Vietnam’s Minister of Culture, Sports and Tourism, Hoang Tuan Anh once said about the role of museums: "There are a lot of national and provincial museums in Vietnam. These museums play a very important role in educating our people about the country’s rich culture, arts, and traditions."Folk art researcher Nguyễn Khắc Xương shares this view: "Museums make a great contribution to mankind as they concretize our ideologies as well as experiences we encounter in life, thus helping to preserve our culture and traditions."
Vietnamese museums, however, have not satisfied public expectations. Many people think of museums as glass boxes containing artifacts with printed explanations next to them in a cold and cheerless atmosphere. This perception results from a monotonous style of display and a lack of imagination in conveying the messages of history, culture, and art to the public through the artifacts. Although there is a huge investment from the state budget to museums every year, and many valuable collections of artifacts, Vietnamese museums have not found appropriate ways to engage the public. A fresh approach is needed by those involved in this matter. Director of Vietnamese Revolutionary Museum, Doctor Phạm Quốc Quân says: "We should take market-oriented mechanism into account to solve these problems. Products can be sold only when their value is acknowlegded by consumers. So how can we advertise a museum’s value to the public? This leads to questions about the current preservation, maintenance, and management work of museums in Vietnam."
The Vietnamese Museum of Ethnology is a good example. It is one of the very few of museums in Vietnam that runs a successful business. Using a creative marketing approach, the museum manages to attract crowds of visitors throughout the year. Creative ideas like displaying items in a format of street vendors and their shops, or organized around the 12 zodiac icons have attracted huge audiences. Doctor Phạm Quốc Quân says:"We need new, modern ideas and viewpoints to better attract the public. Only when we realize that goal can we turn museums into a special product that can be sold to the public. Then people will be eager to visit museums to learn something rather than thinking that they’re wasting their time."

Ngoc Diep