrations and photographs, as well as multimedia interactive presentations connected to specific thematic units.
Each thematic unit is designed with several levels of interpretation, so visitors can choose which level they want to follow, either through the permanent display or through specific topics.
The new exhibition display will be incorporated into the existing structure of Amadeo Palace, respecting its original construction and façades. In accordance with conservation guidelines, the existing historic wooden doors and windows, with historic metalwork and fittings, will also be preserved.
The ground floor of the new Croatian Natural History Museum will be intended for educational workshops for primary and secondary school children.
“Our goal is to spark their curiosity about the natural world. The ground floor will also house interactive laboratories open to the academic community and all museum users, as well as a new enclosed atrium containing large exhibits such as a dinosaur replica, a whale skeleton, the Zagreb whale skeleton and a dolphin model.
This space will be completed with a museum café and souvenir shop, and occasional stage performances will also take place there. We will also create a new access route to the Croatian Natural History Museum through the Tuškanac forest park, connecting the Lower and Upper Town.
Various botanical contents will be presented in the Tuškanac forest park, and at the very beginning of Dubravkin put we will place a replica of an Iguanodon dinosaur as an attractive invitation for visitors to embark on an adventure of discovering the natural world.
We are especially pleased that both Amadeo Palace and the entire permanent display will be fully adapted for persons with disabilities and reduced mobility,” explains Tatjana Vlahović.
An integral part of the project is also a new communication approach to building the recognition of the new Croatian Natural History Museum, based on its unique holdings of more than two million objects, the popularization of natural history and the promotion of natural science literacy, which is extremely important for better understanding the physical and natural world and placing natural history within a social and cultural context.
“One of our most important communication channels will be a new multilingual website through which we will communicate with different visitor segments. We have also planned the possibility of buying tickets and souvenirs online, as well as various service information, such as simple instructions on how to reach the Croatian Natural History Museum and where to park.
We plan to make the website lively by enabling the publication of visitor testimonials in the form of photographs, video clips and impressions. Almost equally important communication channels will be social networks and Instagram, which is especially popular among younger age groups.
We will also introduce a blog with various interesting content from the world of natural history, intended for primary and secondary school students, university students, parents, the professional public and laypeople, as well as a newsletter,” explains Tatjana Vlahović.
According to Tatjana Vlahović, in attracting visitors they will rely significantly on current and future partners such as the City of Zagreb, the Zagreb Tourist Board, the Croatian National Tourist Board, hotels, private renters and tourist guides.
“We will also continue cooperation with the Ministry of Science and Education and the Ministry of Culture, as well as with other museum institutions. For communication with guests of the City of Zagreb, organizations such as the Zagreb Zoo are very important to us, as are professional and civic organizations and associations dealing in various ways with natural history.
In building recognition, we intend to establish cooperation with certain public and influential figures and connect with curators from other countries and their museums through cooperation on various projects, organization of professional conferences and public discussions.
We also intend to organize a Natural History Festival, through which we want to promote creativity, engage a wider audience, and popularize science and natural history,” says Tatjana Vlahović.
The newly renovated space will also allow the organization of various cultural events. The covered atrium, as well as the multifunctional hall, represent significant potential, as our interviewee points out.
“The multimedia hall will be used for presentation, cultural, educational and scientific purposes, and will be available for rent to educational institutions, businesses and others,” notes the director.
Still, according to Tatjana Vlahović, the director of the Croatian Natural History Museum must above all be a natural scientist and researcher, but also have good management and organizational skills, as well as knowledge of financial operations.
Marina Tenžera from the portal www.7dnevno.hr brings an extensive interview with director Tatjana Vlahović entitled The New Life of HPM in Amadeo Palace and the Tuškanac Forest Park.
After the initiative of the respected Illyrian, Ljudevit Gaj, in 1836, concerning the need to establish a museum “for collecting and gathering all kinds of things”, in Zagreb at the time, in September 1846, the Museum, Muzeum or National Museum was opened – the original cultural institution of today’s Croatian Natural History Museum.
The Croatian Natural History Museum is one of the most attractive cultural and scientific institutions in Croatia. With its rich collections and extensive material, it tells the exciting history of the emergence of numerous animal and plant species, minerals and fossils.
Today’s global destruction of nature and the planet gives natural history museums a new role. The Croatian Natural History Museum is not only among the oldest, but is also a museum that will finally, after a long time, receive new premises and become a top cultural and tourist attraction in Zagreb.
We spoke with director Tatjana Vlahović about the museum’s rich history and its renovation.
The Croatian Natural History Museum, one of the most important museum institutions in Croatia, originated during the Croatian National Revival. What can you tell us about its beginnings, its founders and first collections?
