Methods in working with intangible cultural heritage - report

Methods in working with intangible
cultural heritage
Report on a cooperative project between Музеј на отвореном СТАРО СЕЛО (The open-air
museum “Old Village”), Sirogojno, Serbia and Ryfylkemuseet (The Ryfylke Museum), Sand,
Norway
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Methods in working with intangible cultural heritage
Report on a cooperative project between Музеј на отвореном СТАРО СЕЛО (Staro Selo - The openair
museum “Old Village”), Sirogojno, Serbia and Ryfylkemuseet (The Ryfylke Museum), Sand,
Norway
Ryfylkemuseet 2015
The photo on the front cover is from Sirogojno and shows lunch being prepared in traditional clay
pots from Zlakusa.
The Open-Air Museum “Old Village” not only documents the production of traditional clay pots but
also promotes the use of clay pots in their presentation of traditional cooking of food.
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Introduction
The idea of starting up a cooperative
project between the Ryfylke Museum and
the Staro Selo museum in Serbia to
develop methods for work on intangible
heritage arose during the annual
conference of ICOM/ICR (The
International Committee for Regional
Museums) in 2012. The conference tour
included a visit in Sirogojno where we
learned about the work done by the
museum Staro Selo to preserve, present
and promote intangible heritage. One year
later, in 2013, the Ryfylke Museum
arranged a tour to Sirogojno for its
employees, giving us an opportunity to
become better acquainted with the local
museum’s work.
ICR’s annual conference in 2012 also
included a visit to the Ethnographic
Museum and The Central Institute for
Conservation (CIK) in Belgrade. Both
places have also welcomed us later. We
now have an especially good relationship
with the Institute. Although the Centre for
The Intangible Cultural Heritage of Serbia
is placed at the Ethnographic Museum,
CIK has been assigned much of the
responsibility for the development of work
with the intangible cultural heritage.
In 2014 we were allotted a grant from the
Arts Council Norway for a limited
cooperative project. This funding has been
a major factor in allowing for a study tour
to Sirogojno in 2014 and a seminar at Sand
in 2015. Our discussions on experiences
have provided us with a mutual
understanding about topics we have
worked with and the methods used in our
work. This will be explained further in the
following.
This report is based partly on written
reports and articles from publications
prepared by The Open-air Museum “Staro
Selo” and The Central Institute for
Conservation.
Hosts and guests on our study tour to
Sirogojno in October 2014. Front row, l/r:
Snezana Tomić-Joković, Grete Holmboe, Sanja
Ignjatić, Kjersti Moe, Bojana Bogdanović.
Second row l/r: Jelena Toskić, Branko
Blagojević, Dragan Cicvarić, Trygve Brandal,
Roy Høibo.
Sand, June 2015
Roy Høibo
Museum Advisor/PhD, Director of Ryfylke
Museum between 1981 and 2014.
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Summary
While Ryfylke Museum has worked
systematically over the past 20 years to
understand, document and transmit
traditional action-borne skills, especially
those concerning building techniques, the
Staro Selo Museum in Serbia has worked
since 2010 with the immaterial culture
lying in a broad sector of tradition. The
aim of the present project has been an
increase of understanding and knowledge
about work with immaterial culture.
Funds granted to the project have allowed
participants from Ryfylke Museum to carry
out a study tour to Beograd and Sirogjojno
in October 2014 and for participants from
The Central Institute of Conservation
(CIK) and the museum Staro Selo to make
a return visit to Ryfylke in May 2015. In
addition to an introduction concerning
project work at each museum and at CIK,
to participatory observation and to
presentation of the results, these study
tours have also given general orientation
about the work of the museums in which
we have had special benefit of an exchange
of experiences about work with the general
public and with programs for children and
young people.
One main conclusion reached in this
project is that documentation and
presentation of knowledge concerned with
craftsmanship and home crafts, customs,
food, music and dance must become as
important part of museum work as is the
preservation of buildings, tools, equipment
and interiors.
In Sirogjojno this understanding arose as a
natural consequence of the work with
establishing the open-air museum. In
Ryfylke we regard knowledge about
performing handicrafts, use of tools, and
understanding materials as being integral
to the work of building preservation.
The basic method of work is “learning by
doing” in which skilled tradition bearers
demonstrate and advise. The museum’s
mission is to create arenas for the
transmission of traditions and to document
what is done with the means allowed for
by knowledge and economy.
There are challenges connected both to
finding tradition bearers who will and can
participate, and to recruiting younger
practitioners. One important precondition
for success seems to be the ability to create
attractive meeting places.
Sirogojno, Serbia: The “Old Village” and
The Knitters’ Museum
Village women have always processed
their own wool, from the newly sheared
fleece of their sheep to finished skeins of
yarn and spools of thread. They have
always spun, woven and knitted coverings
and clothes for their loved ones. Their craft
is as old as the world they were born in and
is something they have always known and
lived for. Anything that could not be sewn
of linen and heavy cloth was knitted: warm
woolen socks, gloves, a scarf or two, and
finally sweaters.
The first time the women from Sirogojno
and adjacent villages displayed their
handicrafts in public was at an exhibition
in 1962. The bravest among them decided
to set up their own organization, start
knitting for the market and earn their own
incomes. They then attended the first
seminar on knitting. Soon after this event,
Dobrilja Vasiljevic arrived, bringing with
all her knowledge and experience. She was
a daughter-in-law in Pastor Smiljanic’s
family, a famous corporate family of
Zlatibor clergymen. As a fashion designer
and a brilliant organizer with many
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marvelous accomplishments, she remained
in Sirogojno for several decades afterwards
in order to make her dreams come true by
working with the knitters.
When it all started, only twenty fearless
women accepted offers of additional
training. By the 1990s, however, almost
two thousand women knitters were doing
work for the world’s fashion markets.
Over ten thousand hand-knitted garments
made of soft Icelandic wool would be
exported abroad annually, bringing foreign
exchange revenue amounting to millions of
dollars. ‘A traditional handicraft was used
to create high-quality, high-fashion
clothing, of unique design and authentic
style. Sweaters, jackets, coats, outfits,
suits, caps and scarves from Sirogojno
were seen and admired in fashion shows, at
fairs, and in upmarket shop windows in
Sweden, Italy, France, Germany, USA and
Japan. Numerous world-famous fashion
magazines wrote about them, mentioning
the Zlatibor knitters, these unknown
women in their kerchiefs, gazing at their
hands interweaving lines, patterns, colors
at incredible speed.
Knitting is still a traditional custom in the
Zlatibor region. These ladies gather at a
crossroad every afternoon, weather permitting,
to knit, drink coffee and have a good gossip.
