Kulturarv utan Gränser
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Museums
Museums are institutions that allow us to relate to our past, present and future. In countries which have suffered from ethnic conflicts, working with museums is important for the process of reconciliation. Cultural Heritage without Borders’s cooperation with museums in the Balkans has shown that there is a need for a more profound discussion on the goals and methods required for museum activities.
War, poor finances and marginalisation from western European museums are some of the reasons why the museums have remained unchanged for so long. Museum managements came with many requests and proposals to Cultural Heritage without Borders when cooperation was initiated and improvements during the projects have been quite significant. Cultural Heritage without Borders has always supported the staff in their attempts to focus more on the museum’s outreaching functions and encouraged ambitions to arouse the general public’s interest in their activities.
Seminars and courses have played an important role in cooperation with the museums. Seminars have aimed at providing opportunities for further training of cultural historians and museum staff through the exchange of experiences and practical exercises. The absence of networks for both heritage workers and museum staff has been another problem with which we have been working; for example, a network for female museum directors has been set up. Seminars have been arranged on specific topics of current importance and implemented as combined projects between Cultural Heritage without Borders and national and regional institutions.
New working methods in the museums have been accordingly developed with the help of training, exchanges, seminars, workshops and in some cases provision of modern technical appliances. Part of the continued work sponsored by Cultural Heritage without Borders concerns the development of methods to document the present. Museum cooperation will from now on be conducted on a more regional scale between Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kosova and Albania. In April 2006 a workshop has been planned to draw up guidelines and requirements for this work together.