After the initiative of the respected Illyrian, Ljudevit Gaj, in 1836, concerning the need to establish a museum “for collecting and gathering all kinds of things”, in Zagreb at the time, in September 1846, the Museum, Muzeum or National Museum was opened – the original cultural institution of today’s Croatian Natural History Museum.
In the National Museum at that time, located at Opatička 18 in the Upper Town, natural history collections were kept, including those important for natural history: a geognostic collection, a mineral collection, a shell and conch collection, a fossil collection, an insect collection, a zoological collection and a herbarium.
Changes occurred between 1866 and 1878, when the National Museum became the Regional Institute of the Kingdom of Dalmatia, Croatia and Slavonia, under the protection of the Croatian Parliament and managed by the Yugoslav Academy.
In 1867, the natural history departments of the Regional National Museum were temporarily moved to Kazališna Street, today’s Dimitrija Demetra Street.
From 1878 to 1893, the Regional National Museum was divided into several fundamental cultural institutions: three specialized natural history museums, as well as today’s Croatian History Museum and Archaeological Museum in Zagreb.
How did HPM develop during the 20th century?
Until 1986, the Croatian National Zoological Museum, the Geological-Palaeontological Museum and the Mineralogical-Petrographic Museum operated independently. Through collecting, donations and purchases of material in all three museums, the holdings became richer, more valuable and more diverse, while the museological and scientific contribution became increasingly intense and recognizable.
Today’s Croatian Natural History Museum was created by the merger of museum institutions – the Croatian National Zoological Museum, the Mineralogical-Petrographic Museum and the Geological-Palaeontological Museum – on 18 December 1986, and in 1987 the Botanical Department was established within the Museum.
Since spring 2011, the Croatian Natural History Museum has also established a Restoration and Preparation Department in organizational terms.
How many artefacts do today’s HPM collections contain, and can it be said that these are holdings of global value?
The 118 collections cared for today by the Croatian Natural History Museum contain more than two million museum objects, making our museum the richest museum in the Republic of Croatia in terms of holdings.
In many aspects, these are holdings of global value, especially in holotype material – specimens on the basis of which some species, whether mineral, biological or fossil material, were first described for science.
What are the riches of the Zoological Department?
The collections of the Zoological Department contain around 1,135,000 specimens of various animals divided into vertebrate collections, including mammals, birds, bird eggs, amphibians and reptiles, fish, and a special tissue collection for DNA analyses.
However, the most numerous collections are those of invertebrates, including insects, molluscs, marine invertebrates and others. Today, as in all modern natural history museums, the Zoological Department has become a centre for research into biological diversity in Croatia.
What botanical holdings does HPM possess and why are they interesting?
The Herbarium of the Croatian Natural History Museum was included in the global herbarium registry “Index Herbariorum” in 1996 under the abbreviation CNHM, and in 2015 it was entered into the Register of Cultural Goods of the Republic of Croatia on the List of Protected Cultural Goods.
It consists of three collections – the Herbarium of Higher Plants, the Trinajstić Herbarium and the newly established Algae Collection. In total, it contains around 100,000 herbarium specimens and includes more than 2,500 plant species, which is about half of the total flora of Croatia.
Some visitors especially emphasize the value of the Mineralogical-Petrographic and Geological-Palaeontological Departments. What are the special values or unique items of these collections and what is their scientific role?
The mineralogical-petrographic collections are exhibited through three units of the new permanent display. From Collection to Museum presents the foundation of the Museum and important figures in the history of Croatian mineralogy.
The Kingdom of Minerals presents the Systematic Mineral Collection, the largest mineralogical collection in the Museum, notable for the diversity of mineral species and their crystal forms, as well as the representation of minerals from the world’s best-known sites.
The final unit, The Rocky Planet Earth, presents the structure of the Earth and the rocks that build it. Special emphasis is placed on karst, a geomorphological characteristic of Croatia.
In the Mineralogical-Petrographic Department of HPM, collections of particular scientific importance include: the Collection of Mineral Holotypes and Cotypes, the Collection of Mineral Paragenesis of the Trepča/Stari Trg Mine, the Collection of Microscopic Slides, the Collection of Mineral Paragenesis Busovača, the Collection of Vesuvius Lavas and the Collection of Speleothems.
The Geological-Palaeontological Department preserves exceptionally rich geological holdings and fossils that testify to the long past and development of the Croatian landscape. Two collections are especially significant and have been declared monuments of the highest category: the Krapina Diluvium Collection and the Holotype Collection.
How is the current permanent display conceived?
The diversity of natural history heritage in the holdings is based not only on more than 100 museum collections, but also on the museum’s permanent exhibition.
