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2022 was the first post-pandemic year not impacted by epidemiological measures. This resulted in a high number of organized press conferences and guided tours of exhibitions for journalists. The Public Relations Department organized 10 press conferences and 5 guided tours for the media, including a film documentary screening and a book launch. In particular, press conferences and guided tours of the newly opened exposition and several larger exhibitions, an important historical anniversary and the unveiling of a unique collection item garnered significant media coverage. The media received a total of 36 press releases and announcements, several live inputs for newsrooms were provided, including arranging a live broadcast. According to regular media monitoring, the National Museum recorded between 512 and 1,258 outputs (including duplicates) every month.
In 2022, the National Museum’s website also served as the main source of information for visiting our buildings, exhibitions, expositions and events. The website recorded 1,031,288 users and 1,569,719 visits, another increase over last year. In addition to an overview of opening hours, entrance fees and other practical information, press releases and news from events at the National Museum were also presented, such as the opening of exhibitions and expositions inside and outside our facilities, foreign collaborations, etc. Also, a new e-shop visually fitting into the overall concept was launched on the National Museum’s website.
As in previous years, in 2022 the National Museum used social networks as one of its official communication channels. The focus was mainly on Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, YouTube, LinkedIn and TikTok accounts.
Communication on these channels focused on promoting new exhibitions and events of the National Museum, explaining the Museum’s work and collection items in more detail, and promoting existing exhibitions.
Also in 2022, the traffic numbers of the primarily used Facebook and Instagram channels achieved very positive results. This year, despite minimal financial support, National Museum posts were viewed by almost 1.3 million people on Facebook and 728,000 people on Instagram. The number of followers also increased significantly, by 1,758 on Facebook and by 927 on Instagram. The most successful post achieved a unique result of 87,000 views.
In 2022, the number of Twitter followers increased by 1,709 to a total of 7,249 followers from journalists and the general public.
Furthermore, the number of views on the National Museum official profile on YouTube continuously increased. The videos on our YouTube channel received a total of 163,802 views in 2022.
Users watched our videos for a total of 5,200 hours. We acquired a total of 375 new subscribers for the Museum profile in 2021. In 2022, we continued to connect the Museum's YouTube profile with our website and Facebook page.
On the Museum's LinkedIn site, the number of followers rose to 650.
In 2022, the National Museum opened several unique exhibition projects, which were at the same time communicated to the public. In particular, the continuous promotion of newly-opened exhibitions continued. Specifically, the Miracles of Evolution, Windows to Prehistory and History collections. In accordance with the set strategy, communications took place primarily through social networks and online media.
Similar to many other organizations, we were forced to react to the newly emerging geopolitical situation, and as part of our cost reduction measures, we focused on communication using our partners, cultural portals, and especially content marketing. The fact that it was an appropriately set procedure was proven by the attendance of 1,065,423 visitors, which is comparable to the most successful year of the pre-Covid period.
The next step in our modern style of communications was the launch of a mobile app that serves as a communication tool, audio guide and navigation through the Museum Complex of the National Museum. The app received excellent reviews by the general and professional public, which is evidenced by the awarding of the Red Dot Design Award, the Internet Effectiveness Award (IEA) and the Golden Semicolon award.
As a guarantor of the celebration of the 80th anniversary of Operation Anthropoid, the National Museum joined the commemorations through the We Will Never Give Up! exhibition. For the promotion of the Operation Anthropoid anniversary, the National Museum prepared a special logo with a manual, for use by all contributory organizations of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic. The logo was based on the overall promotion of the exhibition, through which our institution commemorated this important anniversary. The promotion of the anniversary took place primarily through this exhibition using online media and social networks posts, complemented by media articles, advertorials and advertisements from partner collaborations. The highlight was the commemorative event, which took place in the National Museum Historical Building at 6 p.m. on May 27, 2022 with the participation of the President of the Slovak Republic and the President of the Czech Republic.
The first sustainable exhibition – The Earth Is Me, dedicated to ecological topics, posed new challenges for promotion. As part of its presentation at the ICOM international museum conference, leaflets were created from “growing” paper, which the user, after reading the information, can plant in the ground to grow a poppy. The leaflets were accompanied by pencils, which turn into herbs after fulfilling their function.
