Sculpture Conservation at the National Glyptotheque of Greece as a Promotional Tool for Audience Development

Museums and cultural organizations employ communication tools to attract the public. The National Glyptotheque of Greece, an annex of the National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum, had been closed to the public for almost 2 years due to restoration works at the exhibition hall. This research aims to highlight the potential of sculpture conservation activities presented either via social media or by live demonstration, as an effective means of communication policy for the attraction of audience and enhancement of visitors to the National Glyptotheque. A digital campaign was designed to promote its forthcoming reopening in 2022. Twenty-two posts were uploaded on the Facebook account of the National Gallery-Alexandros Soutsos Museum within 1-month period, before the gallery’s reopening, all of which referred to the work of sculpture conservators. An online questionnaire followed for the evaluation of the campaign on a convenient sample of 115 followers. The results showed that the audience was very interested in getting familiar with conservation issues and in addition, most of the online visitors stated that the campaign provoked their desire to visit the museum. After the reopening of the museum in 2024, a second campaign was organized, aiming to focus on the Glyptotheque’s sculpture garden. This time it was an on-site event, an open lab called “Conservation in the park”, where visitors had the rare opportunity to physically attend and watch live conservation of three sculptures from the permanent outdoors exhibition, during a 5-day period. The campaign included the opening posts at the museum’s website and social media a few days before the beginning of the event, and then, a few short-period stories were uploaded during the event. The methodology used in each campaign revealed some problematic aspects and good practices. Backstage activities of the museums may come at the forefront, and conservation of works of art may be a powerful tool for raising the audience attraction. Implications for heritage managers are discussed.