Page - 87 - in Nikola Tesla and the Graz Tech

87 The State or Universalmuseum Joanneum GmbH – setting out into the future. As of 1 January 2003, the State Museum Joanneum was spun off from the state administration into a limited liability company. At the top of this limit- ed liability company, two managing directors under commercial law were ap- pointed: an artistic director and a scientific director initially, but from 2018 a scientific and a financial director whose division of tasks is laid down in the company’s own rules of procedure. The interests of the owners, the State of Styria (85%) and – due to the man- agement of the Kunsthaus Graz – the City of Graz (15%), are safeguarded by the general assembly and a supervisory board consisting of nine capital repre- sentatives (seven representatives of the State of Styria, two representatives of the City) and five employee representatives. Compared to before, the limited liability form (GmbH) provides the manage- ment with a very large degree of autonomy in its decisions, more room for manoeuvre regarding budgeting and thus with the planning of longer-term projects, a larger transparency in the cost and performance calculation and a higher measure of flexibility regarding personnel. In addition, the acquisition of additional financial resources (sponsoring, etc.) is also much easier. The Universalmuseum Joanneum employs over 500 permanent staff, in- cluding supervisors and educators, to fulfil the diverse tasks of a museum, namely collecting, researching, documenting, conserving, exhibiting and communicating. In recent years, around 600,000 visitors a year have seen up to 70 tem- porary exhibitions a year. Countless lecture events, discussions, excursions, family and children’s tours are always an important addition to the presenta- tion of objects in the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions. The official cooperation sector with other large educational institutions such as the University of Graz and Erzherzog Johann University (TU Graz) has also recently been given strong impetus – namely with regard to opening up new groups of interested parties. The presentation of the numerous collections is currently taking place at fourteen locations, which – with the exception of the Kunsthaus Graz (2003), the pavilion building Flavia Solva (2004) and the Archaeology Museum (2009) – are historic buildings: the castles of Eggenberg, Stainz and Trautenfels, the Landeszeughaus (Armoury), the Volkskundemuseum (Folk Life Museum) housed in a former monastery complex, the Lesliehof in Raubergasse which was built as a town house of the Benedictine monastery of St. Lambrecht, (the parent building of the Joanneum) as well as Palais Herberstein in Sack-