engleski

Rise of another author – impact of creative industries on communicating heritage in Croatian museums

Wider social and economic changes have revolutionised the approach to culture in most developed countries. For some time now creative industries have played a major role in helping museum and galleries to rebrand themselves as active, user-oriented, fun and modern institutions. Exhibition design and digital media have been used to reach people and increase physical and intellectual access to collections and provide opportunities for constructive engagement, learning experiences and/or entertainment. As a sector which blurs distinctions between art and entertainment, elite and mass, cultural industries have recently become a key element in the contemporary discourse of making money on heritage in post-socialist countries such as Croatia whose entrepreneurial track record started not so long ago in the midst of industrial wasteland. Croatia’s inheritance of political capitalism from the socialist/communist period still plays a major role in determining the present social and economic reality as the one in which modernisation and regression often alternate. Museums and heritage sector in general need to function in these hybrid conditions in which the past is pulling back and the recent EU membership is pulling forward towards market capitalism. As the Croatian government promotes the idea of gradually making heritage institutions independent and self-sufficient, mostly through budget-cuts, museum have started using the creative sector to help raise their own profile and attract people in order to earn more money. Turning to graphic designers and architects to bring an eye-catching quality to their programmes and activities creates a situation in which decisions about approaches to communicating heritage are made by two coexisting authorities – curators and designers. Set against sociological theoretical research on Croatian socio-political circumstances, the research on which the paper is based takes the socio-semiotic approach to communication as a framework within which two sets of empirical data are analysed. The first comprises data obtained from interviews with museum curators on issues related to contemporary conditions of museum communication and the second set arises from an analysis of the current use of creative industries’ products in exhibitions. The research shows that the use of creative industries within the Croatian museum context certainly marks a shift towards market-oriented thinking according to which heritage has potential to change economy. The cooperation between museum professionals and designers on exhibition projects that receive large enough funding for realization of innovative and creative ideas results in a considerably big number of visitor, which is of main interest to both founders and funders. However, the research also indicates a situation in which the potential for providing substantial heritage experiences remains underdeveloped due to conflicting approaches to communicating heritage by the two sectors. While museum professionals keep their still largely positivist stance and want design to communicate object and discipline-based knowledge, designers insist on their own creativity which could bring them recognition in their own professional field. Museum environments created in such circumstances, torn between traditional and modern tendencies are most frequently merely aesthetically pleasing, interesting to look at and they showcase effects of modern-day gadgetry more than heritage-related issues relevant for the life of contemporary community. The rising economic relevance of creative workers, and consequently their social importance, supported by EU documents such as Promoting Cultural and Creative Sectors for Growth and Jobs in the EU, might lead to another type of exclusivity – the one based on the authority of creative authorship.

heritage; communication; art; creative industries

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