The Whale Museum's general meeting took place last week, where the 2021 annual accounts were submitted for approval and the museum's activities during the past year were reviewed.
Activities during a pandemic.
The pandemic had a major impact on the museum's activities in the last two years, but in adversity there is room to spot new creative opportunities. A time marked by assembly restrictions and closures was used to build and renovate the museum's ground floor, which had not been in use for decades. Ambitious renovations were undertaken, where walls were torn out and rebuilt, floors floated, drainage along the building, masonry repaired, a new electrical system installed, a new fire protection system and more.
As a result, a lease agreement was signed with Þingeyinga's Knowledge Network, and the Fab Lab workshop recently started operating in the new space. Fab Lab comes from the English word Fabrication Lab and is a kind of production laboratory. The workshop is equipped with equipment and tools to make almost anything and is open to anyone who wants to train their creativity and implement their ideas.
The collaboration between the Whale Museum and the Þingeyinga Knowledge Network will continue to grow in the coming period, but major construction is currently underway, which consists of merging the buildings with Hafnarstvet 1 and 3. With the merger, the professional collaboration between the institutions will be strengthened, which will lead to new opportunities in the field of research. and mediation.
The whale school started working again this year to the great satisfaction of the students as well as the staff of the museum, in addition to the work being done to develop the whale school and make it available online for a larger group of students throughout the country. The museum is currently looking for a partner to develop digital learning materials for the coming season.
In May, Eva Björk, the manager of the museum, visited The honey garden in Vestmanney and met with Audrey Padgett about the possibility of collaboration in links to an exhibition related to the Mjöldren.
Restrictions during the epidemic led to the Whale Conference being broadcast live for the first time through Facebook, where the conference is still accessible and 570 people have watched the first broadcast and 325 the second. Usually about 40-50 people can follow the conference in the hall of the museum.
The museum received grants from Museum Council for many projects during the year and work on them is progressing well, including renovations in the museum storage, cataloging and photography of artefacts, installation of a new exhibition about vegetation and life in the shallow sea and working on a porpoise skeleton that will be used as a teaching tool.
The Whale Museum in collaboration with Whale Wise thought Ocean Film Festival for the first time, films inspired by the ocean were shown, both selected documentaries and films made by people connected to the scientific community in Iceland. The event was well attended and fun. This year the festival will be held for the second time and will be bigger in format than before. This year the festival is registered in the database for film festivals and accepts applications from all over the world.
In the summer it was finally possible to test drive virtual reality experience of the museum and it went very well. An employee guided visitors through the experience, where they experience swimming in the ocean around killer whales, sperm whales, humpback whales, pilot whales, seals and minke whales. Now the experience is accessible within the museum and visitors can walk up to it and try it out without the help of staff.
In October, a new one was installed art exhibition by Katrina Davis and Jack Cowley and is a mix of art and poetry inspired by their experiences as whale watching guides at Skjálfand.
In December, a Christmas market was held in the museum in collaboration with Húsavíkurstofa, and that event brought a lot of happiness, both among vendors as well as those who came to shop for Christmas goods and explore the museum.
The year in numbers.
In the years before covid, attendance at the museum was around 30.000 people a year. When the pandemic hit, visitor numbers dropped to 11.000 in 2020, rising to 22.000 in 2021.
21% of visitors came from the USA, 18% were Icelanders, 13% Germans, 9% from France, 5% from Italy and 34% from other countries.
As expected, the operating result is considerably better than in 2020. The sale of tickets and souvenirs is increasing by ISK 32,4 million. between years and project grants are increasing by ISK 3,5 m. In total, the company's income is increasing by 118%.
EBITDA for the year is ISK 12,7 million. but last year EBITDA was negative by ISK 6,1 m.
The museum's annual accounts are now available on the website.
