Activity of museums and galleries, 2023

Key statistics compared to 2019 as the pre-COVID year: 

• Museums, museum collections and galleries in Slovenia prepared 1,224 exhibitions, or 13% fewer than in the last year before the epidemic;
• All exhibitions combined were seen by slightly more than 2.7 million visitors (1.5% fewer);
• Almost 633,500 free tickets for exhibitions were issued, about 15% more than in 2019.

Cultural wealth of museums and galleries

These institutions had around 9.6 million museum or gallery objects, 55.3% of them inventoried. The largest share, 47.2%, were visual or art objects, including photographs (photographs alone accounted for 93.8% of visual or art objects).

Museums and galleries also educate visitors

Many museums and galleries also prepare various workshops, guided tours, interactive events, lectures, discussions, etc., for their visitors. In 2023, 34,950 such events were prepared (2019: 42,894), attended by around 970,000 people (2019: close to 961,000).

Museums and galleries were asked about the offer of virtual educational events. In 2020, there were 1,757 e-events, while last year "only" 285 educational e-events were held, indicating that visitors prefer physical museums and galleries over virtual ones, if these cultural institutions are open to the public.

Were museums and galleries accessible to people with impairment?

Thirty-three museums, institutions with museum collections and galleries provided fully arranged access to exhibition and event premises for people with physical impairment, 53 had partly arranged access, and 13 did not yet set up any such access.

For the time being, access to the mentioned institutions is still available to a lesser extent for sensory impaired persons: it was fully arranged in nine, partly arranged in 52, and not arranged at all in 39 of them.

Earnings from ticket sale higher than the year before

Museums and galleries earned around EUR 5 million from ticket sale, i.e. around EUR 1.1 million more than in 2019. Visitors paid on average about EUR 5 to view an exhibition; the fees have mostly not changed since 2016 with the average fee around EUR 4. However, not everyone had to pay an entrance fee. According to our data, museums and galleries issued almost 633,500 free tickets for days such as the Summer Museum Night or This Merry Day of Culture, etc.

Students represented the largest share among external associates

Institutions covered by the survey had 1,107 employees and 2,277 external associates. Of the permanently employed persons, 11% were under the age of 35, and the majority (1,016) had full-time employment. 

As in previous years, students represented the largest share of external associates (38%), followed by the self-employed in culture (22%) and associates with contracts for a copyrighted work (19%).

How were museums and galleries financed?

The total revenues of museums and galleries for the implementation of activities amounted to EUR 69.6 million, most of which (82%) was revenues from public resources. The total expenditure for the implementation of museum and gallery activities in Slovenia amounted to EUR 69.2 million, of which 58% was spent on labour costs, including payments to external associates, and 33% on museum and gallery activities; the remaining 9% was earmarked for investments and operations. 


Tables with the latest data are available in the SiStat Database.