Museum “resurrected”
Going back in time just 10 years ago, many museums in Vietnam fell into a state of desolation and desertion. The old cultural values preserved in museums could not attract visitors. Many reasons for failure were pointed out such as museums not keeping up with the trend with young people, and not providing enough nostalgia for the middle-aged and elderly.
Some museums operate on a partially autonomous revenue and expenditure mechanism. They are under pressure to generate revenue to support themselves. There have been questions about whether, if tickets were sold, who would still come to the museum? Ten years later, visitors have given a clear answer. Contrary to popular imagination, some museums in Hanoi are always crowded with visitors, including both international and domestic visitors.
By 2024, exploiting cultural and historical values will become an economic problem. The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology preserves and displays many cultural artifacts of all 54 ethnic groups in Vietnam, including 15,000 artifacts, 42,000 films (with color photos), 2,190 positive films, 273 tapes of interviews and music, 373 video tapes and 25 CD-Roms (as of 2000).
Coming here, visitors will admire many artifacts in daily life such as clothing, musical instruments, ritual artifacts, traditional crafts... The special feature of the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is the outdoor exhibition space. Here, there are traditional houses, restored by local people from all regions, from the plains to the valleys and high mountains, such as Vietnamese houses, Tay houses, Cham houses, Dao houses...
When walking around the Vietnam Fine Arts Museum, each stroke and sculpture appear impressive. This place has collected and preserved nearly 20,000 valuable artifacts and works of art, reflecting the basic development history of Vietnamese Fine Arts; introducing nearly 2,000 artifacts in the permanent exhibition system with many different categories such as sculpture, architecture or painting.
When visiting, visitors can admire the art space arranged according to the time frame from the 1st to the 3rd floor. Each floor is divided into rooms, cultural relics of each specific period are displayed or placed in glass cabinets for visitors to easily observe and learn.
Both museums have ticket prices of 40,000 VND for adults, 20,000 VND for students, 10,000 VND for children and free for children under 6 years old, ethnic minorities, people with disabilities...
According to records, the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology welcomes nearly half a million visitors each year. It is estimated that on weekends, this unit usually welcomes 1,000 - 2,000 visitors. In particular, on event occasions, the Museum can welcome 10,000 - 15,000 visitors in 2 weekends. The revenue generated in the short term is still guaranteed to operate the system.
Turn old values into "trends"
Recently, the number of young people interested in history and national culture has increased. Seeing great opportunities for development, many museums and relics have promoted communication activities on social networks. In particular, the Vietnam Museum of Ethnology and Hoa Lo Prison are pioneers.
The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology is the first museum to have a media room. Meanwhile, Hoa Lo Prison attracts a large number of visitors thanks to its ability to create trends and create “salty” content on digital platforms. Many clips on the Hoa Lo Prison channel have reached millions of views and forced visitors to… come and “see for themselves”.
Talking to Lao Dong Newspaper, Dr. An Thu Tra - Head of Communication and Education Department, Vietnam Museum of Ethnology - shared: "For communication work, we pay great attention and use a variety of different channels to communicate to many audiences such as website, Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, TripAdvisor and on-site communication. We also diversify content such as reporting news, introducing artifacts in the museum, creating more beautiful corners, check-in corners in the museum, stories behind artifacts, museum events, events related to the country on each holiday...".
The Vietnam Museum of Ethnology actively cooperates with university student groups and TikTokers to accept domestic and foreign interns. They become collaborators and volunteers of the Museum.
Ms. Tra added that the unit also enhances the development of content and diversifies forms of experience such as using technology glasses (VR, AR), themed tours with QR codes, virtual exhibitions, discovery rooms for children, multimedia rooms...
