Charakterystyka ruchu turystycznego w Muzeum Sztuki ms² w Łodzi

Abstract

The Museum of Art in Łódź, established in 1930, is one of the oldest museum of contemporary art in the world. A specific role in its collection is played by International Collection of Contemporary Art of the “a.r.” Group dating from 1920s and 1930s created thanks to endeavours of the Polish art theoretician – Władysław Strzemiński. In November 2008 a new exhibition building on the premises of “Manufaktura” Shopping Centre (CH) (a former high weaving mill in the post factory complex of I.K. Poznański at 19 Ogrodowa street) was given to the Museum of Art in Łódź. New space of art called the Museum of Art ms2 received an unusual system of visiting in the form of, so called, unconventional story. “Boston Café” and an artistic “mała litera art” bookshop were opened in the building of the Museum. The present articles deals with a flow of tourists in the Museum of Art ms2 based on surveys conducted in 2010. According to the data published by the Museum of Art in Łódź, in 2010 the Museum of Art ms2 was visited by 29,106 people. The highest number of sold tickets are group tickets (3,826). The highest attendance was noted in May which can be related to socio-artistic actions conducted at that time. Visitors to ms2 often took part in some events organised by the Museum Centre (among others conferences, discussion panels, lectures). The research of tourist flow in the Museum of Art ms2 was conducted in spring-summer and autumn-winter periods of 2010. 224 respondents were surveyed, majority of which (71%) in autumn-winter period. It can be concluded that visitors to the Museum represent a specific social group – they are mostly by professions e.g. a visual artist, lecturer of Academy of Art in Łódź, designer or an architect. Pupils and students are a significant group (nearly 30%). Analysing the place of origin of respondents it was noted that a majority of visitors came from Łódź (58.92%), and mainly from Środmieście quarter. Among visitors there were also inhabitants of towns and places located within the region of Łódź (among others Pabianice, Zgierz, Bełchatów), big Polish cities (Warsaw, Wrocław, Poznań, Cracow) and foreign guests (among others from Germany, Canada, Belgium, Russia). Majority of respondents visited the Museum for the first time (58.9%), however the percentage of guests coming next time is considerably high (41.01%), over 14% of which admitted to visiting the Museum for the fifth or even more times. Visitors to the Museum usually came accompanied by families or friends who are the main information source about the Museum. A low percentage of visitors learnt about the Museum from promotional material of “Manufaktura” Shopping Centre (0.4%) and the Museum itself (6.7%) which may suggest low availability of leaflets and brochures and hermetic circle of visitors (artistic circle).Situating the Museum of Art ms2 in the commercial space of “Manufaktura” Shopping Centre leads to the situation that majority of guests took the opportunity of doing shopping (almost 70%). Respondents most often went shopping or used catering offers (restaurants, cafés). The main purpose of visits to the Museum is to see its permanent exhibition (63.3%) and temporary displays (45.5%). However, there is a low percentage of visitors using additional offers of the Museum – merely 6% visitors took part in workshops and only 5.4% in thematic lectures. The permanent exhibition was considered as the most interesting element of the Museum. The conducted survey aimed ,among others, at evaluation of many elements of the Museum with the help of a six-point scale. One of the first were: the level of interest in the collection and comprehensibility of the artistic media. While the level of interest was assessed very high (most often with grade 5), comprehensibility of the artistic media received lower evaluation, which may be related to some problems with interpretation of the works of art mentioned by respondents. Among other assessed elements the location of the Museum in the city, architecture of the building and interior décor were also highly appraised. Respondents pointed out defects of the offer including the lack of interpretation of individual works of art or not clearly marked visiting direction. A knowledge of other departments of the Museum of Art in Łódź leaves a lot to be desired – 14% respondents admitted that they knew nothing about them. Moreover, this situation is worsened by the fact that these departments were mistaken among others with the Museum, of Textiles, Museum of Cinematography or the Museum of the History of the City of Łódź. As compared to other museums in Łódź the Museum of Art ms2 was highly appraised, including 27.2% respondents assessed it to be more interesting than other museums. In comparison to other tourist attractions in the city, the result achieved by the Museum is very favourable too – it was placed on the second position after the Jewish Cemetery outstripping “Manufaktura” Shopping Centre, Piotrkowska street, “KsięŜy Młyn” complex and I.K. Poznański's Palace. As many as 71% of respondents are going to visit the Museum next time. The Museum of Art ms2 in Łódź is characterised by a very specific type of visitors, and its location on the premises of “Manufaktura” Shopping Centre causes that guests of the Museum apart from visiting its exhibitions also accomplish their commercial targets. young people at the age of 20–29 (33.48%) and usually highly educated (63.39%). There is a small percentage of visitors at the age of 70 and over (3.13%) with primary education (4.01%). Many visitors (12%) are related to art