‘National collections of contemporary art’ programme. Part two: applicants/ collections and results/evaluation

The ‘National Collections of Contemporary Art’ Programme of the Ministry of Culture and National Heritage constitutes an interesting case of a systemic solution to the question of financing museum collections’ purchases. Its implementation demonstrated changeability of action (both from the point of view of the applicants, and Programme’s evaluators and organizer), while at the same time the genuine assumptions were maintained, namely the support provided to the major museums, most often newly established, whose statutory goal would be and is collecting contemporary art. Turning points in the Programme, as well as the observation of applicants’ strategies while the Programme functioned served as the basis for the Programme’s evaluation, and led to replacing it with the ‘National Collections of Contemporary Art’ Programme, these, however, demonstrated failures in consistency, in particular without pointing to the final systemic solution in this respect.