A unique project associated with the
knitters included patient and systematic
efforts to educate women in rural areas,
render them literate, enlighten them
culturally and inform them about health
care issues and in general elevate their
lives. Scores of writers, painters, doctors,
and agricultural experts began coming to
Sirogojno to show their respect for the
knitters. Exhibitions, concerts, lectures,
seminars, and workshops enabled them to
overcome and make up for all the things
they had missed out in life and to involve
them and their environment with
contemporary trends. The knitters’
additional incomes and the increased rural
development brought about by their
association prevented migration from less
favored areas (LFA) like these towards
urban centers and to foreign countries.
They thus preserved their mountain
villages, while their knitting, being a new
occupation, brought the first pensions as a
reward to the most persistent and deserving
women.
The knitters’ association became interested
in new challenges. Additional efforts were
now made to protect the traditional
authentic architecture of the region in order
to preserve the setting in which these gifted
women, the weavers and knitters, were
accustomed to live and create. This
resulted in the creation of a unique openair
museum. 1
The authorities of former Yugoslavia, a
country with a very rich cultural heritage
and invaluable distinctions among the
interlaced lives of its nations and cultures,
never paid adequate attention to the
traditions of village lifestyle. Despite
attempts to establish and develop
monumental collections of ethnographical
1 “The Knitters’ Museum”, Sirogojno, leaflet, not
dated
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objects, only one open-air museum has
thus far been formed and brought to life –
the open-air museum in Sirogojno,
Zlatibor.
The open-air museum “Old Village” thus
represents the successful realization of the
first project relating to an open-air museum
in Serbia. It is widely recognized as a
museum complex of huge importance, as a
potential and developmental model of great
significance for the nation’s culture.
The initial idea of building a museum of
folk architecture, the “Old Village” in
Sirogojno, started in 1979 with the
presentation of the project itself, the scope,
plan and project for its construction and
organization, furnishing and arrangement,
the finalizing of its functional organization
including the production and tourism
segments of the complex, and the final
defining of the purpose, contents and
function of the museum. All these phases
were carried out by a group of experts
headed by the architect Ranko Findrik and
including the ethnologists Dusan Drljaca,
Nikola Pantelic and Bosa Rosic.
Fifty buildings have been placed in an area
of 5 hectares. The selected facilities are
representative of the richness of the
architecture and the development of the
vibrant culture of the Zlatibor region. They
are outstanding examples of traditional
Zlatibor wooden architecture,
characterized by special spatial and
constructional features, and thus allow for
the tracing of the development tendency of
this type of folk architecture. The “Old
Village” was established as an open-air
museum institution in 1992. 2
2 “Open-air Museum Old Village”, Sirogojno,
guidebook 2007
The intangible heritage of Serbia – the
national organizational structure
Serbia ratified the UNESCO Convention
for the Safeguarding of Intangible Cultural
Heritage in 2010. A National Committee
was established to adopt and prepare a
strategy for the safeguarding of the
intangible cultural heritage of the Republic
of Serbia, participate in harmonizing
national legislation aiming at inclusion of
the intangible cultural heritage and adopt
proposals for registration in the National
Registry of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage.
The first regional seminar on the
implementation of the Convention was
held at the open-air museum “Staro Selo”
in Sirogojno as early as October 2010.
A Network of Regional Coordinators has
been established, aiming at locating and
identifying elements of the intangible
cultural heritage and helping to establish
cooperation between communities, groups,
individuals, experts, professional centers
and research institutes in order to collect,
document, store and preserve heritage data.
The coordinator for Western Serbia is
Snezana Tomic, an ethnologist and
Museum Advisor at “Staro Selo”.
The network collaborates with the Centre
for the Intangible Cultural Heritage,
established in 2012 and located at the
Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. The
Centre implements the strategy for the
safeguarding of the intangible cultural
heritage of Serbia, initiates activities of
regional coordinators, collects and stores
proposals for registration in the National
Registry of the Intangible Cultural
Heritage, organizes professional
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conferences, takes necessary measures to
inform communities, groups, and
individuals of the importance and value of
their intangible cultural heritage, handles
publication and presentation of research
results in the field, collaborates with other
national, regional and independent
organizations and coordinates national,
regional and international programs and
networking.
Another important body for developing the
task of safeguarding the intangible cultural
heritage of Serbia is The Central Institute
for Conservation in Belgrade (CIK). The
Institute, which was officially established
in September 2009, has a wide mission. It
not only has a national character and
significance, but also a regional one, in that
it evolves from the fact that regional
activities are logical first steps in unifying
the exchange of theoretical and
methodological knowledge, practical
experience, continuous scientific training,
financial resources, partnerships and
interdisciplinary teamwork, connecting and
coordinating the development and
implementation of overall strategies to
preserve heritage. Its key responsibility is
to organize an efficient protection service,
which involves all resources and activities
aimed at heritage protection within a single
uniform system.
The old and almost forgotten techniques of
making objects of wood, metal, clay, etc are
presented through the revival of old crafts.
With these workshops, the Museum presents
three men’s production crafts (coppersmith,
blacksmith and pottery) allowing visitors the
opportunity to become familiar with the
complete process of making traditional
handicraft products.
A wide range of themes
As early as the year after the regional
seminar, in 2011, “Staro Selo” organized
the first of a number of annual fairs of old
crafts and professions. The goal of the
program was to contribute to the
conservation and development of craft
skills, especially through their presentation
and evaluation as being a vital part of the
intangible cultural heritage present in the
Uzice region, which was seen as having
great potential for the sustainable
development of the region. The program
also aimed to provide access to cultural
benefits for its citizens, to contribute to the
popularization and to promote promotion
of the intangible cultural heritage, and raise
the quality of the services on offer at the
open-air museum The “Old Village”.
During the five-day presentation of the
Fair museum visitors were introduced not
only to the traditional techniques and skills
for making craft products as these have
been preserved to the present day in the
Uzice region, but also to the resulting
products. By observing the master
artisans, visitors could learn about their
manufacturing methods, craft techniques
and the products they make; they were also
able to participate actively in producing
certain objects. The follow-up programs
for the Fair emphasized the usage value of
craft products.
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The fair of old crafts and trades is a
presentation of traditional techniques and
skills of making craft products preserved to
this day in the Užice region. Visitors are
invited to learn from the artisans about the
craft techniques and to participate actively in
making certain objects. The supporting
programs present the use value of craft
products, as well as the preparation and
tasting of traditional dishes from the Užice
region.
