Konferensartikel

New museum buildings in CEE are monuments that relate to negotiating new narratives of identity and statehood. Our aim in this article is to close-study the processes related to three museum constructions in Central Eastern Europe – Estonia; Hungary and Croatia. We examine the three public museums in the context of their locations; ranging from the suburbs to the city centres and study their establishment in the context of privatization; urbanisation; and reaching out for the audiences. The architecture of new museum buildings is seen as an outcome of historical and social processes growing out from the recent past of the three countries. In the contemporary arena the museum represents the reinterpreted relationships between private and public; as well as culture and money. All three new museum constructions have been driven by interests of different public authorities; neoliberal market actors; and to a lesser degree; by the local citizen society.

Central Eastern Europe; museum boom; museum architecture; spatial politics; audience engagement