“Speaking English”: A Dialogue with Eastern and Central European Museum Professionals

Abstract

Fifteen years after the fall of the Berlin Wall, Central and Eastern European museums continue to go through demanding transitions. The former Eastern bloc has dissolved into many countries and cultures. Its cultural sector now openly displays a vivid diversity once hidden under Communism. In the last decade, probably no other region of the world has undergone such a rapid transformation, invigorated by strong contributions and interventions from outside the region. This article explores this vast landscape, through conversations with artists and museum professionals across Central and Eastern Europe. It gathers impressions and perspectives offered by many voices, revolving around the question of how a generation of museum professionals has adapted to the challenge. They have tasted the direct consequences, good and bad, of a free-market economy and borderless communications—and have reinvented themselves while doing so. Achieving much with little, they have had to learn to function within a dramatically changing local environment, and to speak “English” in a globalized world.