Articole şi testimoniale acreditare Erasmus + ⋆ Muzeul Național de Istorie a României

“Erasmus+ for Adult Education”, ref. no. 2021-1-RO01-KA121-ADU-00008680
Implemented by the National History Museum of Romania (MNIR) in the period 1st of September 2021 – 30th of November 2022, financed by the European Union, through the project Erasmus+ with the amount of 57.830,00 Euro.

The Florentine Museum and Institute of Prehistory was founded in 1946 by the palethnologist Paolo Graziosi in order to preserve and enhance the prehistoric collections from various sources existing in Florence.

It had, as it has to this day, the purpose of promoting new research in the field of prehistory, of undertaking studies, of the preservation of archaeological materials, and of promoting instructional and educational activities. In addition to being an exhibition facility, the Museum has over time increased its profile as a research institute in the field of prehistory. Today it is included among the Museums of excellence in the Region of Tuscany and boasts collaborations with prestigious museums and academic institutions both national and international.

Housed in the historic building of the Oblate convent, the museum preserves records on the oldest cultural expressions of the genus Homo, human and animal fossil remains, attributable to the entire arch of prehistory, from the Palaeolithic to the Metal Ages. The findings come from excavations and research conducted in Italy, Europe and Africa (see “Collections”).

Initially reserved only for specialists of the prehistoric, the Museum collections became accessible to the public in 1975. In 1998 the Museum underwent renovations which finalized the creation of new exhibition areas, currently redeveloped by means of a system of multimedia stations that make the itinerary easy to use, also in the case of visitors with disabilities.

In addition to the collections on display to the public, the Museum preserves large collections of palaeontological and palethnological materials in its depositories, ordered and classified, and made available to scholars.
The Museum’s collections include materials deriving from research in Italy and abroad, carried out by Paolo Graziosi as well as other scholars. In part these materials (artefacts, artistic objects, documentation of the funeral rite, fauna, etc.) are on display, while the majority are conserved in the Museum’s repositories. They illustrate the history of the genus Homo, which appeared in Africa about 2.5 million years ago, throughout the period of Prehistory, up to the use of writing.

In the exhibit itinerary the collections follow the chronological criterion of the chrono-cultural macrophases: Palaeolithic, Mesolithic, Neolithic, Copper Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. Some particular themes are highlighted in detail and particular attention is given to the artistic events, with original pieces and replicas.
Some important lots are part of historical collections related to early research on the Palaeolithic in France, on Neolithic pile dwellings in Switzerland, on certain Terramare cultures of the Bronze Age, and on the prehistory of Africa and Asia. The collections are accessible to scholars of prehistoric archaeology and are also made available for university education.

The Museum possesses an important gallery of plaster casts relating to prehistoric works of art and funerary evidence. The realistic replicas are made available, on request, for temporary exhibitions and for events of social archaeology aimed at the accessibility of cultural heritage.

The “Paolo Graziosi” Archive is an important asset, property of the Museum, which includes a large quantity of documents (correspondence, excavation journals, photographs, negatives, press proofs, study notes, etc.) related to Graziosi’s research in Italy, Europe, Asia and Africa, beginning in 1928. Those related to prehistoric art are of particular interest. The archive is accessible to scholars, by reservation.

During the job stadowing program we participated in two work shops organized for a group of about 12 people with Down syndrome and various psychiatric disorders, who came accompanied by specialized staff to the premises of the Museum and the Florentine Institute of Prehistory ”Paolo Graziosi”. Each work shop comprised two stages, a first theoretical component, when the participants were presented with information and objects of historical value, and a period of time during which they carried out manual work activities, using various office materials.

The first work shop dealt with Neolithic statues and their use as cult objects. Participants learned about how the figurines were made and were given replicas of the artefacts to see the geometry and decoration of the objects. Also during the guided tour, people had the opportunity to touch replicas of tools and materials used to make the statues. For the practical activity the participants were given clay and had 30 minutes to model their own figurines.

