This document provides information about innovative educational practices at museums in Bulgaria. It discusses five Bulgarian museums/galleries - the Regional Museum of History in Dobrich, the National Museum of History in Sofia, the Eco-Museum in Ruse, the Panagyurishte Municipality Museum, and the Trakart Museum in Plovdiv. For each, it provides one or two pictures and brief descriptions of their educational programs and activities for local communities and different age groups. It also summarizes the goals of the EMEE project, an EU-funded initiative aimed at making museums more accessible through new interpretive and transnational historical approaches.

1. Contemporary Museum and Gallery Education practices:
Local Communities meet Global Narratives, May 22-23, 2015
Vera Boneva
TO LEARN AND CREATE AMONG THE TREASURES:
INNOVATIVE EDUCATIONAL PRACTICES OF BULGARIAN MUSEUMS

2. Bulgaria
 110,994 sq km territory
 7.4 million inhabitants
 EU member from 2007
 Sofia – capital city
 Plovdiv – 2019 EU
capital of culture
 Eastern Orthodoxy –
traditional religion
(85% of population)
 214 state and 4 private
museums
 32 archeological
reserves
 9 UNESCO
Heritage Sites

3. Five museum/gallery plots from Bulgaria
 Regional Museum of History in the town of Dobrich as a meeting point of cultural
diversities and rich historical traditions of Dodrudzha – a geographical region, shared
between Bulgaria and Romania
 National Museum of History in Sofia as a significant heritage institution with
representative status and essential functions with regard maintaining an explicit
national consciousness
 Eco-Museum in Ruse as a brand new cultural and educational topos with great
potential for eco-activities, targeted to a large scale of audiences
 Panagyurishte Municipality Museum as a special cultural network loaded with
a strong attractiveness for all generations of Bulgarian citizens tempted by our
historical narratives and national myths
 Trakart Museum in Plovdiv as a private museum and art center with strong
presence in local cultural life

4. P1 P2
Regional Museum of History – Dobrich
P1. Ex-Romanian Casino – Museum of Modern History
P2. Presentation of a book
about Romania in the Yordan Yovkov Museum
P3. Replica of a Revival Bulgarian schoolroom –
popular space for educational activities
P3

5. P1 P3
P2
National History Museum – Sofia
P1. Main building of the Museum
P2. Permanent exhibition
P3. A future judge
in the museum workshop

6. Eurovision Museum Exhibiting Europe – EMEE project
 The aim of the EMEE-project is to make museums more accessible in many ways:
with an innovative and interdisciplinary approach developed by history didactics
the project wants to re-interpret museum objects and put them into
a broader context of national and transnational history.
 The EMEE project is supposed to be realised by a European trans-sectional
consortium, led by the University of Augsburg - Germany (Chair of History Didactics)
and composed by excellent partners from Bulgaria (National History Museum),
France (Université Paris-Est Créteil, Chair for technology, design and visual arts),
Germany-Stuttgart (Atelier Brückner), Italy (Università degli Studi Roma Tre),
Portugal (Museu Nacional de Arqueologia), Slovenia (National Museum
of Contemporary History) and Austria (monochrom Kunstverein).
 The project develops innovative and creative concepts (tools) to realize the
‘change of perspective’ as the key to ‘Europeanisation’ of museum work.
These concepts are provided online and on a trial base in the Eurovision Labs
of all participating partners. Internet site: www.museums-exhibiting-europe.de

7. P1 P2
P3 Eco-Museum in Ruse
P1. Renovated building
P2. Diorama – birds in their habitat
P3. Mammuthus romanus taken captive

8. P1 P3
P2 Panagyurishte Museum
P1. Tutev’s House – a dwelling place
of Bulgarian Revival spirit
P2. A section of permanent exhibition,
devoted to the April Uprising – 1876
P3. The underground exhibition hall
with the Panagyurishte golden treasure

9. P1 P3
P2 Trakart Museum in Plovdiv
P1. In situ Roma mosaics with a part of
permanent exhibition
P2. Disabled people creating mosaics
in the Trakart Center
P3. Childrenʼs songs and dances into the Museum
P

10. The End