As for Introduction

PhDr. Marian Uhrin, PhD.

Director of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising

One of the main tasks of a museum is, among other things, to take care of objects and their presentation. Nowadays, the technological conveniences offer museums and museum staff new opportunities, both in the protection and presentation of collection items. Naturally, there are several possible directions in the approach to protection and presentation. It is up to the museums to choose the approach within their needs and possibilities.

Museum of the Slovak National Uprising [hereinafter referred to as the “SNU Museum”] in Banská Bystrica has chosen the path of an open collection storage. As part of a project funded by the EEA Grants, it has established cooperation with The Narvik War and Peace Centre in the Norwegian city of Narvik.

Within the Open Depository1 project the SNU Museum seek to create new, modern, efficient and practical premises for its collection fund. Moreover, the new way of storing collections in an open storage presents a significant opportunity for their presentation to the visitor. Part of the project is a presentation of the work of the conservation workshop, and nowadays a very important aspect of a museum’s work – education. Thus, the educational process in the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising will be directly connected with the presentation activities of the collection fund.

The Open Depository project received a grant from Iceland, Liechtenstein and Norway in the amount of EUR 849,452.45 through EEA Grants. The project has been co-financed in the amount of EUR 149,903.55 from the state

1 For the purpose of this project, we use the terms “open depository” and “open collection storage” interchangeably within this conference proceedings.

budget of the Slovak Republic. The aim of the project is to make the collection of the SNU Museum accessible to the public in a unique, more attractive form with a new construction and technological design. The project also included an international conference in March 2021 with contributions on the issue of storing and presenting collections in our museums. The two-day-long conference brought, in addition to the official presentation of the project, 13 interesting contributions and a valuable discussion on the issue. These proceedings are one of the outputs of the conference. We believe that it will be beneficial for all those interested in new trends that can, and perhaps already are, bringing benefits to the work of museums in Slovakia and Europe.

Thanks are due to all current and former employees of the Museum of the Slovak National Uprising who have contributed to the implementation of the Open Depository project.