The following themes are among those
presented at the Fair:
Traditional preparation of food
Carpentry
Workshop for learning to knit
Pottery craft
Blacksmithing
Dressmaking
Basket-making
Leceder making
Bottle-making
Chair-making
Making national costumes
Embroidery
Weaving
Making plum cake
Preparing pie pastry
Cooking cabbage and beans
Preparing Zlatibor polenta
The program of the Fair has led to the
realization “that within a culture, an object
is something that can be touched, smelled
or used in different ways…”. “The
engagement of other senses in museum
exhibitions, especially smell and taste,
would allow for a sensual assumption of
information in addition to the spiritual
appreciation within the observed/presented
culture…” Craftsmen can be seen as
actors accessible to an audience, among
whom a dialogue based on everyday life
can be carried out. Handmade products, in
contrast to industrial production, carry
stories and messages in which we can seek
alternatives for a modern way of life in the
future. This program is significant because
it presents another method for museum
communication. This method acts by
means of a direct communication between
visitors and craftsmen and includes an
opportunity for observing and participating
in the process of creation of the products. 3
Even more important was the attention
paid by the museum to field studies and to
recording the current state of trade in the
field, to documenting, creating and
curating collections of craft objects, to
their presentation and publication, to
creating videos on craft techniques in the
Museum workshops, to organizing training
in old skills, to regular communication
with the artisans based on their advice
about improving product quality, to selling
craft products in the Museum shop as well
as expanding the range of their products
through the production of copies of
museum pieces and various types of useful
objects through media affirmation.
Among the crafts that have been
documented in different ways are cask-
3 Snezana Tomic-Jokovic in the catalogue of «The
third fair of old crafts and professions», Open-air
museum «Old Village», Sirogojno 2013.
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making, pottery blacksmithing, making
flutes, traditional production of dried meat,
and basin-making.
different ages, workshops for the youngest
visitors are being designed within almost
all aspects of program activities. 4
Meeting visitors
The Fair of Traditional Crafts and
Professions is not the only initiative
undertaken by “Staro Selo” to enable their
visitors to become acquainted with actionborne
traditions. In the autumn of 2013 the
museum offered a program of wedding
traditions, and a festival of decorated eggs
at Eastertime 2014.
The School for Painting Easter Eggs is among
the most popular of the programs intended
solely for children. In order to make various
Museum activities available for children of
different ages, workshops for the youngest
visitors are being designed within almost all
program activities.
With the aim of presenting the rich cultural
heritage that has been preserved in the field of
performing arts to the public, the Museum
began organizing The Festival World of Music
in 2011. The audience enjoys a wide variety of
music while listening to concerts of original
vocal groups, bands of musicians performing
early medieval music, and also renowned
artists whose music is based on tradition.
Since children make up more than half the
total number of visitors to the Museum,
great attention is paid to these youngest
guests within the program of activities. The
following are popular events in the
programs intended solely for children: the
school for painting Easter eggs and the
Quiz “Bistrik” – an interesting test of
knowledge about the Museum and folk
tradition. In order to make various
Museum activities available for children of
4 For additional information about the work with
immaterial culture at the Open-air Museum “Old
Village”, please see the annex by Snezana Tomic-
Jokovic´: Application of the Results obtained in
research on the Old Crafts and Occupation.
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Sand, Norway:
Intangible cultural heritage at Ryfylke
Museum
Ryfylke Museum is the museum for the
eight municipalities – Forsand, Strand,
Hjelmeland, Suldal, Sauda, Finnøy,
Rennesøy and Kvitsøy – that were merged
in connection with a municipal unification
process in the 1960s to form the Ryfylke
Region. The forerunner of the regional
museum was Rogaland Folkemuseum –
Rogaland Folk Museum – established as a
classic open-air museum in Stavanger
1936, and reorganized as a regional
museum for Ryfylke 1981. As a result of
the reorganizing the headquarters were
moved from the county capitol Stavanger
to Sand, the centre of the municipality of
Suldal.
In its work with intangible cultural
heritage, Ryfylke Museum has largely
concentrated on two topics: traditional
building crafts and traditional music, song
and dance. Other topics have also been
addressed, however, and plans have been
made for dealing with new topics. We will
explain this work in the following.
Searching for building traditions
An important part of the museum’s
collections is made up of 77 ancient
buildings and a collection of traditional
boats that also includes two sailing vessels.
Soon after the reorganization of the
museum as a regional museum Ryfylke
Museum realized that vital knowledge
about traditional craftsmanship was
necessary in order to maintain the
collections in a credible way. In 1985, the
county planning authority invited to
participate in working out a county plan for
heritage sites. In the recommendations
submitted by the steering group in 1987,
we pointed out that protection of cultural
heritage also should include protection of
old crafts. We recommended that the
county municipality ought to establish
workshops in cooperation with the State
and the municipalities, to provide the
necessary professional assistance. Quite
specifically, the group proposed that two
antiquarian workshops be started as a
short-range measure, one at Ryfylke
Museum in Sand. Nothing happened in the
short range, however, but seen in
retrospect this was an important basis for
the establishment of a building protection
project at Ryfylke Museum in 1994.
Ryfylkemuseet has worked systematically for
twenty years to identify, document and spread
knowledge about traditional crafts. Here
museum craftsmen work together with older
tradition bearers to restore a litle barn using
traditional methods of stave construction.
The project was well-supported by the
County Governor, the district funding
office for Rogaland, Suldal business
development and Rogaland County
Municipality. It was a project with
extensive and ambitious goals, but its
beginning was humble. At this time the
museum had only one permanently
employed craftsman. The project allowed
for engaging one employee in a 50%
position and part-time hiring of craftsmen
as instructors. Grete Holmboe was engaged
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as project leader. She carried out the
project in a most productive way, and was
later appointed leader of the building
department of the museum.
The project began at the beginning of 1995
and lasted until 2001. During this period
ten far-reaching documentation projects
were completed according to the model
proposed by Jon Bojer Godal at the
Norwegian Crafts Development
this a “knowledge-philosophical concept”
that expresses something about the
connections that allow us to do something.
He distinguishes between aptitude and
awareness. Action-borne knowledge is,
first and foremost, an aptitude.
Jon Bojer Godal has been an important
contributor to the understanding of the
visual part of craftsmanship. In an article
in Folk i Ryfylke 2006, he wrote:
Craftsmanship is primarily expressed in
the craft. This can be divided as process
and product. The product is permanent,
but the process is transitory and no longer
visible when the product is finished. The
product depends on this transitory
substance of action, pattern of action, skill,
perception, comprehension and
understanding for what is done. The
process also includes tools, equipment,
workplace and raw material that only
indirectly and partially are visible in the
finished object. No matter how many words
and how much can be said and written,
craftsmanship in its primary form of
expression is process and product.
It has still been necessary to find the
correct terms for what is done. The
expression “action-borne knowledge” was
arrived at as a result of attempts to find
better terms than “experienced knowledge”
or “silent knowledge” then used in
professional literature. The correct term
arose at a meeting at Maihaugen in 1993
and while Jon Bojer Godal brought the
child to be christened, it was Magne
Velure who blessed it. Godal himself calls
Learning by doing. Marlinn Tveit was an
apprentice at the museum between 2013 and
2015.
