Can Crimean Museums Take More Visitors?

The number of museum visitors in 2002 in the Crimea rose by 14% over the previous year, totaling 2,144,600. Last year 18 museums were operating there, including five literary, four arts, three local history, two historical, and two archeology ones along with the Livadiya and Alupka palace museums. This information was given Crimean journalists by the Central Statistics Administration of the Autonomous Republic of the Crimea. Every second museum visitor is either a school or university student. Most frequently attended were the Crimean palace museums and arts museums. In 2002, 1,649,500 persons came on an excursion to the museums, half of them also being school or university students. The fact that the number of exhibits in the main fund last year increased by 12,500 compared to 2001, totaling 792,200, contributed to the growth in the museums’ popularity. During last year, 50,600 exhibits from the main collection were displayed, with three quarters of them being exhibited at museum shows and 5% outside them, reports the Crimean News Agency.

Simultaneously, experts note that the museums’ technical condition has deteriorated due to the lack of proper financing. While in 2002 65% of museum buildings required major repairs, in 2002 their number grew to 71%. In spite of this, owing to the efforts of the museums’ staff, the income from the museum services by the end of the year was 6.8 million hryvnias. Around half of this sum was earned by the palace museums, a quarter by historical museums, and one-fifth by arts museums, reports Mykyta KASYANENKO, Simferopol.