Annus horribilis, but many new possibilities

What a year! We are leaving behind a very challenging year, but also a year of full speed and great determination

Frode Meinich, Director of The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology The past year has been a year of balancing act. We started the year with high speed, great planning and construction activity for several new exhibitions, visitor records and we were looking forward to a fantastic museum year with ever-new and satisfied visitors. As we all know, things went downhill quickly, with the closure of the museum in March, layoffs of many employees for six weeks, reopening in May and a demanding month of June. A massive effort was made by all employees to put infection control measures in place so that we could welcome the public safely and securely into our large museum building. It was a good summer in terms of visitors with many tourists on a trip to their own country, but with an increased infection trend and challenges in public transport throughout the autumn, visitors were absent to a greater and greater extent before we were ordered to close again in November due to the infection situation in Oslo.

During the first lockdown, we really had a breakthrough in digital communication from the museum, and we started with digital science shows, tours, exhibition openings, activities, lectures, professional discussions, conferences and concerts to name a few. It is difficult for me to thank my colleagues at the museum enough for the effort that was put in here. There has been effort across all departments, and many have taken on tasks to meet completely new needs this year. Information on our website and marketing of the museum has been more important than ever. We have kept our loyal visitors informed, we have continued to build on our good brand and we have drawn people into online museum experiences. Something that has flourished after the arrival of Covid-19.

Overall, the country saw visitor numbers of close to 43% of the expected number in 2020, which is of course low. There have indeed been many tough priorities with the financial challenges in this very different and crisis-like operating year, but with good support from the board, a revised national budget and extra compensation for the science center, 2020 has not been a financial disaster. We are incredibly happy about that!

We introduced two new temporary exhibitions: Climate 2+, opened by Minister for Climate and Environment Sveinung Rotevatn, and Government Quarter, which was opened by Oslo Mayor Marianne Borgen. The climate exhibition challenges our visitors to ask questions, and to see that everything that happens around us is connected to one of the greatest challenges of our time - the climate crisis. The photo exhibition Government Quarter shows photographs that document the history of one of the capital's most controversial quarters. All of it was photographed by Teigen's photo studio, and deposited with us as part of the Dextra collection funded by the Sparebankstiftelsen. 

The Friends' Association has also done a fantastic job for the museum this year. They have financed the renovation of the Birkeland-Eydes arc furnace outside the museum, the restoration of the museum's enormous water wheel in the entrance area and the purchase of a new model railway. Through countless hours of volunteer work, the Friends' Association has also restored the large industrial model that represents Norwegian industrial society in the fifties.

Even though we have been on a tight budget, we have been working diligently on our two new permanent exhibitions. When we open the medical exhibition Life and Death at the beginning of 2021, we will be renewing large parts of the National Medical Museum's exhibition areas. An innovative and interactive ICT exhibition will open in November of the same year with Snøhetta as designers. We are setting the bar high, and our ambition is to become one of the country's most important arenas for putting ICT on the agenda.

We have also directed our energy inward this year. It has been demanding to reassure our employees in relation to layoffs and what happened, and to talk about uncertainty and changes that we did not know the extent of. It has also been challenging with home offices and working in new ways, some are also experiencing isolation. We have worked on internal control and revised both the security plan and the emergency plan and acquired a new energy monitoring system, so there has been no shortage of high activity this year either. 

There has naturally been minimal rental throughout the year, the same applies to other physical events. There has also been a lot of activity this year outside the museum building at Kjelsås and we have communicated, taught and provided experiences to about 3,000 students and teachers. The school program has largely been run as planned and Oslo Science Centre has taught micro:bit in schools. In collaboration with the municipality of Oslo and the Norwegian Agency for Education, separate Talent Centres for science were started for high-achieving students at Hellerud, Hersleb and Persbråten upper secondary schools, all financed by the DNB Savings Bank Foundation. Kodekraft, a digital teaching programme about programming and energy sources, was established at Norwegian science centres in collaboration with Equinor.

Now we are looking forward to 2021 and hope it will be a more normal year!

Still good reading!

Greeting

Frode Meinich,
director at The Norwegian Museum of Science and Technology