The basis for the work of strengthening
building preservation at Ryfylke Museum
was the idea proposed in the County Plan
for Cultural Heritage in Rogaland in 1989
about establishing an antiquarian workshop
at Ryfylke Museum in Sand. The county
municipality did not follow up this
proposal nor was the idea of having one or
more centers for building preservation in
Rogaland followed up.
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The extreme prioritizing of building
preservation at Ryfylke Museum has
nonetheless led to the museum emerging as
an important setting for building
protection. In the Regional Plan for
Museums produced in 2011, the need for
strengthening building preservation was
noted and in a study based on the plan,
Ryfylke Museum has been chosen as a
center for such protection.
At present, no detailed plans for how such
a center would function have been worked
out, but we assume that one important role
will be as a resource center for other
museums, for municipalities and for
owners of protected houses. There is a
need for strengthening knowledge about
building protection, developing
competence among those working in the
field and on placing more emphasis on the
intangible portion of building protection
(action-borne knowledge), on establishing
good systems for documentation, on
completing research projects and on
allowing for providing better information
to the public.
Action-borne knowledge can only be
preserved by keeping it alive. It is still
important, however, to document what we
do when we work on the restoration and
care of old buildings. That is the only way
we can be sure that real knowledge about
what is done can be saved, and why things
were done as they were done when there is
next a need of doing maintenance work on
a building.
Documentation includes the condition
before work is started, the work processes
underway and the finished result. But it
also includes searching in other sources for
information about the building, such as can
be found in archives, literature, old
photographs and among people who can
contribute their recollections. We use
photos and films, surveys, drawings, notes
and interviews. These are important source
materials for information on building
heritage and traditional craftsmanship, and
in that way a basis for the spread of
knowledge that is a duty for every
museum.
In 2005, Ryfylke Museum was granted
funds on behalf of the Building Network
(the network of museums doing a lot of
work on building protection) from ABM
Development (now the Arts Council
Norway) for a project called “Creating
sources and assembling knowledge in
building protection”. The project led
among other things to a Handbook for
Documentation of Buildings that gives
guidance on how one should proceed in the
work of documenting building protection.
At Ryfylke Museum we now began to feel
we were rather good at this. We also got
more employees. When funds were granted
for a new position as craftsman in 2007,
we hired Sven Hoftun, a young carpenter
who had specialized in furniture-making,
attended technical school and had a career
as Norwegian champion and participation
in the World Skills Competition. In 2009
we were granted another increase in our
annual funds and could hire Kjell Gunnar
Haraldseid who had an apprentice
certificate as a woodworker and varied
experience from the army’s engineering
corps. We now had a building department
with increased capacity and high
competence. We were given a commission
to carry out a pilot project on building
preservation at the museums of Rogaland
for the Ministry of Culture. We were now
among the foremost in this country
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concerning building protection and our
self-confidence was so great that we
invited the annual conference in ICOM’s
Committee for Historic Buildings to
Ryfylke in 2009. ICOM, the International
Council of Museums, is the world
organization for museums. The Committee
for Historic Buildings, DEMHIST, is an
under-committee.
Among the things we showed these
foreigners was the result of our work in
restoring the cottar’s farm at Røynevarden.
We thought that this little site high above
Suldal Lake would be suitably exotic and
besides, we could show exemplary
illustrations of good restoration work.
The barn at the cotter’s farm Røynevarden was
restored in 2013-2014. The roof was covered
with birchbark and sod in keeping with roofing
traditions in these region of Ryfylke.
We know much more now than when we
started the project Building Protection in
Ryfylke in 1995, but we will never be
over-qualified. In the olden days
youngsters followed their fathers or
masters for years. We have difficulties in
finding master craftsmen. In many cases
the tradition has become weak or is about
to disappear. During the years we have
worked with this, many of those we have
had as tradition-bearers have passed away.
And that always means shorter periods of
learning or transmission of traditions. But
over time we have built up our experience,
and we have built up an environment
whose members can support each other in
the development of the craft. We know of
no better method, and hope that our own
work, in collaboration with others in the
networks that have been established, helps
action-borne knowledge, that part of the
intangible cultural heritage made up of
traditional crafts, continue to be a sound
foundation for the work of preservation
and maintenance of historic buildings.
An archive for song, music and dance
Folk music was long something that
existed in an archive- and museum-free
zone. In many countries it still does. In
Norway, however, the collection of folk
music and songs was included in the
project of building the nation. It started late
in Rogaland compared to the more wellknown
fjord and dale districts. The history
of the folk music archive for Rogaland is a
history of doubts, hesitation and a great
deal of idealism. Most doubt concerned
whether there were any traditions to
preserve, hesitation about whether this was
worth spending money on. Idealism was
linked to those who started out anyway.
The first meeting about collecting,
preserving and presenting folk music
traditions in Rogaland was held in October
1981. The subject was “Rogaland – The
unexplored part of the musical map”. This
meant the folk music map over the whole
of Norway. The conclusion was that
material from Rogaland could be found in
various archives and that it could be
supplemented by means of notation and
recording.
The cultural committee of the county
municipality appointed a commission in
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1982. Its recommendations to establish an
archive for folk music and folkdance from
Rogaland were submitted in May 1982. An
important goal for this archive would be to
“provide funds to stimulate interest in folk
music and folkdance and use appropriate
forms of presentation in an attempt to
promote greater interest in this respect”.
Ten years were to pass from this proposal
to the opening of a folk-music archive for
Rogaland. The first, cautious grants for
starting work of collecting were not
followed up and county planning mills
ground slowly. The break-through
occurred with the making of a museum
plan for Rogaland. The resolution for
creating this plan was passed in 1987 and
every museum was asked to join a group
that would follow the work. Egil Harald
Grude, the county antiquarian, wrote the
plan. In his finished version the
establishment of a part-time position at the
folk-music archive was incorporated as a
proposed prioritized measure. When the
county council considered the plan in June
1992, the proposal received its final
political approval.
Even more gratifying was Suldal
municipality’s adoption of generous funds
allowing for an additional part-time
position. The museum now had the funds
to finance operation of the folk-music
archive. This continued for four years, but
from 1 January 1996, the county
municipality took over responsibility for
the position and from then on an entire
curator position has been devoted to the
work of the folk-music archive.
teachers’ college in Bergen, and could both
dance and play various instruments. After
starting from absolute scratch, she built up
a collection of material over the next 30
years that now forms the foundation of the
folk-music archive. Her greatest
achievements were in presentation, in that
she held numerous courses, lectures,
seminars and concerts. One point of effort
has been the annual folk-music weekends
in Suldal where performers of all ages have
been able to receive instruction from the
best performers from all over the country.