The second work shop was dedicated to rock art and how prehistoric people chose to represent themselves and their environment. The activity started by showing photographs of rupestrian paintings and involving group members in identifying and assigning roles to the people depicted. The opinions expressed by the participants were recorded to obtain a storytelling, which was used to present a short play for which puppets were used. The meeting continued with a guided tour of the permanent exhibition which aimed to present everyday objects made of flint, obsidian, bone, horn and ceramics. The theoretical part was followed by a painting workshop, where participants were invited to use prehistoric-like colours to create works similar to the cave images in the exhibition.

During the two workshops we observed a proactive attitude of the employees of the Florentine Institute of Prehistory ”Paolo Graziosi” and a constant care for the participants. I really appreciated the human interaction, the way a dialogue was established with vulnerable people and the communication process as a whole. At the same time we noticed the ability of the staff to manage efficiently the material and time resources, the pedagogical quality of the activities and the concrete results obtained for the benefit of vulnerable people.

Also, the stage at the Museo e Instituto Fiorentino di Preistoria gave us the opportunity to closely observe not only the museum education programmes for children, adults and people with fewer opportunities, but also the relationship between the local authorities and the museum.

The Council of Tuscany provides funding for museums that have an inclusive policy and that offer educational programmes for people with reduced possibilities: people with Down’s syndrome; autism; visually impaired; hearing impaired; seniors or primary and secondary school children. Small museums such as the Museo e Instituto Fiorentino di Preistoria are organised in a network to increase their visibility and to be able to offer coherent programmes that respond to the real needs of people in the community. Museums that have this type of educational activities also receive a score based on the degree of inclusion, activities and projects they carry out, on the basis of which they receive funding from the Council of the Region of Tuscany.

So the regional authority has an important role in organising, funding and running educational activities in museums, but at the same time it gives a lot of freedom to museums to come up with initiatives on educational projects that increase the level of inclusion in the community.

In addition to the museum education activities that were included in the first part of the day, we also had guided tours of museums in Florence such as the Museo e Istituto Florentino di Preistoria ”Paolo Granziosi”, Museo Galileo, Museo Archeologico Nazionale di Firenze, Museo di Storia Naturale di Firenze and Museo di Anthropology and Ethnology. All these tours were essential for us, not only because we discussed the technical details (how they organize permanent or temporary exhibitions or guided tours), but also from a cultural point of view, because at each visit there was an exhibition or an exhibit that caught our attention.

We also took advantage of other important attractions of the city and visited: Cattedrale di Santa Maria del Fiore, Le Gallerie degli Uffizi, Palazzo Vecchio and Piazzale Michelangelo; the Duomo of Florence; San Miniato al Monte; the Duomo Baptistery; Ponte Vechio and others. We can say that the job shadowing internship at the Museo e Istituto Florentino di Preistoria gave us the opportunity to step out of our comfort zone and participate in a series of educational activities in a museum context for beneficiaries with fewer opportunities, but we were able to observe and assimilate a series of methods used in these activities, as well as the spaces and logistics used.
We also had the opportunity to create new connections with specialists from other museums that we can join in new projects in the future, as well as to exchange methods and ideas on educational activities in a museum context in order to increase the level of inclusion and diversification of educational activities.

Participants in the job shadowing stage:
Roaită Flavius Nicolae – musegrapher IA in the „Radu Florescu” National Center for Research and Documentation in Museographical Field
Grumeza Andrei – museographer II in the Public Relations and Cultural Marketing department
Trifu Andrei-Marius – museographer II in the Public Relations and Cultural Marketing department
Semeniuc Ciprian Andrei – volunteer in the Public Relations and Cultural Marketing department

An Erasmus Plus experience in Sabbioneta, Italy

Mălăncioiu Raluca Elena

Also, this year, the National Museum of Romanian History implemented the project with ref. no. ref. 2023-1-RO01-KA121-ADU-000126616 – Erasmus Plus (the 3rd year), funded by the European Union through the Erasmus+ program (2021-2027), facilitating the participation of employees and not only, in structured courses aimed at volunteer management through museum services.

