Muzealnictwo (Mar 2018)
THE MUSEUM SHOP IN POLAND. UNUSED SPACE OF INTERACTION AND A CHALLENGE FOR THE INSTITUTION’S MANAGERS
Abstract
The article is a fragment of the author’s more extensive study The museum shop. Its role and significance in modern museum, written as a student of the Postgraduate Museum Studies at the University of Warsaw. Based on interviews and both questionnaire and visual surveys, it presents issues pertaining to the location of museum shops within the museum’s premises, correlation between the shop’s assortment on offer and the museum’s programme, as well as the awareness of museum executive managers as to the versatility of such shops’ potential. In many cases the museum shops are being neglected which shows in their underinvestment, lack of care, unattractive offer and unfriendly spatial arrangement. It is hard to understand such approach especially that shops are in most cases the final accent of a visit to the museum. The author underlined the significance of projects intending to modernise the spatial arrangement of museum shops. They envisage the transformation of a shop into a space for the pleasant pastime, relaxation to release a museum fatigue; an opportunity to see and purchase publications giving a deeper insight into just visited expositions. In conclusion, the author points to the abundance of interdisciplinary research which may and should include the subject of museum shop. She draws attention to issues concerning, inter alia: selection and competence of shop personnel, placement within an organisational structure, cooperation with lessees, stock replenishment and budgeting of the shop. Furthermore, the scope of the conducted research included the adaptation of both historic and modern interiors for museum shop purposes, furnishings (interior design, furniture, lighting), presence of exclusive items appreciated by connoisseurs, marketing, promotion, as well as the use of new media in the image- -building of the shop.
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