The Visitor Care Department began operations in January 2022. All e-mail communications with visitors, answering telephone inquiries and the management of review and travel portals were taken over by the newly created department. In order to improve the quality of the services provided, information manuals for so-called first line workers were created in 2022, and regular public communication training commenced for reception staff who operate the contact telephone line. During 2022, the new information and navigation services concept in the Museum Complex of the National Museum was prepared and gradually implemented. In the second half of the year, the Visitor Care Department implemented the preparation of a tender for an agency that will facilitate the hiring of information assistants and animators. As a further development based on visitor needs, in cooperation with the Information Systems Department, new multimedia content was created for touch screens in the New Building and map materials and text for the mobile app, and in cooperation with the maintenance department of permanent exhibitions, a preventive system of information signs was newly introduced for use in emergency situations.
In a year-on-year comparison, the number of visitors to all the buildings of the National Museum in 2022 increased by almost 170,000. The attendance of the Museum Complex itself has already reached the total attendance numbers that the Historic and New Buildings of the National Museum showed in 2019. Attendance was positively influenced by several factors. Most importantly, with the gradual opening of the natural science and historical permanent exhibitions within the Museum Complex, attendance grew despite austerity measures, when selected buildings were partially or completely closed during the winter months. In addition, 2022 was the first year in a number of years to be completely unrestricted in terms of Covid measures. At the same time, the growing trend of contactless ticket purchases continued, especially via websites and the mobile app. Automatic checkout kiosks are also a very popular method of contactless sales. Revenue from entrance fees exceeded the sales recorded in 2019 by almost CZK 40 million, which is the last year comparable to 2022 in terms of the lack of forced restrictions on opening hours.
The activity of the Centre for the Presentation of Cultural Heritage in 2022 was marked by the development of long-term continuous and new activities that integrate the expanded use of digital technologies and social and ecological aspects into the operation of museums and the field of museology. In the area of making museum collections and exhibitions accessible to a wide group of visitors, the Centre continued projects from the previous period, especially in the management and development of the National Museum Without Barriers model project, which makes digital museum content accessible to users with sensory disabilities. In 2022, the Centre began cooperation with Společnost pro podporu lidí s mentálním postižením, z. s. (Society for the Support of People with Mental Disabilities), on activities for the target group of visitors with mental disabilities. The Centre implemented training in communication with visitors with specific needs for lecturers of educational programs and employees of the National Museum in the areas of museum education, work with the public and marketing. We also continued with the project launched last year to make museum collections and exhibitions accessible to child visitors from socio-economically disadvantaged backgrounds. During 2022, a specific part of the Centre’s activities became activities in connection with the war in Ukraine, ongoing since February, and the associated high rate of acceptance of refugees from the conflict areas and their integration into Czech society. This mainly involved the organization of guided tours of the National Museum in the Ukrainian language, other educational and cultural events and other cooperation with organizations dedicated to working with refugees from Ukraine.
The Centre, in cooperation with NaFilM – National Film Museum, organized a one-day specialist workshop Digital Technology in Museum Presentation on the Example of the National Museum and NaFilM National Film Museum. The topic of the workshop, intended for museum workers, was the possibilities of using digital technologies (AR, VR, mobile applications) in exhibitions, expositions and other forms of museum presentation.
Furthermore, the Centre’s activities continued to focus on continuously solving essential tasks associated with the site’s activities: the operation, updating and further development of the www.emuzeum.cz information portal, the operation and updating of the do-muzea.cz portal, the administration and development of the Centre’s specialized museological library and the editing of Muzeum magazine: Museum and National History Activities. Through these activities, the site contributes to raising awareness of important issues of Czech and world museums among the target group of museum experts and the general public, thus fulfilling its educational and communication function. In the course of 2022, the Centre’s staff published a number of peer-reviewed studies and other texts in Czech and foreign periodicals.
Since 2022, the National Museum has shown an interest in leaving the primary organization of this event to another entity from contributory organizations in the museum field due to a lack of personnel capacity and lack of new capacities. The Museum therefore asked the founders to designate another contributory organization of the Ministry of Culture of the Czech Republic, which will take over the organization of the event for the next period. This event did not take place in 2022. The National Museum does not rule out future participation in the Prague Museum Night as one of the participating entities.