Personally, I gained more experience in this field by taking part in one of the structured courses on volunteer management organized in Italy, from 1 to 12 June 2024, in the UNESCO site Sabbioneta, the „Eternal City „,”Novella Roma” of the 16th century. The previous mobilities I have participated in under the Erasmus+ for Adult Education program consisted of job shadowing internships at the Museo e Instituto Fiorentino di Preistoria in Florence, Italy (2022) and at the Museum of Archaeology of Zagreb in Croatia (2023). Each of them were unforgettable experiences, in which many positive energies were concentrated, both in terms of theoretical and practical knowledge assimilated, as well as from a social point of view: as a result of the bonds that developed between the colleagues participating in these internships, the interaction with them, this time out of the usual context of the routine of a familiar, common environment, as well as the interaction with colleagues from abroad who hosted and guided us in the program organized in the other participating museums. After a subjective evaluation, participating in the course on volunteer management in museum institutions was one of the most prolific challenges in terms of the occupational side, as a museographer in the situation of receiving and managing volunteers in museum activities. Various topics on volunteering in general, clearly and gradually structured, the concepts underlying the work of volunteers in public institutions, the benefits of volunteering, as well as the shortcomings, the obstacles to be overcome in the activities in which volunteers are involved, were defined and explained. The constructive debates, the interactive approach, the playful moments and, last but not least, the classroom in which we carried out most of our daily activities, one of the rooms of the Sabbioneta Municipal Library, opened in the Forti Palace, relatively recently, in 2005, a welcoming, spacious and impressive room with a particular neoclassical mural dating back to the end of the 18th century, ensured the success of the training and the positive impact on the participating trainees.

The practice of volunteering has fully demonstrated the necessity, importance and benefits of volunteering, and is becoming increasingly useful both to the individual involved and to society. The structured course we went through covered effective methods of recruiting and managing volunteers, both in a narrow museum sector key, but also in a broader one, at the level of public institutions and society in general. The benefits of choosing to be a volunteer (make new friends and contacts, increase your social and relationship skills, be an example for your children, cultivating happiness, advance in your career, gaining experience, try something new, see new places, new countries, with different culture and so on) go hand in hand with the advantages of the institutions that implements volunteer programs (volunteering helps organizations – providing cost-effective manpower, essential for budget-limited organizations, fostering innovation with fresh ideas and adaptive approaches, enhancing the organization’s reputation and credibility).

Volunteering is important because it benefits your local community by: delivering essential services and filling resource gaps, acting as a catalyst for community development, encouraging active citizenship and community responsibility, encouraging civic engagement and a more active citizenry, providing economic benefits through improved employability.

The UNESCO Sabbioneta site where I had the opportunity to attend the course on volunteer management is one of the examples of good practice, of the methods through which the community gets involved in preserving local culture, while at the same time absorbing funds to increase their living standards, practicing volunteering to preserve their cultural values. Relatively recently inscribed alongside Mantua on the UNESCO World Heritage List, Sabbioneta has a small community, with around 300 inhabitants of the historic town (Intramuros) and over 4000 inhabitants of the whole commune. On the site of a Roman fortress, the Germanic built a defensive castle in the 11th century, where the Dukes of Mantua later resided in the 15th century. Under Duke Vespasiano Gonzaga Gonzaga Collona (1531-1591), the small village of Sabbioneta was transformed into the eclectic town, the ideal neo-Renaissance citadel that made the town famous. Unfortunately, the death of the duke will be a harming moment for the „New Rome” which will slowly and surely decline. The current site is a resurrection of the eternal city that Vespasian had built, preserving the memory of the man who had borne the Order of the Golden Fleece, the most prestigious order of the 16th century.

The structure of the course included guided visits to the most important monuments of Sabbioneta: Palazzo Ducale, Palazzo Giardino, Il Teatro All’Antica, the first public ancient-style stage, the Church of Beata Vergine Incoronata where is the Vespasiano’s Mausoleum, other religious buildings, including the Synagogue of the Jewish Sabbioneta’s community.