Archive material has also been published
in print and as sound. Among the most
important productions are the books on
Christmas carols and on folk songs from
the sea based on archival material, the
textbook “Bewitched” and CDs with
instrumental and vocal music. In 2011,
much of the recorded material was
digitalized. Work on cataloging and
preparing this material for digital
presentation is now being carried out.
Ida Katrine Bråvoll is among the young people
who play the Hardanger fiddle. Guro
Nedrevåg watches in the background. Photo:
Lise Bjelland.
Ruth Anne Moen (1950-2011) was
appointed to the post and started work on
building up the archive. She had received
her training as a music teacher at the
Side 14 av 25

Other topics in intangible heritage being
worked with at Ryfylke Museum
The pioneers at the museum were aware as
early as the 1950s that many traditional
crafts were in danger of being forgotten.
They engaged a film maker and began
documenting some of these crafts. This
resulted in the film “Older methods of
work in Suldal” [“Gamle arbeidsmåtar i
Suldal”] issued by the museum in 1958 5 .
The film documented the following
activities:
Traditional music and dance
Saddle-making
Rose-painting
Carding, spinning, weaving; fulling
woolen cloth in a water-powered
fulling mill
Angling for salmon
Production of barrel hoops
Haymaking with sickles, drying
and transporting hay using a
carrying-rope
Transport of goods with a horse
and a packsaddle
Milking goats and making goat
cheese
Threshing grain with a wooden flail
During the past ten years the museum has
been established as an arena where
immigrants and local people could make
contact and where food has acted as an
important mutual element. We have seen
that cooperation on cooking food and
conversations held during the resulting
5 “Gamle arbeidsmåtar in Suldal” [“Old work
methods in Suldal”], a film based on a manuscript
written by Julius Bårdsen and Peder Heskestad.
Photographed by Kolbjørn Rostrup. Rogaland
Folkemuseum 1958.
good meal generate good integration. In
order to continue this work, the museum
has applied for grants for a project called
“The more cooks, the better integration”.
The many varieties of wood-burning
hearths in Ryfylke Museum’s buildings
have put focus the need for increasing,
documenting and transmitting knowledge
about wood and wood-burning. We are
therefore working on a project that can
allow us to work systematically with this
concept.
Communications in the Ryfylke district are
in a process of radical change. After
countless years of depending on ferry boats
in order to cross its many fjords, the
present-day construction of bridges and
subsea tunnels will bring immense changes
to the means of travel, meeting places and
functions in many local communities.
Ryfylke Museum hopes to carry out a
project to document travel and the
consequences that changes in the systems
of travel will bring about.
The more cooks, the better integration. For the
past ten years, Ryfylkemuseet has invited
people of varying religious and cultural
backgrounds to meet at the museum. Food has
proved to be an excellent basis for building
networks between people.
.
Side 15 av 25

The organization of work with the
intangible cultural heritage in Norway
The convention on protection of the
intangible heritage was ratified by Norway
on 1 January 2007. Traditional
craftsmanship is defined as being a vital
part of intangible heritage. The
convention’s radical perspective is that
traditional craftsmen and the transmission
process in itself are given priority ahead of
the forms and products resulting from the
work. This means that good conditions for
the process of transmission must be
assured. Action is more important than
product, craftsmanship more important
than the building.
It is the Arts Council Norway that has been
assigned responsibility on behalf of the
Ministry of Culture for implementing the
convention on protection of the intangible
heritage in Norway. The Arts Council is to
evaluate the need for establishing a digital
base for intangible culture in relation to
already existing registries, to develop
procedures for nomination to international
registries and to arrange courses and
conferences so as to reach all those who
might have interest in the topic.
On a national level the Registry of Crafts
was already established at Maihaugen in
Lillehammer in 1987. This was to be part
of the work of protecting traditional crafts
and knowledge that was about to
disappear. An important part of the work
was to be a nation-wide register of
craftsmen. The grounds for doing this was
that the competence held by one person
could be spread out to a larger district. The
Registry of Crafts later changed its name to
the Norwegian Handicraft Development
with the additional title Center for
Intangible Cultural Heritage. The Center
has been assigned responsibility for
implementing UNESCO’s Convention of
17 October 2003 concerning Protection of
Intangible Cultural Heritage with emphasis
on craftsmanship.
Methods used in working with the
intangible cultural heritage
Serbia and Norway have both ratified
UNESCO’s convention on the intangible
cultural heritage and we have seen that the
organization of the work is conducted
along fairly similar lines. Numerous
museums in both Serbia and Norway have
responded to the challenges. Some had
identified the intangible segment of culture
as being an accepted field of work before
UNESCO formulated it as a theme, while
others have strengthened their efforts after
the convention was ratified.
There appear to be three main aspects that
are essential to success:
The first is to identify, establish
relations with and encourage
involvement among the bearers of
tradition in those themes that are
found important to begin working
with.
The second is to document their
actions.
The third is to transmit the
traditions to younger practitioners.
This is the most difficult aspect of
the job.
The challenge lying in the first aspect is
that one often becomes aware that a
tradition, a skill or a craft is in danger of
being lost only when the last practitioners
are becoming really old. If this then also
involves a tradition that has not been
Side 16 av 25

actively practiced for a period, and whose
tools and equipment have not been cared
for, the chances for any authentic recovery
or resumption of the tradition can be
reduced.
In Sirogojno, however, they are so close in
time to the tradition that it appears to have
been easier to communicate with tradition
bearers who can transmit their skills to
both museum professionals and museum
visitors. The challenge faced there is that
many of these practitioners are growing
old and it may prove difficult in the future
to find younger ones who have these
specific skills as a living tradition.
Mirka Kovčica Rožanstvo is one of the older
tradition bearers with whom Staro Selo has
collaborated. Here he shows how to make
barrel hoops.
Experience shows, however, that most
tradition bearers take great pleasure in
transmitting their skills to others. Sourcecritical
problems can arise concerning
questions about the status of the
practitioners of a skill one has made
contact with and whether that which is
transmitted consists of primary or
secondary knowledge. But this should not
be more difficult to deal with than is the
case in other fields of cultural-historical
research.
Documentation of the actions is done with
the use of various techniques: observing
and noting down what is observed,
interviewing, shooting photographs and
films, registering tools, equipment and
even work spaces. Obtaining suitable
technical equipment for carrying out
documentation is not difficult. What is
difficult, however, is acquiring enough
competence in the use of such technical
equipment. Satisfactory use of
photographic equipment seems especially
demanding of a standard of technical
competence that most museum
professional cannot reach. On the other
hand, there are not many professional
photographers who have competence in
cultural-historical documentation.
