Museums have evolved over the centuries. They continue doing so, and when the background involves crises as severe as the one we are experiencing because of Covid-19, those processes accelerate even further.
Museums are changing, we must do it. In the face of a health crisis like the current one, the priority is absolute, health, however, museums can not stop; with this, we want to say that the MuBoma has the challenge of how to face this new stage in which it is necessary to reformulate the day to day of a museum. We have already started with the #mubomaentucasa campaign by launching a whole series of activities and actions on social media that implied the message of proximity with all visitors, despite the closing of doors due to the pandemic.
The word crisis, from the Greek “κρίσις” which means decision, choice… pushes us to take a new path in order to keep alive the essence of the Provincial Fire Museum: to value the content and meaning of muBoma and share it with all people .
The task of cultural mediation and teaching has become a key element in revitalizing the museum. From the beginning, it has been intended to go further the simple exhibition of materials, these have been narrated and included in a discourse that would allow visitors to understand them in their context (or in many and very different contexts). Almost posed as a game, each educational workshop, each “different” visit, what it has done is turn the visit to muBoma into an experience, something that will not change.
For the moment, didactic proposals will be launched for summer schools, with the novelty of following strictly the safety and hygiene rules set by the health authorities. Limiting capacity to much smaller numbers will also be another difference; however, it leads us to prioritize in the personalized attention of each group. The good weather arrives and this allows us to use the outer enclosure of the MuBoma, at the foot of the great centennial tree that continues being witness of all the changes that have been happening in this place from century XIX to today. And perhaps the museum’s move to the web and networks has been a turning point in following people who might not otherwise be able to come to the muBoma.
Steadily, always in a constant process of adaptation and learning, the didactic and cultural offer will be expanded so that the quality and satisfaction in the visits is a constant without differentiating the physical presence from the virtual one. The time has come for new museums, where tradition and innovation go hand in hand.