Learning from the American Fundraising Model: A European Perspective March 2014 | Page 26

10. supporting
ambitious
plans
Dorota Monkiewicz, Director,
Wroclaw Contemporary Museum
(Poland), Class of 2013
For the time being, the Wroclaw Contemporary
Museum is not focusing on fundraising. Since
the museum only recently celebrated its second anniversary, efforts have been going into
getting the institution up and running, publicizing its programs and, as the museum’s director Dorota Monkiewicz puts it, “nesting in our
building.” However, with insufficient funding to
realize its ambitious plans for exhibitions and
programming, Monkiewicz sees fundraising
moving rapidly up the agenda.
As a city museum, the Wroclaw Contemporary
Museum receives funding from both the national government and the Wroclaw city administration. As part of the museum’s international
programming, collaborations with other European cultural institutions such as the Goethe
Institute in Germany and the British Council is
another way of tapping into funding.
However, Monkiewicz is keenly aware of the need
to broaden the museum’s sources of funding.
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C ON V ERS A T I ONS

“Being dependent on two public sources of funding is very insecure,” she says. “You have very little
influence on the decisions of politicians – and in
the end, it is they who distribute public funding.”
It is true that state funding for the arts has
been increasing. In 2009, during the country’s
Congress of Polish Culture in Krakow – which
brought together artists and professionals from
various art fields and the Polish ministry of culture – arts budgets were increased and included provision for funding allowing museums to
expand their collections.
At the congress, it was agreed that until 2016
up to 5 percent of the national budget should
be devoted to the arts. “Each year, step by step,
this budget increases,” explains Monkiewicz.