Last but not least we enjoyed the cuisine of Sabbioneta, which is said that is anythig but ordinary and drink the dark red Lambrusco wine, mentioned by Virgil himself, the flagship wine of the Northern Italy region.

The whole experience in Sabbioneta was about understanding that working with volunteers make the positive difference in society. Sabbioneta is one of the positive examples of how many beautiful things can happen when you are a volunteer in your own town and give a hand for preserving your culture. And the most amazing thing was that we found all these, thanks to Erasmus + program, just in a few, but wonderful days.

Metode de observare și analizare a comportamentului beneficiarilor adulți muzeali în cadrul stagiului de job shadowing Erasmus+ la Paestum

Andrei-Marius Trifu

Andrei Grumeza

Alin-Victor Popa

În perioada 25 martie – 30 martie 2024, am participat la un stagiu de job shadowing desfășurat la Parco Archeologico di Paestum e Velia, situat în localitatea Paestum-Capaccio, regiunea Campania din Italia. Acest stagiu a avut loc în cadrul proiectului EAE 3/Erasmus +, cu numărul de referință 2023-1-RO01-KA121-ADU000126616, finanțat de Uniunea Europeană.

Obiectivul principal al acestei mobilități a fost observarea și analizarea metodelor folosite de partenerii italieni pentru a înțelege comportamentul beneficiarilor adulți muzeali, cu scopul de a crește numărul de vizitatori și de a îmbunătăți experiența acestora prin diversificarea activităților culturale și educaționale.

În cadrul stagiului, am avut ocazia să explorăm în profunzime două aspecte esențiale pentru managementul unui muzeu modern: metoda de management al vizitatorilor și externalizarea serviciilor de marketing și advertising. Ambele strategii au fost implementate cu succes la Parco Archeologico di Paestum e Velia, contribuind semnificativ la atingerea obiectivelor de accesibilitate și incluziune culturală.

În ceea ce privește managementul vizitatorilor, muzeul din Paestum a adoptat o serie de măsuri inovatoare, externalizând anumite servicii cheie. Una dintre cele mai notabile practici a fost formarea și pregătirea ghizilor turistici din sursă externă, aceștia fiind specializați pentru a realiza tururi ghidate în cadrul expozițiilor. Această abordare nu doar că asigură o calitate ridicată a informațiilor oferite vizitatorilor, dar și flexibilitatea de a adapta tururile în funcție de nevoile și interesele diferitelor grupuri de vizitatori.

De asemenea, muzeul a facilitat accesul la servicii prin intermediul achiziționării biletelor de intrare online și prin dispozitive amplasate la intrare, reducând astfel timpul de așteptare și sporind eficiența gestionării fluxului de vizitatori. Mai mult, folosirea aplicației mobile „Paestum e Velia” a permis vizitatorilor să acceseze informații detaliate despre siturile arheologice, oferind ghidaj digital și personalizat, contribuind astfel la o experiență muzeală interactivă și informativă.

O altă metodă folosită cu succes este organizarea de ateliere educaționale destinate elevilor, realizate în colaborare cu autoritățile locale, a căror contribuție a constat în asigurarea transportului gratuit între cele două situri arheologice, o inițiativă care a promovat nu doar accesul cultural, dar și incluziunea elevilor din diverse medii sociale.

În completarea acestor inițiative, muzeul beneficiază de facilități suplimentare pentru vizitatori, precum zone de catering și cazare în interiorul sitului. Aceste spații, gestionate în colaborare cu autoritățile locale și antreprenorii locali, au fost amenajate în zone private, oferind astfel o experiență completă și confortabilă vizitatorilor, contribuind la creșterea atractivității sitului arheologic.

În ceea ce privește marketingul și advertisingul, Parco Archeologico di Paestum e Velia a optat pentru metoda externalizării acestor servicii către agenția „Postilla Marketing”. Prin această colaborare, agenția a dezvoltat o serie de materiale promoționale și campanii de branding menite să atragă un număr mai mare de vizitatori și să sporească vizibilitatea muzeului în mediul online și offline. Printre inițiativele realizate se numără postările pe rețelele sociale, videoclipurile de promovare, interviurile cu angajații muzeului, dar și un set complet de materiale comerciale, cum ar fi tricouri, gentuțe, magneți, cărți poștale, publicații și cărți de colorat, toate acestea fiind integrate sub brandul „Paestum e Velia”, concept inovator realizat în întregime de către acești colaboratori.