Successful documentary work should thus
ideally be based on good and confident
cooperation between documenter and
photographer.
The best documentation cannot however
replace the practitioner of skill who
maintains this skill as a living tradition.
Action-borne skills are embodied
knowledge that not only deals with
knowing, but also with doing, as shown
above by Jon Bojer Godal. If we are unable
to find younger people who can acquire
this knowledge, the skill will die out. It
will be extremely difficult to revive a skill
on the basis of documentation and
preserved tools and equipment if one has
Side 17 av 25

not been able to learn the skill by
practicing it together with someone who
can do it.
At Ryfylke Museum we have made great
efforts to build a network of people
interested in our work of collecting,
documenting and transmitting traditional
crafts. We have experienced, however, that
it can be difficult to bring in people who
are doing active work in the field.
Participation in a project for transmitting
action-borne knowledge is time-consuming
and when the activities are not part of a
process that has direct benefit for one’s
daily work, it can be difficult to give
priority to participation.
It is easier to manage transmission of
traditional music and dance. These are
leisure-time activities for most
practitioners and great interest exists in
Norway for acquiring competence in both
music and dance, even among the very
young.
Conclusion
Work with immaterial culture at the two
museums and the resulting cooperation
between them has had several positive
results:
Important sectors of the life style
experienced in and between the
buildings have been documented and
transmitted.
An awareness of the fact that museum
work also concerns immaterial culture
has been reinforced.
Presentation of and training in traditions
and customs has increased the general
public’s interest in the museums.
We must admit, however, that work with
immaterial culture can result in new
challenges. On the one hand, it can prove
difficult to find informants who have
sufficient knowledge about the issues on
which the museum wishes to work, while
also having the ability and the desire to
transmit their expertise. On the other hand,
it can also be difficult to recruit younger
participants who are motivated enough to
acquire traditional knowledge.
One important factor for success is quite
probably that of establishing a social
setting around the transmission of
tradition. Participation must be seen as
being attractive. Everyone must get
something in return for their participation,
both in the form of knowledge and of
comradeship. There are several ways to
accomplish this. Breaks in work, food and
coffee can provide the extra values that
make participation attractive.
Accommodation can also do that. Or the
event itself can not only inspire a desire to
participate, but can also create so much
attention that this emphasizes the
importance of what is being done.
The most important conclusion is,
however, that working with handicrafts
and home crafts, customs, food, music and
dance must become just as important a part
of museum work as preserving buildings,
tools and interiors.
This belief arose in Sirogojno as a natural
consequence of their work in establishing
the open-air museum. At Ryfylke, we
consider skills in doing handicrafts, using
tools and understanding materials to be an
integral part of building conservation.
Side 18 av 25

Both of the museums in question have
given high priority to this work and can
document excellent results. The fact still
remains that there are enormous tasks still
left undone, at the same time that a feeling
of too little time for accomplishing this is
apparent. Societal changes during the last
few generations have happened so quickly
that traditions will disappear if nothing is
done to document and transmit them.
There is a great need for museums to
concentrate on tasks linked to life as it is
lived.
music. Discussions have already started
about whether exchange visits can be made
in connection with events and programs at
the respective museums.
There is also a possibility that the
museums will benefit from carrying out
mutual documentation projects. Heating
with an open fire may prove to be an
acceptably limited project. The museums’
approaches appear to be comparable, while
the project itself has limited scope and will
most probably bring practical results.
Future cooperation will be discussed in
connection with the institutions’ further
plans of operation.
Coffee cooked over an open fire adds to the
appeal of working in a cold, wintery forest.
Continuation
Some staff members at the two museums,
and also some at CIK, have met with each
other four times. This has allowed them to
develop such positive personal bonds that
there is definite belief in the benefits
arising from their cooperative efforts.
These cooperative efforts are also marked
by mutual professional respect and
pleasant get-togethers.
Both Ryfylke museum and the Staro Selo
museum see that their mutual interests will
make a further development of their
cooperation even more meaningful. The
most obvious point of contact lies in
Side 19 av 25

Attachment
Application of the Results Obtained in
Research on the Old Crafts and
Occupations
Snezana Tomic-Joković, Ethnologist,
Museum Consultant, Open-air Museum
“Old Village”, Sirogojno
Snezana Tomic-Joković, museum consultant,
ethnologist, graduated from the Department of
Ethnology and Anthropology, University of
Belgrade. Since 1992, she has been employed in the
Open-air museum “Old Village” in Sirogojno. She
studies the field of tangible and intangible culture in
Zlatibor District and publishes research results in
professional and scientific articles and publications.
She is the author of numerous ethnographic
exhibitions, manager of projects, participant in the
organization of professional and scientific
conferences devoted to the protection of cultural
heritage, participant at symposia and conferences.
She is the associate of the Centre for the Protection
of Intangible Cultural Heritage, and coordinates its
work in the region of Western Serbia.
Abstract: This paper is going to discuss
how the material on old trades and
occupations obtained in the field research
could be applied, i.e. returned to the
studied community or an individual, as
well as the experience gained during the
research, and how they could improve the
core activity in the Open-air museum “Old
Village” in Sirogojno.
Keywords: field research, traditional crafts
and occupations, applied ethnology/
anthropology, cultural heritage, sustainable
development.
Introduction
In line with the activities of European (and
out of Europe) Skansen museums that have
shown a substantial commitment to the
preservation of crafts 6 throughout their
history, the Open-air museum, “Old
Village” in Sirogojno pays great attention
to protection of traditional crafts and
6 Krstović, N. (2012): Zanati: gde posle muzeja?,
in: Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU LX (1),
Beograd, 79-92
occupations of Užice region, as one of the
segments in the protection of cultural
heritage. It is implemented through a
variety of activities: field studies and
recording the current state of crafts in the
field, documenting material, forming
collections of the crafts’ objects and their
expert analysis, their presentation and
publication, then, making video recordings
of the craft techniques, presentation of
traditional craft techniques in the
workshops of the Museum, organizing
training in performance of the traditional
crafts, regular cooperation with the artisans
in the field, where advice on how to
improve product quality and marketing of
craft products in the Museum store is
given, as well as expanding the range of
their products through the production of
copies of museum pieces, various types of
everyday objects, offering traditional
gastronomic specialties in the museum's
“Tavern” and through media promotion.
The tendency of the Museum is to keep the
handicraft production from disappearance,
but also from excessive commercialization,
to preserve the form and structure of craft
production in the community that needs to
be developed through these activities, to
adapt certain products to modern needs of
society, to identify vulnerable values and
find ways to sustain.
This paper will discuss application of
results of the years of field research on old
trades and occupations that were conducted
in the period from 1992 to date.
