Museum of Trade

It started to be put together twenty five years ago and today there are more than 61,000 artefacts in its collection. They all show the rich history of trade in Slovakia. The museum’s ambition is to be lively, interactive and to invoke pleasant memories of times when shopping was literally an event…

Here you can find all sorts of items, boards with various inscriptions, advertising slogans, jars for the finest goods, cash registers, scales and weights, containers for goods, colourful packaging, banners, labels…The construction of a new building has commenced which will present the history of pubs and restaurants. There will also be a functioning mini-brewery. Visitors will become familiar with the entire production process and will also be able to taste the products. The Museum of Trade therefore has items in its storage which have been a part of everyday shopping and even more…

This ‘even more’ is a programme by which the museum comes to life even in the evening.  Since the Museum Director, Marcel Juck, is also a drummer – it was only a matter of time until he succeeded in enlivening the museum with music…And not just any music – a project called ‘Rock in the Museum’.
“The idea arose after positive reactions from the public to our first concerts within the nationwide event ‘Night of Museums and Galleries’. At the same time we want to attract the public to visit the museum using other forms, not only collection pieces. The aim was to create a unique cultural activity, a new music scene with quality music at the highest level,” explained M. Juck.
The area for connecting the museum and music was found right in the attractive environment of the permanent exhibition. Each concert becomes an opportunity to visit the museum. Summer is a bonus – in summer concerts also take place in the museum gardens. Are the inside areas enough for presenting music? “The public is excited, they feel good in the untraditional environment of a museum exhibition, they welcome close contact and spontaneous communication with musicians since it is a smaller scene for a maximum audience of one hundred,” explained the Museum Director.
Since the Museum of Trade should offer only the best and most attractive goods, we were interested in which music is at the centre of interest of the hosts? “Approximately every second Friday, we really offer quality. To also allure age categories who are less interested in the museum world, we focus upon rock, blues, folk or an alternative scene of the highest standard.”

What portions of music awaits visitors in the coming months?
 “Several performances in the Rock in the Museum programme are still being prepared but I can certainly invite visitors to listen to the American blues singer, Candye Kane, with her group (Wednesday 19th May), in June we will host the Australian blues rock guitarist, Gwyn Ashton (Wednesday, 4th June), at the end of July we have booked a double concert of the current Czech blues star, Petra Börnerová Band and Marcel Flemr Band (Thursday, 29th July) and in August we are looking forward to American blues from the Frank Morrey Band (Friday, 6th August),” explained Marcel Juck and he added that all ‘shoppers’ are warmly welcome.

If you have forgotten to buy something today, pop into the little shop with mixed goods which is part of the Museum of Trade. You will definitely find “your” goods there.  If they are sold out at that moment, stay for a good concert….