International conference dedicated to the anniversary of the Belarusian Skansen was held in Minsk

The international scientific and practical conference was held in the Museum of the History of the Great Patriotic War on October 21. The event was timed to the upcoming anniversary of the Belarusian State Museum of Folk Architecture and Life, which is located in the agro-town of Ozerzo, the correspondent of the Minsk-Novosti agency reports.

Belarusian Skansen, an open-air museum, will turn 50 on December 9. On this occasion, as the director of the museum Sergey Usyk said, since the beginning of the year, various events have been held in different formats:

- We celebrated Maslenitsa on a large scale: more than 2.5 thousand spectators gathered. And more than 4 thousand people came to the seven-meter fire at Kupala. In May, we hosted a large blogging festival, and in August – the first Duda.by festival, which will now be held every year on the territory of the historical complex. Also, with the assistance of the National Tourism Agency, Chinese tourists bloggers came to our museum. We are expecting a delegation from India soon. Today, we decided to discuss pressing issues in the work of Skansen in the format of a conference, talk about our plans, listen to colleagues from Russia and, perhaps, outline common projects.

The first director of the open-air museum Sergey Sergachev was invited to the event. He told the audience, which consisted mainly of young people, how difficult it was to obtain the first material for the historical complex, how Skansen workers traveled all over Belarus and found future exhibits in the most amazing way:

- Not all villagers were willing to talk about the past and let into their homes. In one of these families, without learning anything and leaving, I asked at least a wooden spoon to take to my museum. It was strangely stuck between the logs under the roof. It turned out that the couple remembered this spoon all their lives and did not know where it was. Her husband made it with his own hands the day after the wedding and gave it to his wife. And she immediately lost her..

Before the discussion of topical problems, the staff of the Belarusian Museum of Folk Architecture and Life performed national songs to the accompaniment of Belarusian musical instruments. Then the conference participants – local historians, historians, directors of Skansen from Russia – were distributed in thematic sections.

The main topic of discussion was the preservation of the material and intangible heritage of the country: monuments of architecture, musical culture, rituals and traditions; improvement of formats of work with visitors, as well as financing issues.

“The global problem of skansens is their incompleteness,” says S. Usyk. In some regions, they are built up by 5%, someone was lucky, and the completion is approaching 70%. Our master plan museum contains six sectors. Now only three of them are built up. Therefore, we need to join forces to attract sponsors, organize expeditions, find new objects

The dialogue platform will work all day and will end after 18:00.

Photo by Sergei Pozhi