Field research
In cognitive practices, on this topic, in
addition to the use of relevant literature
which mostly dates from the first half of
the XX century, field studies are of great
significance.
Fieldwork of the Open-air museum “Old
Village” experts, in the period from 1992
until now, proceeded sporadically in some
areas of the municipalities of Čajetina,
Arilje, Bajina Bašta, Nova Varoš and
Side 20 av 25

Užice, and systematically during the year
2011 within the research project Recording
artisans and traditional craft skills and
knowledge in the municipality of Čajetina
and making proposals for the National
Register of Intangible Cultural Heritage,
whose goal is highlighted in the title of this
project.
During field research, the techniques of
surveys and interviews with artisans were
used and, when possible, with some of the
family members. The process of making
craft products was monitored at all stages -
from preparation of materials, followed by
creating an object, to its sale. The process
has been documented by photo material
and audio-visual recordings. Attention was
paid to the economic aspect of a trade as
well as of social status of craftsmen. But
first, one should be acquainted with the
relevant literature on a given topic.
The importance of trades, as the most
important part of a town's economy and
culture, and guilds as old heritage of social
organization and basis of social
relationships in a town, was emphasized by
Tihomir Đordjević as early as the
beginning of XX century when he
published Instructions 7 for collection of
material about crafts and guilds in Serbian
lands 8 .
Although there appeared valuable works
on crafts with an accent on changes and
deterioration of trades related to the
territory of Serbia 9 , there were no reports
or guidelines on testing traditional crafts
until 1990 when, within the UNESCO
programme World Decade for Cultural
7 Đorđević, T. (1913): Uputstvo za prikupljanje
gradiva o zanatima i esnafima u srpskim zemljama,
Beograd, Srpska kraljevska akademija, p. 1-80
8 Đorđević, T. (1925): Arhivska građa za zanate i
esnafe u Srbiji od drugog ustanka do esnafske
uredbe 1847, Srpski etnografski zbornik, HHHIII,
Beograd.
9 Savić, M. M. (1954): Naša industrija i zanati,
Sarajevo; Vučo, N. (1954): Raspadanje esnafa u
Srbiji, knjiga prva, Beograd; Vučo, N. (1958):
Raspadanje esnafa u Srbiji, knjiga druga, Beograd
Development, a ten-year action plan for the
development and revitalization of trades
was given. A methodological booklet was
printed in collaboration with the United
Nations Development Programme (PNUD)
and the Institute of African Culture (ICA).
It contains a number of practical advice for
collecting items and the survey used to
examine development of handicraft
products and their sale 10 .
Regarding the current attitudes about the
field research Zorica Ivanović points out
that each fieldwork means direct contact
with those under the study. The
construction of anthropological knowledge
and authority should be observed in the
context of broader social and symbolic
sphere in which anthropology operates and
that is a constitutive element of its
discourse 11 . In this way we are looking at
problems of “locality” and issues relating
to belonging to a group, community,
continuity and group identity.
“Ethnographic fieldwork, research practice
based on direct and long-lasting social
contact between the researchers and the
researched (observation with
participation), which resulted in written
ethnographies, has traditionally been
regarded as not only one of the basic
methodological values, but a distinctive
feature of anthropology based on which,
the difference in relation to other social
sciences and humanities is constructed. So,
it is a method that borders its disciplinary
field and marks the boundaries of the
discipline itself, these limits or the content
within them are impossible to review
without rethinking the very idea of “field”
and “field work” 12 .
10 Kovač, S. (1995): Tradicionalni zanati u Srbiji u
svremeno doba, in: Etnoantropolški problemi, sv.
10, Beograd, str. 83-93
11
Ivanović, Z. (2005): Teren antropologije i
terensko istraživanje pre i posle kritike
reprezentacije, in: Etnologija i antropologija: stanje
i perspektive, ur. D.Radojičić, LJ.Gavrilović,
Beograd, Etnografski institut SANU, str. 123-141
12 The same, p. 123-141, 126
Side 21 av 25

One of the results of field research on the
old crafts is a publication Living rural
trades in Užice region and their protection
in the examples of pottery, coppersmith’s
and blacksmith's crafts. Its aim is to
highlight the importance of the pottery,
cooper and blacksmithing crafts have had
for the environment in which they evolved,
to describe their history, traditional
techniques of products making, materials
and tools used in production, changes in
production methods conditioned by
modern way of life, to highlight the
continuity of trade existence, their
protection and relevance they have today
in the development of family and local
community 13 , and smaller publications like
Užice meat processing products, Basin
makers from the village of Pilica, Making
Flutes and Double Flutes in Užice
Region 14 . Publishing of systematized field
material is planned to be continued in the
next period.
“It is particularly interesting to discuss
contribution of ethnologists in maintaining
traditions of society in which they live,
which is especially evident in the work of
ethno-parks and museums. It is quite
expected that members of a society
experience their collective identity in the
essential and static way, but an ethnologist
should not share such attitudes of other
members of the community; instead he
should approach identity (primarily
national and ethnic) as a rational and
dynamic phenomenon“. 15
13 Tomić-Joković, S. i Toskić, J. (2010): Živi seoski
zanati u Užičkom kraju i njihova zaštita na primeru
grnčarskog, kačarskog i kovačkog zanata, Muzej na
otvorenom ,,Staro selo” Sirogojno, Sirogojno
14 Tomić-Joković, S. (2012): Užički suvomesnati
proizvodi, Muzeja na otvorenom ,,Staro selo”
Sirogojno; Toskić, J. (2012): Čančari iz sela Pilica,
Muzeja na otvorenom ,,Staro selo” Sirogojno;
Cicvarić, D. (2012): Izrada svirala i dvojnica u
užičkom kraju, Muzej na otvorenom ,,Staro selo”
Sirogojno.
15 Ribić, V. (2005): Osnove nastave iz predmeta
Primenjena etnologija: perspektive razvoja, in:
Etnologija i antropologija: stanje i perspektive; ur.
Application of research results
Field work collected information about the
real way of life and cultural models as we
see them. “The task of anthropologists is to
help people transform their awareness of
social needs into social action ... This
means that the purpose of research is
addressing real life problems of the studied
population 16 ”. Systematization and
processing of field material provide a total
of qualitative and quantitative data that do
not stay trapped in documentary funds and
depots, but are still used in implementation
of various actions within the museum
activity: permanent and thematic
exhibitions, trade shows, educational
programs, presentations.