The permanent display consists of three units: zoological material arranged systematically, a stone mosaic – the lithographic map of Croatia with a geological column, and the permanent display of 17 mineralogical-petrographic collections integrated through three units – From Collection to Museum, The Kingdom of Minerals and The Rocky Planet Earth.
Which are the oldest exhibits in the museum?
Among the oldest are individual exhibits in the zoological display collected at the end of the 19th century, while in the mineralogical-petrographic display they include specimens from the Lanza Collection and the Collection of Microscopic Slides.
The Lanza Collection consists of 149 mineral specimens purchased in 1876 from Franjo Lanza on the occasion of the establishment of the National Regional Museum.
What makes HPM specific compared with other European museums?
Above all, it is specific because of the regional natural history heritage it cares for, which promotes the natural history specificities of Croatia and the wider region.
Which animal and plant species in the display are unique to this part of the world?
These are primarily endemic fauna and subterranean fauna, while many species unique to this part of the world are preserved in zoological collections.
On the other hand, although botany is not part of the permanent display, the herbarium collection contains more than 400 specimens of plants collected in the 19th century, with the oldest specimen dating from 1852.
You regularly organize interesting thematic exhibitions. Which ones would you particularly single out as interesting this year?
We recently opened the exhibition Coral Retrieved from the Sea. Corals, although very tiny, are the builders of the largest structures in the living world – coral reefs, which also have a special place in the exhibition.
Last year, the exhibition Mosquitoes – the Deadliest Animals on Earth was also opened. It presents valuable mosquito collections in the Republic of Croatia, the biological characteristics of this important vector group and methods of controlling them.
Interesting exhibitions planned for this year are Superorganism and Degen Herbarium.
What problems do you face in today’s cramped space?
The museum is currently located in a space that limits the development of its cultural, scientific and tourist potential.
The lack of necessary exhibition and storage space, outdated equipment, lack of modern technologies and lack of accessibility for persons with disabilities are some of the key problems.
You recently presented the concept of the new Natural History Museum, whose display will be designed to answer the question: what is life? How will the new display be conceived?
Because of their exceptionally rich and attractive holdings and the way these holdings are presented, natural history museums rightly stand at the top of heritage institutions.
The guiding idea of the new permanent display will be recent knowledge from 21st-century natural history and the diversity of natural history heritage, presented through several fundamental but intertwined components.
The proposed communication presentation begins with the question: What is life and how did it begin?
How much will the new museum cost, how will it be financed and what stage is the project currently in?
The investment costs amount to 96,545,888 kuna including VAT. Financing is connected to EU support as well as co-financing from the City of Zagreb.
The construction documentation has been fully completed and includes a final location and building permit from September 2018.
What other interesting features will the new museum have?
By relocating storage areas and covering the central courtyard of the building, additional quality space will be secured for expanding the museum’s permanent display, exhibiting large-scale objects and creating a multifunctional space for exhibitions and other events.
The new access route to the Museum from the rear of the building extends through the Tuškanac forest park and enables access to the building from Dubravkin put Street.
The outdoor area, or Tuškanac forest park, will also be used to introduce botanical content called “Botany on Tuškanac”, accompanied by other natural history specificities. Natural history content would form an integral part of the museum on Tuškanac as an “Open-Air Museum”.
How will the new museum address the destruction of nature and the increasing extinction of species?
This urgent problem of our time will be emphasized throughout the entire display. Unfortunately, with the extinction of species, natural history museums as guardians of natural objects are becoming increasingly important in the world – both as caretakers of objects and as guardians of DNA diversity.
What other new content are you planning?
Numerous new contents will contribute to the development of tourism in the City of Zagreb, employment and economic growth by using the potential of cultural heritage and its content.
All of this is planned to be achieved through the complete reconstruction of Amadeo Palace, the construction of an annex to the building in the Tuškanac forest park, equipping the renovated building with furniture and modern presentation and multimedia equipment, relocating museum storage to another location and introducing a new permanent display.
After the infrastructure renovation and the introduction of new content, intensive promotion in Croatia and abroad is planned.
It is important to mention the accreditation of laboratories within the Science and Education investment category, the procurement of specific laboratory equipment and the equipping of laboratories for the fundamental activities of the biological and geological professions, as well as the taxidermy preparation workshop.
The introduction of new educational activities and content for universities based on exhibited and newly stored material is also significant, as is the improvement of existing content for primary and secondary education.
The introduction of hospitality services, increased museum accessibility, adaptation of the museum and permanent display for persons with special needs, and the creation of permanent display labels available in Braille are also especially significant.
Finally, it is important to mention that a souvenir shop will be arranged and cooperation will be established with craftspeople and artists who make handmade products, while appropriate souvenirs suited to the Museum’s activities will be selected for sale to visitors and tourists.