Uganda museum upgrade should boost tourism
What you need to know:
- In March, the ArtNewspaper reported that the top 100 museums in the world received 175 million visitors in 2023, up on the preceding year’s 141 million.
Renovations at the Uganda National Museum will start this week and it will be closed for ten months, the Uganda Tourism Board announced on July 28.
The museum, opened in 1908 in the colonial era, houses mainly historical and cultural pieces. But it can become more interactive and upgraded to fit emerging needs of visitors.
According to the ministry of Tourism, Wildlife and Antiquities, the museum was due for renovations since no major works or additions had been done at the museum, save for the Independence Gallery and the Natural History Gallery additions in 1962.
116 years of little or zero investment in a historical and cultural national museum is not news, considering the shape of several buildings, roads, health facilities, schools erected or opened years before the Union Jack was lowered and the Ugandan flag was hoisted in 1962.
In an article published in Monitor on Thursday, Ms Jackline Besigye Nyiracyiza, the acting commissioner for museums and monuments, said the renovations will include upgrading existing structures and installation of modern facilities, with the aim of promoting and preserving Uganda’s cultural heritage and improving visitor experience at the site that match global standards.
Globally, museums fall under different categories, namely national history such as the State Museum in Moscow, Russia, arts and culture like the Louvre in Paris, France, Victoria and Albert Museum in London, the United Kingdom; historical museums like Russia’s Museum of the Great Patriotic War, alias the Victory Museum, that is reported to have the largest collection of equipment used in the Second World War in Europe .
In March, the ArtNewspaper reported that the top 100 museums in the world received 175 million visitors in 2023, up on the preceding year’s 141 million due effects of the Covid-19 pandemic. The top four most visited museums were the Louvre (8.9 million), Vatican museums (6.8 million), British Museum (5.9 million) in London, Metropolitan Museum of Art+ (5.3 million) in New York (USA).
Back home, the minister of Tourism, Mr Tom Butiime, revealed in May that the Uganda Museum received 131,508 visitors in 2023 up from 67,366 in 2022, translating to a 137 percent increase. He said 87 percent of these were domestic visitors and that the 2023 figures surpassed those recorded in the pre-Covid-19 era.
These numbers are negligible when compared to the millions that visit museums in Europe, the Americas but the government call borrow ideas from Rwanda that reopened the Campaign Against Genocide Museum in 2022 with additions that brought audio-visual aspects to life such as digital pictures in well-lit interiors as visitors listen and read about the events that led to the 1994 genocide.