Political Stalemate Closes Bosnia’s Oldest Art Gallery

The gallery, which first opened to the public in 1946, will close its doors to visitors on Thursday because of a vacuum of state-level funding.

Maja Abdomerovic, the institution’s managing director, said the museum had been operating on an annual budget of approximately €100,000, with 80 percent coming from the €850,000 cultural budget of Bosnia and Herzegovina at the state level.

However, because Bosnia and Herzegovina has still not formed a state-level government following the October 2010 elections, this money cannot be meted out leaving a substantial shortfall in necessary funds.

In addition to an absence of funding, the museum has been unable to appoint a new director since the end of the previous director’s tenure on 1 May. This is because appointments at this level can only be made once approved by representative members of the government – which has still to be formed.

“This situation [is] just a culmination of the last 16 years of problems that started emerging after the war,” Abdomerovic told Balkan Insight.  “We have the same status as a governmental institution as we [had] before the war, but we need a better legal framework.”
Young Bosnian artists are worried about their futures, and the cultural future of Bosnia and Herzegovina.  

“I have to get out of this country,” Lea Jerlagic, 26, told Balkan Insight after she heard the news.  

A recent graduate of Sarajevo’s Academy of Fine Arts, Jerlagic questioned what kind of opportunities she would have to express and support herself in the future. “What was the point of being a student all those years?” she asked.

Abdomermovic, though frustrated, said the museum would continue to curate its works and seek more funding.

“We are not closing the entire gallery, just the part which is opened for visitors,” Abdomerovic told Balkan Insight.

“[The public gallery] is only one segment of our work. We are a museum institution, [and have] some really important collections.”

All 16 staff members of the gallery will keep their jobs and Abdomerovic hopes more Bosnians will take notice of the museum’s drastic decision.