Good practice is how we view the project of the National Museum of Agriculture which took place in 2015–2018 as part of the ‘Renewal’ process. It describes the museum’s transformation into an accessible institution which prioritises education about agriculture and sustainable lifestyle. The museum presents subjects of crucial importance to humans using dynamic expositions and shows the key exhibits in their context. In doing so, the museum offers new perspectives on sustainable development and the relation between people and nature in general. It presents agriculture as a phenomenon which links our past, present, and future, and is relevant to us all.

The aim of the process of ‘Renewal’, which took place in 2015–2018, was to restore the National Museum of Agriculture to its former position of an important, national museum. This process was aided by the museum’s transformation into a platform for sharing knowledge and experience. The goal was to achieve a long-term positive impact on visitors by presenting items from museum’s collection in a purpose-designed space of a public-oriented museum via dynamic exhibitions which meet the demands of modern museal communication. Thanks to free admission for children under 18, the museum offers an ideal platform for education about sustainable development, lifestyle, and global citizenship and cultural diversity through the prism of agriculture.
The aim of educational, popularising, and research activities communicated in exhibitions, special events, and publications is to create a positive relation to agriculture, forestry, fishing, horticulture, processing of agricultural products, cultural landscape, and rural life. We want to foster interest in natural, technical, and social sciences in areas relevant to the museum’s main subject. Emphasis is placed on understanding things in their context including the local or regional conditions. The museum also aims at developing the appreciation of simplicity, truthfulness, the sense of beauty and harmony, and joy of knowledge. Another important priority is efficiency of museum’s operation.
The museum aims at increasing the value of its collection in two main directions. From the perspective of popularisation, its goal is to increase their value for visitors by mediating an authentic experience based on curators’ perception of the collection items and their stories. From a scientific perspective, the goal is to maximise the collection’s research potential. All these aims were reflected in the process of ‘Renewal’.
Specialised museological expertise offers new concepts and solutions, it works with innovations, people’s potential, and new approaches. As a result, the museum had developed a concept of dynamic exhibitions, meta-exhibitions, and purpose-driven organisation of the building. The museum also adopted an unorthodox and yet highly professional approach to the protection of collection items, expanded the use of collection items in research, presentation, and popularisation. On top of that, the museum managed to use structural fonds for development investments and other improvements. The museum emphasises low operation costs.
The ‘Renewal’ process thoroughly transformed the museum’s concept: its collecting activities, care of existing collection, and its mediation to the public. Managerial processes are also transformed, whereby innovation plays a key role in process management. Thanks to these approaches, the museum is becoming a communal and participative institution capable of bringing new concepts into people’s lives. Only in this way can museums contribute to human wellbeing. The National Museum of Agriculture is a universal museum which focuses on agriculture in the Czech Lands, with some wider context given by agriculture’s global importance. The museum’s collection documents not only partial phenomena but also important trends which formed our current civilisation.

The Ministry of Agriculture, our founder, started demanding public service from the museum and played a crucial role in the process. It supported museum’s development, reconstruction, participation in European projects leading to renovation of further buildings, and the idea of becoming the Ministry’s ‘shop window’ (we offer free admission to children and agricultural workers).
Other entities important in the process include the Network of Agricultural Museums as a support network for agriculture and agricultural museums in the country, towns, non-profit organisations, but also universities and the Czech Academy of Agricultural Sciences, institutions which participate in interdisciplinary research and information exchange.