De asemenea, colaborarea cu autoritățile locale a fost esențială în promovarea muzeului și a sitului arheologic, prin amplasarea de bannere și afișe în apropierea muzeului, care invitau turiștii să descopere și parcul arheologic. O altă inițiativă de impact a fost campania de fundraising, prin care pasionații de istorie au avut oportunitatea de a „adopta” o piesă de patrimoniu, contribuind financiar la restaurarea, conservarea și valorificarea acesteia. Această campanie nu doar că a crescut implicarea comunității, dar a și adus un plus de vizibilitate muzeului pe plan regional, national și chiar internațional.

În concluzie, stagiul de job shadowing la Paestum a oferit o perspectivă valoroasă asupra metodelor de management al beneficiarilor și externalizarea serviciilor de marketing pot fi utilizate pentru a îmbunătăți experiența vizitatorilor și pentru a atrage un public mai larg. Implementarea acestor metode inovatoare a demonstrat că muzeele pot depăși provocările contemporane prin colaborări strategice și soluții creative, asigurându-și astfel un rol central în promovarea patrimoniului cultural.

Job shadowing stage at Galileo Museum in Florence, Italy

Andreea Bîrzu

Adela Stan

Between 13th and 18th of March, 2023, me and my colleague, Adela Stan, had the chance to follow a job shadowing traineeship in an Erasmus + Project, at the Galileo Museum in Florence, Italy.

For six days we had the opportunity to discover the exhibitions, collections, to get in touch with the specialists and to assist at the educational activities of the museum and also of their partners – other museums such as Florentine Museum&Institute of Prehistory, The National Archaeology Museum of Florence and The Museum of Natural History.

Museo Galileo is the former Institute and Museum of the History of Science. The museum is dedicated to astronomer and scientist Galileo Galilei and it is housed in an 11th-century historical building.

It owns one of the world’s major collection of scientific instruments, from the Medici Family and the Lorraine Dynasty.

This museum, as well as the other museums mentioned, are completely accessible to all kind of visitors, all categories of public including visitors with limited motor skills, blind or partially sighted visitors, deaf or hard of hearing people, and public with specific needs.

They organize a lot of activities for public, so we had the opportunity to experience a series of applications and activities specially created for general public and specific public with various disabilities.

For the general public, for example, for schools, they organize many activities, from general guided visits to experiential visits or thematic visits, and they also have a learning English through science course which is very usefull and very appreciated.

We had the real joy to take part of a puppet theatre show for primary school children – they use the magic of theatre to introduce the children into the world of the famous astronomer Galileo and to present them his great discoveries – they sing, dance, make jokes and everybody is having a good time, learning in this funny manner about science.

The experiential visits and workshops are created for high school pupils and are very interesting and attractive because the guide accompanies the pupils through the permanent collection explaining the historical context and functions of the instruments and demonstrations about how the instruments are made and work are performed during the tour.

For specific public – visitors with disabilities – they developed different tools and services.

For blind or partially sighted visitors they offer a Braille guide book with tactile images. Tactile tours are also one of the museum’s services. During this special tour the visitors can touch a selection of originals and replicas of the instruments on display.

For deaf or hard of hearing visitors the museum offers a free app and used inside the museum transforms all the audio content in the exhibitions into text format. An informative video about the collection in Italian Sign Language is also available on the museum’s YouTube Channel.

Eight of Florentine museums, including Museum Galileo, are part of a project named WELCOME, having as a beneficiaries, the disadvantaged people and their needs, for example people in wheelchairs, seniors with health problems. We were deeply impressed by a workshop that we assisted, for elderly people with Alzheimer’s disease.

These museums have trained personnel for this kind of activities, very kind, careful, empathic and they know very well how to address to them, how to handle their needs, how to make them feel welcomed at the museum.

