New regulations could cause almost two dozen cultural centers on the island to remove the current museum banner hanging from their facades. Or perhaps more importantly, they will no longer be able to advertise themselves as museums.

Of the 54 centres included in one of the latest publications of the Department of Fine Arts Museus of the Consell, a total of 38 today employ the Museum brand. As stated the Vice President of culture, Joan Rotger, and the technical secretary of Culture, Miquel Barceló , only a score of museums will remain in the category. The rest would either become “museum collections” or would not be able to use either of the two nomenclatures listed in the legislation. This could be, for example, the situation for the House of Fra Juniper Serra Museum or the Museum Archduke Louis Salvador in Son Marroig, Deià.

Each centre applying for recognition and approval in the official record of the Consell de Mallorca, must submit an application to the Institution with documentation meeting several requirements. Firstly, centres requesting recognition as a museum must have a master plan. Also, they must possess property and/or collections of sufficient scope to meet the objectives of the museum. They must have a suitable building to make a permanent residence, a budget and sufficient qualified staff to ensure proper operation. Of course there must also be funds available for research, consultation, education, outreach and public enjoyment. And finally, there must be public visiting hours, adequate safety measures, and a recognised method for publishing the accounts, bylaws or rules of organization and government, and an annual activity schedule.

Meanwhile, museum collections need meet only some of these requirements, such as having a permanent exhibition, a coherent and ordered number of exhibits and/or collections, publication of funding, being permanently open to the public or having a journal. But there is no requirement to have a master plan or an annual activity schedule.

Those centres that do not obtain recognition may not use the name of museum or museum collection. Nor will they gain access to grants and subsidies given by the Consell.

Furthermore, the legislation includes periodic reporting obligations to the Institution. In the month of December each year, centres will have to submit a copy of the inventory list and those joining in the first quarter of each year must send a report to the Consell, including the annual activity plan of the foregoing year and a financial report.

Given these requirements and the budgetary and staff cuts that are are currently gripping the cultural centres of the island which could hinder their adaptation to the new regulations, Vice President of Culture Joan Rotger said that the Institution will provide technical support to the working spaces, such as in the work of cataloguing, so that they can supply their current deficiencies in order to adapt to the new law.

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