Muzeul Național de Istorie a României

The National Museum of Romanian History / Muzeul Național de Istorie a României (MNIR) is a national public body, a cultural and research organization (museum). MNIR was established in 1970 and was opened to the public in 1972, being one of the representative institutions of the Romanian culture, the biggest organization of this kind in Romania and one of the most important in South-Eastern and Central Europe. Its headquarters, located on 12 Calea Victoriei, is a historical monument - the former Palace of Posts, Telegraphs and Telephones, an emblematic building of Bucharest and Romania. The number of MNIR’s staff is approximately 150 employees (management; specific positions: researcher, curator, conservator, restorer, photographer, custodian; positions specific to the Financial, Administrative, HR and Legal departments etc.), to them can be added a variable number (dozens) of external collaborators and volunteers on contract basis (about 30-40 per year). In the last decade, MNIR has cooperated with the majority of the national and county history and art museums in Romania, with the Romanian Cultural Institute (ICR), the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE), the Ministry of Internal Affairs (MAI), the National Archives, the Universities of Bucharest and Cluj-Napoca, the National Bank of Romania (BNR), municipalities, embassies and foreign cultural institutes in Romania, with several NGOs, in order to organize exhibitions and major cultural events. Therefore, annually, apart from permanent exhibitions and other specific activities (archaeological excavations, investigations, participation at conferences, publications, etc.) MNIR organizes at least 15-20 temporary exhibitions at its headquarters, 5-10 at the headquarters of some partners from Bucharest and from Romania, 10-15 abroad, participates in several dozen other events in Bucharest, in the country and abroad and organizes museum education workshops for hundreds/ thousands of teenagers and young people from Bucharest and the Ilfov region, activities developed with its own employees, but also with the help of 30-40 volunteers annually. These activities are addressed to approximately 60.000 beneficiaries/year at the headquarters, 70.000-80.000 in Romania, hundreds of thousands abroad and 250.000-500.000 in the virtual environment (22 exhibitions and 11 virtual tours). Moreover, having the interest to promote its unique heritage (approx. 750.000 cultural goods), but also to increase its audience and to raise the international collaboration with entities from cultural, research and education areas, besides the organisation of exhibitions and cultural events, MNIR has proposed/ implemented, in the last years, projects funded through national and international grants, such as: European Research Council (ERC), Lifelong Learning Leonardo Programme and Erasmus + and has the willingness to develop new projects funded through EEA grants or by the EU (CREA, EFC and ESC).