Our activities as a job shadowers, also included the main operational sectors of the museum, in order to understand the organization and the services provided, in particular: European projects, web unit, multimedia laboratory, library and collection curation.

We have achieved learning outcomes during the job shadowing stage, such as: non-formal education and PR&Communication techniques and tools, we have developed inter-cultural and inclusion-related competences and also digital ones in the field of education and promotion. Of course, we are now able to organize transferability events and workshops and to implement dissemination and visibility of the activities.

This programme was a necessary and a useful experience and a great opportunity and we would repeat it anytime.

Digital techniques and tools for adult education in a museum context

Mihai Ștefan Florea

We do so much online these days; we have a new ‘umbilical cord’ to communicate with our world, the online world: Facebook, Instagram, YouTube, Twitter etc. This world of constant stimulation offers unlimited possibilities, and we seem to accept the empty promises and illusions it offers. Yes, we do a lot online these days, but we live in the real world of physical things – we touch them, talk to them, and talk about them. We all try to linked between digital world and physical things with new technologies.

Digital technologies that are multi-present in our everyday lives have also found their way into museums. Today, almost all museum tasks are accomplished or accompanied by digital tools. Whether managing, researching, publishing, exhibiting, communicating, or participating, digital tools can significantly support the work of museums and strengthen public exchange. The development of digital strategies has become a cross-sectional task, which has influenced and changed the entire operating system of the museum. Digitalization in museums is not an option anymore, it’s becoming reality. Digital resources resulting from digitization programs help cultural creators and educators to easily obtain quality cultural information and materials. The aggregation of these materials, however, remains a barrier if the use of techniques and tools is not mastered to an extent beyond the beginner stage.

This is where specially funded and organized programs come in to provide sufficient knowledge to those taking courses dedicated to adult education. One of these programs focused on the use of tools, methods, and techniques of using digitized cultural material to create new cultural products within museum programs (temporary exhibitions, workshops, conferences or school workshops). A six-day, intensive training in which participants were used to identify the current needs of building information for a diverse audience, acquire their own images with specific equipment (camera or smart phone), extract the essentials and provide an informational synthesis into an attractive and professional digital product. The training involved office work and fieldwork in equal measure. It also involved teamwork and intense interaction with the local community involved in managing and working in museums, library collections and archives. Interaction with the employees of those institutions to find out what are the local or regional effects of the physically exhibited objects or those presented on specialized online platforms. The office work was mainly used to learn how to effectively use digital techniques and tools to aggregate the resources obtained in the fieldwork and combine it with materials present online. For the compilation and editing of digital materials, the methods of using the following programs were proposed and covered: Canva, Genially, Microsoft Image Composite Editor, Google Arts & Culture, CapCut and, last but not least, photo editing programs such as Paint or Inkscape.

A few words about each program are necessary to better understand what expectations and possible results can be achieved. A few words about each program are necessary to better understand what expectations and possible results can be achieved. I have listed them in alphabetical order of name.

Canva
Canva is an exclusively online platform that offers multiple workspaces with different features: visual documents, photo & videos, print and marketing. We used the visual documents area, creating short presentations. In the end, I obtained a short video (mp4 format) of 1.42 minutes long in which I offered a synthesis of the methods and tools offered by the program.

CapCut:

CapCut is a free mobile video editing app from Bytedance that offers access to advanced editing features, just like InShot Video Editor or Magisto Video. It is available for IOS or Android platforms and optimized for desktop devices (Windows). It is mainly used to create short video files (usually less than a minute) for product or event promotion. Many young people are familiar with the application due to the multiple templates provided, the facility of immediate dissemination on social platforms and the easy way of interaction between the files on the personal device and those provided by the application. In the end you can get a very short video file, calibrated for smart phone screens, easy to share and with professional effects that look like a long-worked product and convey the message in a pleasant and attractive way.

