Ethnographic Museum, Kačićeva 9/2

The new storage facility of the Ethnographic Museum at Kačićeva 9/2 was officially opened

29.05.2024.

12:00h

Ethnographic Museum’s storage facility

Today, May 29, 2024, the new Ethnographic Museum storage facility at Kačićeva 9/2 was officially opened. This marks the first open depot in Zagreb and Croatia, making the Ethnographic Museum’s exceptionally valuable ethnological collection accessible to the general public. At the opening, the following spoke to those present: the Director of the Ethnographic Museum, dr.sc. Zvjezdana Antoš, and the Director of the Directorate for Museums, Libraries, and Archives of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, ms. sc. Anuška Deranja-Crnokić and Emina Višnić, Head of the City Office for Culture and Civil Society, who also officially opened the new Repository.

The Director of the Ethnographic Museum, Zvjezdana Antoš, PhD, began by outlining the project’s complexity, which was financed by the following funds:

“The approved grant amounts to €4,585,373.70, and the funds from the Partner City of Zagreb amount to €2,137,366, 81 EUR, the Ministry of Regional Development and European Funds provided 404,617.77 EUR, and the Ministry of Culture and Media provided 78,620.44 euros from the Solidarity Fund. Since brownfield investments only involve structural renovation, the complete equipping of the Storehouse was financed by the City of Zagreb in the amount of €881,836.91, and by the Ministry of Culture and Media from the Solidarity Fund in the amount of €143,348.73. The total value of the project is €8,231,164.93.”

She highlighted the depot’s accessibility to the general public:
“The Ethnographic Museum wants to fully embrace change and make its museum collections available to the public. Our museum collections were created in trust with the public, with people who have diligently collected, donated, or offered items for purchase. Our new storage facility is a place that gives new meaning to our collections and opens up possibilities for multiple interpretations and stories about our rich museum collection! The objects we preserve are thoughtful and lovingly crafted, and have been carefully kept for future generations. It is in this space that visitors will learn what a museum truly is and what it should be, through objects that preserve our past, evoke memories of our own origins, and teach us to love and preserve our heritage. The learning space is part of the same environment that, in addition to the storage rooms, also houses two conservation and restoration workshops, museum documentation and an archive, curator workrooms for working on the museum collections, and a seminar room. It is particularly important for us to continue and develop various forms of cooperation and connections with scientific research and educational institutions. It is important to bring younger generations to the storage facility, who will travel through time and different spaces, opening up possibilities to understand the lives of people and their personal histories. I believe that our new premises, which house our heritage, will prompt you to reflect on the value of the items we preserve, not only for our Croatian culture but also in a broader European context.“

The director of the Administration for archives, libraries and museums of the Ministry of Culture and Media of the Republic of Croatia, ms. sc. Anuška Deranja-Crnokić, emphasized the need for high-quality museum storage facilities, especially after the earthquake that struck Zagreb and its surroundings. The newly opened storage facility of the Ethnographic Museum is an example of good practice that other museums in Croatia should follow:

„The Ministry of Culture and Media coordinated the reconstruction process – from the inventorying and assessment of damage, organizing and implementing emergency protection measures, to monitoring the procedures for preparing, overseeing, and carrying out reconstruction projects.

In total, over €470 million in works has been carried out through the Ministry of Culture and Media using Solidarity Fund resources, of which protective measures for ten museum buildings have been implemented, for which more than €22.5 million has been secured. To continue and complete the structural restoration after the Solidarity Fund’s implementation period expired, the Ministry has secured 37.5 million euros from the state budget for museum buildings so far, and given these investments, we are at a historic moment for the development of the museum profession.

A comprehensive renovation of public-use buildings is underway as a continuation of the restoration, valued at 770 million euros. Among these are numerous buildings for cultural activities, buildings of state administration bodies, state authorities, local government units, and other buildings for public and social purposes, in addition to museum buildings.

Therefore, it is truly inspiring today to see how this parent museum for ethnographic museums in Croatia is getting a new museum depot, which we believe will serve as a best practice example, especially in light of the 2021 conference on museum storage facilities held as part of this project, and we eagerly look forward to the opening of the renovated museums and new depots in the coming period.“

Emina Višnić, Head of the City Office for Culture and Civil Society, addressed the attendees on behalf of the Mayor of the City of Zagreb and officially opened the new Repository.

“This is a special project, one that is not just a repository addressing the Ethnographic Museum’s basic need – a need that has gone unmet for decades, now 105 years – but rather represents a new, more contemporary, more innovative vision of the museum’s role in today’s community. Depots are not just a place where we preserve our heritage for future generations, a place where the best experts, using the best possible methods and developing new techniques and contemporary approaches to interpretation, safeguard our heritage, but, most importantly, they are concerned above all with how it will be presented to our fellow citizens and numerous visitors.

This repository is the first example of an open repository in Croatia. That means that schoolchildren and other groups of citizens will be coming soon. The Ethnographic Museum, as our city museum, is known for its collaboration with educational institutions, independent organizations, artists, and companies, and is truly an example of best practice. So this investment (which is no small one) is well-deserved! It is a long-term investment not just in our city museum, it is an investment in our Croatian heritage. It is an investment in public cultural needs, in society, and in a better life for our City! Therefore, I congratulate everyone who participated in this project, whom the director listed: the Museum team, who are the driving force behind this project. I thank the Ministry of Culture and Media for the excellent cooperation on the renovation, and the Ministry of Regional Development, through which the bulk of the funding was channeled, SAFU (Central Finance and Contracting Agency), and all the officials of the City of Zagreb who contributed to making this project happen. I am very happy to say: I declare the first open Depot open!

About the project:

As a partner in the EU project Rekonstrukcije i obnova Zemaljske uzorite pivnice u Kačićevoj ulici the City of Zagreb also participated in the complete furnishing of the new Ethnographic Museum storage facility in Zagreb. The Ethnographic Museum’s storage facility is the first open depot in Croatia with an innovative and state-of-the-art museological approach that allows visitors to see the museum “behind the scenes,” showing how the museum functions. For the first time in the museum’s history, 55,000 objects from the museum’s collections were relocated, 105 years after its founding.

In seven depots spread over three floors, various objects from thirty-six ethnographic museum collections will be housed in state-of-the-art metal cabinets, shelves, drawers, and nets. In the depots, objects are arranged by material type—wood, ceramics, paintings, metal, and textiles—under controlled, stable climatic conditions with constant humidity monitoring. The building is also equipped with a state-of-the-art CNS system for video surveillance and fire detection.

The repository also serves as a workspace, housing two restoration and conservation workshops for textiles and wood, and for metal and ceramics; a space for object photography; museum documentation; four studios for museum curators’ research; and a seminar room. The museum repository will promote openness, accessibility, and transparency in presenting ethnographic collections and conservation practices of the open repository concept in a completely new way.