In the general restart that is affecting many sectors of our peninsula, museums have a prominent place. In the yellow areas, the green light has been given to reopen them during the week. But on weekends the gates of the museums remain closed. A government decision which, however, made many turn up their noses. The directors of the museums, in fact, ask for the opening also on weekends to be guaranteed and, above all, certain help to get going again. Museums, in fact, are safe places. The entrances are limited and the various structures ensure frequent sanitation of the places. But what strategy is really needed to help the industry?
Museums, the sector to be reorganized
Not just the guarantee of openings even on weekends. The management of the most important museums in Italy also ask for a safe strategy e aids cheap. In fact, if the Italian museums in full pandemic remained closed, the staff continued to work. Now, however, by 2021, nothing has yet been allocated to support museums. For the past year, thanks to the lack of income due to the lack of ticketing, additional resources have been allocated, in addition to the ordinary contribution. The data speak for state museums of 145 million euros. On the other hand, for private individuals and non-state, civic museums, foundations only a total fund of 103 million euros. Only some non-state but very important structures such as the MAXXI, the Egyptian Museum of Turin, which have state participation, have received funding of 6 million euros.
The workers of the museum structures
But in addition to the reopening of the museums, it is necessary to understand what strategy to adopt for the defense of workers. Many, in fact, despite the closure, continued to work. And then there are other services such as surveillance support and office support that should be extended. On the other hand, the new hires, which led to cost savings, after the many retirements in the sector, led to a stop and a lack of turnover.
The reorganization according to timetables
So to talk about restarts and certain openings, an interesting proposal is the one launched by Antonio Tarasco, scholar and president of the Italian Society for Cultural Engineering, collected by the “Sole 24 ore". "Indiscriminate openness risks covering a problem that arose well before the pandemic - says -. The problem is that of compliance (as adherence to general regulations not tailored to the individual museum) against real needs ". "The open doors of public and private museums - adds -, in times of Covid and not, they must be calibrated according to the satisfaction of the public ".
It is therefore necessary to review the reopenings on the basis of the flows of visitors registered in the past. "First - explains -, without data in hand (timetables, ticket price, busy days, low days, historical flow of visitors) it is unthinkable to know whether it is convenient to reopen or not. It is also necessary to understand how much the public is willing to pay for the visit ".
Some museum structures, then, are being reorganized in the meantime. With data in hand they are ensuring openings to coincide with certain appointments. But they won't be total openings. The pandemic will be expected to end because we all love museums but undoubtedly the highest percentage of visitors in Italy are foreigners. So what is left to do? Take advantage of those museums that are reopening in the yellow areas. Go and visit them respecting the rules. If you can't, then let's turn on our PCs and take advantage of the many initiatives that the various Italian museums offer on the web. A virtual tour is not like a live one. But it is undoubtedly a good start to help the industry.