Genially:

Genially is a web-based tool, available in a free version, that allows you to create animated infographics, interactive presentations and even games (like „escape games”). The application can be used to present educational content to both elementary and middle school students as well as college students in a fun way. It can also be used as a visual aid during oral presentations. We used it to create and organize a page to promote the museum’s Historical Cartography (NHMR) collection in a virtual museum.

Google Arts & Culture:

From the moment of its inauguration, in 2011, until today, the online platform Google Art Project has developed in giant steps (or rather gigapixels). How did the team manage to „capture” the collections of several museums around the world and what does the future hold for the project? The Google Art Project is an online platform through which Google allows the public access to high-resolution images (of the order of gigapixels) of works of art hosted by certain museums that have accepted participation in this project. The project was launched on 1 February 2011 in collaboration with 17 museums, including: the Tate Gallery, the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Uffizi Gallery. The platform allows a virtual tour of the museum galleries with the help of services such as Google Street View and Picasa. It is available in 18 languages including: English, French, Italian, Portuguese, Japanese, Polish, Indonesian. Currently, more than 32,000 works of art from 46 museums are available to the public, and the acquisition of images and content is ongoing. For many cultural operators, the platform is a source of quality images and content organized and available at a click away. We used it to connect the art of Antonio Gaudí (the most popular architect of the 20th century) and Constantin Brâncuși (the most influential sculptors of the 20th-century). Both artists are present on the platform with numerous quality articles and images from which new unique and attractive presentation materials can be aggregated. Thus we created a cultural bridge in a few minutes, between the Catalan and Romanian cultures only with materials provided by the platform.

Next we will present programs that provide support for image processing (post-processing) and that require more in-depth knowledge or specialized training.

Inkscape:

The program offers many possibilities for editing vectors and images and is part of the range of opensource programs. We don’t have to worry about the cost.

Inkscape is an application that installs on desktop platforms (with variants for all known OS). We used Inkscape most of the time when we wanted to get vectors from the image (image trace) which the program offered us without problems. This way you can very quickly and easily create your own logos that look like the objects you have at the museum, in the exhibition or as a topic of discussion.

Microsoft Image Composite Editor:

Although the program was developed by Microsoft, the company no longer provides support and assistance, the program can still be downloaded and works on 64-bit platforms. Microsoft ICE (Image Composite Editor) is used to (re)compose separately acquired images into a single panorama. The results are spectacular most of the time even if the image sampling was not done carefully. This has made it popular among those who do not use pro versions of programs dedicated to processing digital images.

Paint:

The favorite program of Windows (PC) users, where graphics and small adjustments are fast and intuitive. The program can open and edit a wide range of raster files creating the ability to quickly save and share processed images. Together with Inkscape it becomes a very attractive and handy design tool.

As a final part of our short training presentation we provide a gallery of images made throughout the learning and then knowledge dissemination period.

Conclusions:

At the end of the learning experiences and dissemination of the new skills acquired, we can say that the most important part of the program was the exchange of experience and the interaction with communities of specialists from other museums. Working in teams with multiple ideas and skills in different museum fields can result in a new and creative approach to creating educational content and material for today’s museum visitors. Last but not least, sharing different problems and approaching solutions to solve them brings multiple benefits in the collaboration between institutions and curatorial teams. Results obtained and new skills can be easily shared through occasional or methodically organized workshops and workgroups. The beneficiaries are always our visitors, whether they are students on their career path or people who love culture and museums.

Job-shadowing mobility at the Museo Nazionale Romano

Andreea Stefan

My name is Andreea Ștefan. I have been working at the National History Museum of Romania for the last few years as a curator. I love my job, which involves close contacts with beautiful things and the privilege to share them with our visitors. I participate in the organization of exhibitions, I device and implement guided tours and educational workshops, all activities that allow me to share my passion for the past, my knowledge and research with other people. My work also involves the care for the artefacts so that they can be enjoyed by future generations as well.

Thanks to the Erasmus+ program, I had the opportunity recently to explore and experience the daily routine of a colleague working in the same field as mine, in another country. Between March 26 and April 1, I went to Rome for a five days job-shadowing mobility at the Museo Nazionale Romano. My trip to Rome was quick and pleasant, arriving in the Eternal City in a sunny Sunday afternoon .

