World museums and cultural projects thrive after pandemic

Europe’s national museums have since their creation been at the center of on-going nation making processes. National museums negotiate conflicts and contradictions and entrain the community sufficiently to obtain the support of scientists and art connoisseurs, citizens and taxpayers, policy makers, domestic and foreign visitors alike. As Eric Falt, UNESCO Director has points out ‘’ the potential of museums in facilitating our progress on the Unesco 17 Sustainable Development Goals has been well recognized. We must therefore harness the relationships between the economic, educational, and various facets of museums as we prepare emerging museum professionals for a renewed cultural dialogue. An inclusive, informed and participatory museum policy in the digital age is the first step towards pandemic recovery in this area.’’

Experts agree that government support is critical for museums’ financial stability, both in terms of direct financial assistance and in the effects that it has on the economy. The museum is an essential cultural institution because it protects, preserves, and disseminates history and culture.

Eunamus, a European funded project, concluded in a 2022 research that national museums are not only Europe’s ‘cultural glue’, contributing to the communal attitudes needed for communities to meet a future of sustainable and inclusive growth’ but also serve as platforms that help stabilize but also change national identity. https://cordis.europa.eu/article/id/91521-the-relevance-of-national-museums-in-europe-today

There is plenty of investment in the museum sector today. The post-Covid period has seen governments across the world more openly looking into projects and degree to which national museums became true values of representation of nations, their past, present and future. This can be seen most clearly in the number of high-profile museums and galleries that have opened or are scheduled to open their doors to the public in coming years.

Museums can be quite costly to build, with the average new museum (NYT data) costing around $135 million. However, there are several factors that can affect this cost, such as the size and scope of the museum, the location, and the type of exhibits. For example, a small local museum might cost around $5 million to build, while a large international museum could cost upwards of $1 billion. Museums and galleries are complex buildings that provide multi-function spaces. For a variety of reasons, costs are often higher than for many other building types.

Projects                    Costs

Grand Egyptian Museum – USD 1 billion

Norway National Museum – USD 723 million

Hong Kong Palace Museum – USD 450 million

Poland National History Museum – USD 270 million

Norway 

Norway’s new National Museum- initially scheduled for opening in 2020 – has finally debuted in 2022 with an official name of the National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design. Boasting more than 54,000 square meters, including 13,000 square meters of exhibition space, the expansion cost $723 million. It makes the institution the largest museum in the Nordic region, bigger than international counterparts such as the Rijksmuseum in Amsterdam and the Guggenheim Bilbao.  The vast new building has two stories and 90 galleries, cafés, a shop, and the largest art library in the Nordic region. But its architectural hallmark is a spectacular new illuminated exhibition space on the roof called the Light Hall. The 2,400-square-meter space will be reserved for temporary exhibitions, the first of which will be a survey of Norwegian contemporary art. The museum also boasts an open-air roof terrace looking out over Oslo’s harbor, promenade, and fjord.

Poland

Poland’s largest, Nation Museum of History is planned for 2023 and yet to become of the largest projects of this type in CEE region. The project designed by WWAA architects and famous Boris Kudliczka will include exhibition highlighting 6 era of Polish history – from Jagiellonian and Piast dynasty through periods of Poland under partition to Poland II WW and Communist era – all planned on a 7,300 square meters interior space. It would present numerous historical projects, special effects as well as historical sculptures of largest magnitude which had to be placed in the building prior to the construction of the roof…. The final project will occupy 36,000 sq meters, 2 underground and 4 on-ground levels. The project is being progressed by the National Ministry of Culture and the tender process to appoint a design team to deliver the project is due in coming weeks.

Egypt

At an estimated budget of $1 billion, the Grand Egyptian Museum (GEM) is considered the largest museum in the world dedicated to one civilization. The superlatives don’t end there: It’s also the largest museum in Egypt, the largest Pharaonic Museum in the world, and one of the world’s leading scientific, historical, and archeological study centers. Owned by the Ministry of Tourism & Antiquities, Engineering Authority of the Egyptian Armed Forces, the 168,000-square-meter structure includes 24,000 square meters of permanent exhibition space covering 3,500 years of ancient Egyptian history. The project also includes a children’s museum and extensive gardens. The museum is expected to start welcoming visitors within the first half of 2023 because it is finally almost finished.

Hong Kong

After the long-awaited reveal of Hong Kong’s M+ museum, comes the neighboring Palace Museum, devoted to China’s imperial treasures on loan from the Forbidden City in Beijing. The museum was announced by the Hong Kong government in December 2016, sparking controversy over the lack of prior public consultation. It is a late addition to the West Kowloon Cultural District, which stretches over 40 hectares of reclaimed land beside Victoria Harbour. The HK$3.5bn ($450m) capital project is fully funded by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Charities Trust.

Ireland

The National Museum of Ireland – Natural History occupies a unique space on Merrion Square and is part of the wider historic campus incorporating the Houses of the Oireachtas, the National Museum of Ireland – Archaeology, the National Gallery of Ireland and Government Buildings. The project is being progressed by the National Museum of Ireland, in partnership with the OPW, and the tender process to appoint a design team to deliver this next phase of the project will launch in 2023.