The Dance Museum's economic situation is so strained that the museum must close, as it is no longer possible to operate with the million-kronor deficit it is struggling with. In January next year, the museum will close its premises in central Stockholm and look for cheaper accommodation.
Cry for Help
To raise more money, the museum has now launched a campaign where private individuals can buy special matchboxes for a price of 1,000 kronor. The campaign aims to sell 10,000 boxes and thereby collect 10 million kronor.
It's clear that we understand that we won't sell that many. It's more of a thought experiment – if we sell 100, we'll be satisfied. The campaign is as much a marketing stunt as a cry for help, says the museum's CEO Hans Öjmyr.
The campaign, according to Öjmyr, is primarily a way to highlight the question of how the situation for cultural institutions looks today, with reduced state funding being the biggest difficulty.
We, like other cultural institutions, are built on decades of Swedish cultural policy financing. But now the grants are being stopped or frozen for most. The fact that we are aware that a change is needed in the financing system, but still have cultural policy demands on what we should achieve, is a paradox, he says.
Raising money from private sources is difficult, he believes:
One feels that the money disappears into a black hole. And the visitors themselves don't really have the willingness to pay for culture yet.
Erosion
The Dance Museum is not alone in trying to raise money with new methods. Theater Konträr recently had to close its stage in Stockholm, but beforehand organized a patron's salon to get, among others, business leaders to support the operation. The Stockholm Film Festival auctioned off a car in the fall to save the Skandia cinema, and Theater Brunnsgatan Fyra in Stockholm is soon organizing a benefit gala for its survival.
Gunnar Ardelius, Secretary-General of the Swedish Museums, is not surprised by the phenomenon and believes it will become more common as state funding decreases.
"It's a consequence of the erosion and underfunding of culture. Our members are taking creative measures, and there's strength in that. It's necessary, but can never replace a strong basic financing," he writes in an email to TT.
