Location of the initiative:
AUSTRIA - A-1010, Vienna
Relation to Strategy 21 Recommendations:
S2 - Make heritage more accessible
Time span of the initiative:
2010- onwards
Brief description of the initiative:
As of January 2010 the Ministry responsible for culture has granted free admission to the Austrian Federal Museums and the Austrian National Library for young people under the age of nineteen, with the aim of creating lowthreshold access to these cultural institutions for all children and young people. The measure is complemented by a number of educational initiatives for children and young people (in holidays and beyond) as well as for schools (e.g. special days of action).
Objectives of the initiative:
- equal access to culture
- motivate young people for art and culture
- appreciate cultural diversity
Brief assessment of the initiative’s results:
Free admission to national museums for children and youth has worked out extremely well and has drawn substantially more visitors of all age groups to culture. A series of construction measures has made cultural institutions more attractive to visitors and created better working conditions for employees. The number of visits by young people in this age group has increased by 15% since its introduction (18% increase of single visitors, 11% of school classes). In the past six years more than 5,7 million children and young people have used the free admission (the comparison from 2009-2015 shows an increase of 42%). More than half of the young people come with their school classes. The others visit the museum with accompanying adults. Thus, there is also an increase in the overall number of visitors. More than a quarter of the young visitors participate in cultural education activities by the museums. From 2010 – 2015 there were 85.451 programmes with 1,547.155 young people participating.
Online resources:
Contact:
Federal Chancellery
Department for Management of Federal Museums
Dr. Doris Karner
Concordiaplatz 2
A-1010 Vienna
[email protected]