In 2015, the National Museum of Agriculture had in its Vision 2020 chosen an approach based on traditional, time-tested values. It expressed its ambition ‘to become a respected national museum, which focuses on agriculture, forestry, hunting, game-keeping, fishing, horticulture, processing of agricultural products (food industry and gastronomy), development of rural areas and cultural landscape, but also on science, research, and relevant technology. In relation to the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic, the museum expressed its desire to become its shop window and centre of popularisation of subjects relevant to it.’
Of key importance in this process was efficient management of the museum, rethinking of managerial approaches and its activities. Our key goal was to meet the partial targets defined in the abovementioned strategy which had been approved by the museum’s founder, i.e., the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic. In accordance with this strategy, the museum continues to implement the particular measures. Progress is evaluated based on pre-defined indicators and discussed at regular meetings. The museum had established process management and efficient communication with all key stakeholders. Dynamic exhibitions are also perceived as a laboratory for curators and visitors who are encouraged to interpret subjects linked to sustainable development.

Our museum communicates with the public mainly in the newly reconstructed museum building in Prague–Letná, which is finally starting to meet the standards of a truly modern museum, and in the gradually reconstructed regional branches, which are thanks to investments – largely European subsidies – transformed into spaces attractive for visitors. Aside from the main exhibition building in Prague, where visitor numbers had in 2008–2018 increased tenfold, visitors can also during the season visit the Museum of Agricultural Technology in Čáslav, Czech Countryside Museum in Kačina Chateau, the Museum of Forestry, Hunting, and Fishing in Ohrada Chateau, Museum of Viticulture, Horticulture, and Landscaping in Valtice, a Brewery Exhibition in Znojmo, and in late 2019 or early 2020, we plan to open a new branch in Ostrava.
The National Museum of Agriculture emphasises the educational function of museums. We have significantly increased the amount of lecture series offered and the number of people who visit them, both in Prague and in other museum branches, is fast increasing. Education programmes are developed and improved in reaction to the needs and demands of schools and other target groups. We emphasise on experiential learning and hand-on principles. The museum has opened a Discovery Room, which is equipped as a laboratory, lecture hall, and place that invites all curious visitors to investigate, discover, and access new information. It is a space for learning, thinking, experimenting, but also entertainment and play.
In 2017, the National Museum of Agriculture had expanded its lecturing activities. We offer series of presentations on subjects linked to agriculture, its history, but also urgent current problems. The museum is becoming a platform for exchange of information and experiences. It recently started hosting also some special events such as the Scientists’ Night or Week of Science and Technology. The museum’s main target groups are children, senior citizens, but also visitors of working age who are interested in learning. The National Museum of Agriculture aims at creating a wide variety of authentic experiences in Prague during the whole year, in branches outside Prague, during the season.
In addition to restored buildings, the number of new dynamic exhibitions, the number of expertly processed collection items, increase in visitor numbers and income collected from ticket sales, general increase in financial resources available for investment or purchase of collection items, the number of science and research projects submitted, and increased lecturing activity, we should also mention the creation of the brand of the National Museum of Agriculture which contributes to a change in the perception of museums in our country.

Of key importance was our ability to define the vision of the National Museum of Agriculture, management’s willingness to implement it, and changes in the composition of the museum’s team. The whole initiative would not have been possible without the support of our founder, the Ministry of Agriculture of the Czech Republic. We have greatly benefitted from the possibility of

financing the museum’s infrastructure from EU fonds. This made investments simpler and cheaper. Thanks to investments by the founder, the main building of the museum was reconstructed and transformed again into a modern museum building.
The museum had also prepared a Personnel and Marketing Strategy of the National Museum of Agriculture, Conception of Science and Research, and a Conception of Creation, Protection, and Use of the Collection. In this way, all of the essential areas received a conception of further development. This helped create a consensus both between the museum and its founder and within the museum itself regarding its future direction and goals. We are managing to communicate this to the public.
A milestone in the museum’s development came in 2017: this year was successful in all important respects (visitor numbers, science and research, new exhibitions, etc.). Moreover, all of the museum’s activities follow a plan, proceed along a pre-defined sequence of steps that ought to be taken, and reflect a determined drive to reach a well-defined goal.
The museum is making fast progress. In the space of just four years, the National Museum of Agriculture not only managed to clearly define a strategy and describe the steps that need to be taken for future development of the institution, but also started to implement projects which are based on this conception. A welcome surprise is our ability to meet or even exceed various indicators, although these partial goals were not in any way intentionally underestimated. In comparison to other national institutions, we see here clear and fast progress, which is reflected in a marked increase in visitor numbers and positive perception of the National Museum of Agriculture among the broad public.
In 2014, the institution was understaffed and underfinanced. Although we managed to change the museum significantly, the need for continuous attention to its staff, especially in terms of further education, persists and efforts to integrate the museum in international networks should likewise be continued

