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INTERVIEW


WE ALL WORK VERY HARD TO FIND WAYS TO MAKE


THE EXPERIENCE MORE IMPACTFUL FOR THE VISITOR


“If you connected all the zoos, aquariums, natural history and science museums in Europe, you’d be looking at about 290 million visitors per year,” he says. “We can potentially reach an enormous number of people.”


CHALLENGES As the science centre industry develops, gains recognition and reaches larger audiences, fresh challenges emerge. One of those is keeping an educated and bright pool of staff challenged and motivated. “Science centres are having to deal with the fact that the smartest people in our organisations are not able to develop and grow. There aren’t enough opportunities and the jobs they want are already filled. So how do you keep them motivated and inspired? These are grown-up problems for our industry.” Furthermore, science centres must manage the effects of the still struggling European economies. The sector relies heavily on private funding and commercial


Buchel believes science and technology are key to keeping the world healthy and liveable


sponsors, so wider financial instability is a constant challenge. “If there’s less money around, it hurts us, too,” says Buchel. Yet science centres are making progress


in overcoming problems they have faced. They’re learning how to communicate better with their audiences. They’re working closely with the science communities to develop better ways of explaining complex information and building better exhibits. Maker Spaces have been advanced and advocated by science centres and


museums and are now incredibly popular. Interactive and hands-on activities like this are part of a wider drive to get children – especially girls – enthusiastic about STEM topics, and it seems to be working. Buchel says: “Traditional schools


aren’t always the most inspirational environments, but science centres are good at connecting formal and informal learning. It’s hard to say precisely what our role is in getting more children, or girls, interested in STEM, for example, but we are part of that ecosystem. If you make the ecosystem as rich as possible, children have more opportunities to discover their talents and find inspiration.” “There’s a trend now for lifelong learning,


too. People continue to learn with us.” NEMO


Since joining NEMO in 2003, Buchel has doubled the annual visitor figures from about 300,000 to 600,000 today. NEMO was the fifth-most visited museum in the Netherlands in 2013 – pretty impressive in a country with celebrated attractions. Buchel says there are four main


Guests make giant bubbles with NEMO’s “super suds”


26 attractionsmanagement.com


factors behind this success. The first was securing support from the Dutch government, allowing NEMO to invest in new and improved programmes and exhibitions. The government also subsidises the reduced entry fees for schoolchildren, who account for 80,000 of NEMO’s visitors per year. The second move was in 2010 when NEMO joined the national museum card (Museumkaart) network. The card costs €55 (£39, $62) and lasts a year, allowing the cardholder entry to about 400 museums.


AM 3 2015 ©CYBERTREK 2015


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