On Monday morning, under the pouring rain, I started my internship. As I am a classical philologist and my mentor at the Museo Nazionale Romano, Carlotta, is an epigraphist, we immediately bond together, sharing our love for ancient texts. I took part in her various daily activities, while gathering ideas for my specific interest: to develop, promote and implement at my home institution an educational program for the general adult public inclusive to visually impaired visitors. The challenge was to find out how to present in a comprehensive and attractive way ancient stones inscribed in no longer spoken languages to visitors that have so much choice among the many treasures exhibited in a museum! The key to solve my quest were the inscriptions themselves! They bear in their surface inscribed messages. What I had to do was to make them speak, to help them tell their thousands of years old stories to my contemporaries. And Carlotta’s experience was of great help here .

The Museo Nazionale Romano gathers four structures: Diocletian’s Thermae, Palazzo Massimo alle Terme, Palazzo Altemps and Crypta Balbi. During my mobility, I participated in activities that took place in all these four locations.

I could experience the benefits of developing specific to topic video tours that were used to prepare the physical visit. In addition, my mentor presented to me different mass media facilities that she uses in promoting very specific activities like epigraphy seminars for adult public, in an inclusive way for beneficiaries with visual or cognitive impairment. I experienced with software in order to create promotional material like posters or content (interactive handouts, games etc.) that could be used during on-site visits. I was also involved in other activities like the preparation of exhibitions, catalogues, informational material. I assisted at conservation and restauration interventions (foto 10a) and at the preparation of the exhibits for departing in temporary exhibitions (foto 18aa). I could interact with colleagues doing different aspects of the museum work, which gave me the possibility to compare procedures with my home institution and to develop a more inclusive understanding of the curator’s work in a European milieu.

I learned how to use online software that I did not know or used before in order to develop videos, posters, handouts and other content with a pleasant graphic design that could be used in educational activities aimed at an adult public inclusive for beneficiaries with visual or cognitive impairment. It was impressive to see that simple ideas, a lot of work and the willingness to assist the other in the way they need it proved yet again to give positive results. Here is some material – plans of the Thermae of Diocletian (foto 15a, 15b, 15c, 15d) guides (foto 14) and the text of an inscription printed in relief (15e) – made by Carlotta herself or under her supervision by students enrolled in art schools, for the visually impaired visitors. My knowledge of non-formal education techniques and tools has increased thanks to this mobility and I can now apply them in the activities at my organization. I developed competences that I could use in creating educational content fitted for visually impaired adults in an inclusive visit opened to the general adult public. I am able to transfer non-formal educational techniques and tools acquired at Museo Nazionale Romano in my museum context.

For example, I got interesting ideas and skills for the implementation of a seminar in epigraphy at our museum using storytelling techniques in order to make more accessible and attractive these exhibits otherwise prohibitive being written in ancient languages and sometimes in different writing systems than those in use today.

I improved my communication skills by working on a daily basis with colleagues form a different country, having different expertise. I have now a better ability to understand, work with and address various categories of colleagues and beneficiaries, with different backgrounds, beliefs and origins. I am now better equipped to understand the needs of beneficiaries with fewer opportunities, especially of visually impaired adults, and to develop educational programs tailored to their needs.

Of course, many educational activities involved the young and very young public (foto 11a). Following Carlotta in her epigraphy workshops was a stimulating experience (foto 5). I also got the chance to make friends with the felines among the “staff” of the Museo Nazionale Romano .

I think the Erasmus+ mobility was immensely useful to me precisely because it gave me the opportunity to experience working in another European country and to forge lasting professional ties with collogues at other museums. I think networking is essential in creating and enforcing a European identity and in the development of a carrier in a broader European context. Following this mobility, I plan to develop joint projects with my hosting institution in the field of education and promotion of cultural heritage. My mentor and I, we talked about organizing joint seminars, online and in presence, and exhibitions. In addition to that, I had a lot of fun and I believe that this is also an essential part of a successful professional life.