The strategy adopted by the National Museum of Agriculture could be implemented also in other institutions. We are trying to introduce it at regional branches of the museum, which is also why we realise investments financed from the EU funds. These investments yield returns in the form of a better educated society as well as benefits and positive influences that cannot be measured, such as the good name of the institution, education of visitors about the goals of sustainable society, and changes in the perception of museums in the Czech Republic. Implementation of changes was facilitated and aided by our ability to draw on EU funds.
Our museum, as an institution established by the Ministry of Agriculture, depends on its priorities and goodwill. We are aware, however, of the fact that its support may also reflect possible changes in the political situation.
The key aspect of the changes we implemented, and an added value, is the adoption of museology as a basic approach, sustainability of museum’s development, and innovativeness of the approach. Our thoroughgoing efforts to lower investments but especially the operating costs are in the context of economy of public institutions in the Czech Republic unique. It should be possible to apply this approach not only to other branches of the museum but also to other public institutions in general.
The National Museum of Agriculture is also an important employer. Its development contributes to a stabilisation and further expansion of positions for highly qualified workforce

The practice described above demonstrates the relevance of the National Museum of Agriculture as an education institution focused on subjects which used to be perceived by the public as unattractive. We are a modern museum institution focused on visitors, friendly to its employees, and responsible towards its founder. Thanks to implementation of necessary changes and modernisation of exhibitions and facilities, we are becoming an open, welcoming institution. Experiences gained from these developments can help us define future goals and inspire the strategies of other institutions.
Twenty-first century society will face new challenges, such as growing consumption, urbanisation, climate change, but also increased impact of technologies and ageing population. Our museum can mediate the process of searching for answers based on scientifically collected evidence that document these issues and teams of experts we brought together can offer ways of interpreting these issues.
A museum must be able to search for and communicate answers to pressing questions, offer them to visitors who come to the museum to ask, be inspired, or to relax. Our museum already touches upon numerous relevant issues, such as water use and drought. We view the subject of sustainable resource use as one of crucial importance.
Our museum must continue to provide context. Vast amounts of information available in future will lead to questions regarding their optimal use. We must therefore make museums accessible to even the youngest visitors, educate people who will find it natural to move in museums freely and perceive things and events in the context of their past, present, and future developments. We also want to inspire people of productive age and help them search for suitable solutions. Ever more important is also the development of communication with senior citizens. We therefore want to create more space for visitors and partners and include them in the creation and use of museum collection. We want to foster active, participative curatorship. This would increase the scientific value of the collection and increase the effectiveness of museum communication, which should reflect new trends and visitors’ expectations.
Ever more important is also the preservation of know-how. To support cultural and creative activities which will play an increasing role in European economy, we should preserve specific skills. Our museum had started with gastronomy but there are many other areas where preservation of technological processes is highly desirable.
Modern technologies will undoubtedly become an efficient instrument in many processes but they cannot replace the testimony of authentic items. Quite the opposite: technological progress already now highlights the importance of museums as institutions which work with three-dimensional objects. The main subject of our museum is agriculture, agriculture as an undoubted value in increasingly virtualised world.
A museum must be a place of safety where one can think in peace, meet objects and people one likes, and engage in a free discussion. Thanks to this environment of safety, museums can become platforms of democracy, of clarifying views and attitudes, and this is, especially in post-totalitarian societies, a highly desirable added value

• www.nzm.cz/en
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