The permanent exhibition of the Museum
includes three craft workshops: pottery,
coppersmith’s and blacksmith’s. Beside
displayed tools and craft products, quite
significant is the narrative of craftsmen,
artisans who were the owners of these
workshops, as well as their engagement in
practical presentations of traditional craft
skills 17 . Although “the activities were
called crafts demonstrations and their
introduction to visitors through the
museum obsolete measures of (folk)
architecture facilities rehabilitation
represented unsuccessful attempt of
museum documentation resuscitation” 18 ,
Dragana Radojičić, Ljiljana Gavrilović, Beograd:
Etnografski institut SANU, str. 253-261
16 Ribić, V. (2007): Primenjena antrolpologija:
razvoj primenjenih antropoloških istraživanja u
Velikoj Britaniji i Sjedinjenim Američkim
Državama, Beograd: Srpski genealoški centar:
Odeljenje za etnologiju i antropologiju Filozofskog
fakulteta u Beogradu, str. 104.
17 Toskić, J. (2011): Lončarska radionica, Muzej
na otvorenom ,,Staro selo” Sirogojno, Sirogojno;
Tomić-Joković, S. (2011): Kačarska radionica,
Muzej na otvorenom ,,Staro selo” Sirogojno,
Sirogojno; Tomić-Joković, S. (2011): Kovačka
radionica, Muzej na otvorenom ,,Staro selo”
Sirogojno, Sirogojno.
18 Krstović, N. (2012): Zanati: gde posle muzeja?
in: Glasnik Etnografskog instituta SANU LX(1), p.
79-92.
Side 22 av 25

they are nonetheless important in
presenting the craft, especially as this is
about “live” crafts and artisans who are
actively engaged in trade. In addition to
craftsmen, during the period of increased
number of visits to the Museum, a basket
maker and some weavers were engaged in
workshops. For the next period, it is
planned that all involved artists achieve
effective work and get the opportunity to
sell their goods directly to the visitors.
Economically, it would completely justify
their involvement in the Museum.
Speaking about the use of knowledge
anthropologists obtain, “Gerald Bereman
insists that it is impossible to collect data
and analyze them without thinking about
their use, as well as that an anthropologist
cannot get rid of the consequences of his
scientific activity. Because of the
possibility that anthropologic knowledge
could be used for purposes that are outside
control of anthropologists and opposed to
the values they represent, Bereman
suggests: “We must try to apply our
knowledge and skills to real problems that
we have defined, instead of simply
accepting them from sources that provide
our funds. We need to ask questions that
point to the problems of our time, and not
the ones that minimize and obscure them
...” 19 .
In the preservation and revival of
traditional crafts, in constant collaboration
of the Museum experts with craftsmen
from Užice region, production of some
objects whose use is neglected by using
industrial products (džban, brine, photo
frame and mirror, etc..) is resumed; the
copies of museum exhibits are produced as
well (dining tables, three-leg chair, cradle,
woven bags, embroidered handkerchiefs,
etc..). What makes these products valuable
19 Ribić, V. (2007): Primenjena antrolpologija:
razvoj primenjenih antropoloških istraživanja u
Velikoj Britaniji i Sjedinjenim Američkim
Državama, Beograd: Srpski genealoški centar:
Odeljenje za etnologiju i antropologiju Filozofskog
fakulteta u Beogradu, str. 49.
is the pursuit of artisans to be faithful to
their original objects in the material from
which they are made, their form, but also
in technology of their development; still in
creation of some objects, in addition to
using manual, the machine processing is
also applied, which is adapted to modern
living conditions. The permanent sales
exhibition of traditional craft products and
herbal products typical of this area is
organized in the Museum shop. This type
of craft products’ exposure represents an
important pathway by which historical
knowledge is transmitted and has the same
significance as other exhibitions in the
museum activity, where the possibility of
purchasing becomes a new form of
communication.
Trade products whose use is applicable
even in contemporary life were presented
in 2005 at the exhibition The Products of
Old Crafts, from Traditional to
Contemporary in the Ethnographic
Museum in Belgrade 20 , where exhibits
were sold. These were the products that
had already been offered in the Open-air
Museum “Old Village” shop, but on this
occasion, in collaboration with artisans,
copies of the interior objects were made
(bed, chest of clothes, table, chairs,
“stolovača” cabinet, shelves, etc.). These
products, made of natural materials, in the
time of environmental trends, have special
value. During the exhibition, a significant
interest for these products was shown
through their purchases. It offers a real
possibility that, through continuous sales,
these products become available in
Belgrade.
If we accept the statement of Vladimir
Ribić that anthropology must, both in
theory and in practice, serve to the benefit
of all people and the action anthropologists
use clinical, i.e. experimental method,
which means not only to stick to
20 Tomić-Joković, S. (2005): Proizvodi starih
zanata, od tradicionalnog ka savremenom,
catalogue, Sirogojno.
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observation, but try to influence reality 21 ,
then real aspects should be used.
Very important activities are educational
programmes and creative workshops in the
Museum complex. On two occasions, the
Museum organized training of young
people in performing crafts: the first in
1997, in collaboration with the Labour
market, with the project that included three
trades: carpentry, basketware and
coppersmith's, and the other in 2005, in
cooperation with the Local community
Sirogojno and the Ministry of Agriculture,
Forestry and Water Management, which
covered four crafts: weaving, tailoring,
blacksmith’s and basketware 22 . The
workshops included local residents as
carriers and transmitters of knowledge and
skills, as well as the participants
themselves 23 . Unfortunately, in both cases,
the desired result was not achieved, and
that was to get as many young unemployed
people from Zlatibor villages qualified for
dealing with some of these crafts. This was
an attempt to influence the current issue of
depopulation and unemployment.
However, there were very successful
thematic workshops with students of the
Faculty of Applied Arts, who applied their
practical knowledge gained in the
workshops: Processing wool in a
traditional manner, hemp processing in a
traditional way, Old techniques of weaving
on a horizontal loom, Old techniques of
21 Ribić, V. (2007): Primenjena antropologija:
razvoj primenjenih antropoloških istraživanja u
Velikoj Britaniji i Sjedinjenim Američkim
Državama, Beograd: Srpski genealoški centar:
Odeljenje za etnologiju i antropologiju Filozofskog
fakulteta u Beogradu, str. 98
22 Stari zanati i zanimanja: obuka u radionima
Muzeja na otvorenom ,,Staro selo“ u Sirogojnu,
Sirogojno: Muzej na otvorenom ,,Staro selo“, 2005.
23 Tomić-Joković, S. (2011): Edukativne radionice
u oblasti nematerijalnog kulturnog nasleđa, in:
Nematerijalno kulturno nasleđe, ur. Dušica
Živković, Beograd: Ministarstvo kulture
informisanja i informacionog društva: Centar za
zaštitu nematerijalnog kulturnog nasleđa pri
Etnografskom muzeju u Beogradu, str. 80-87
weaving on a vertical loom, in their further
practical work 24 .
Promotion of cultural heritage is a key
aspect in sustainable cultural life. A very
important programme was launched at the
Museum in 2011. It is The Fair of
Traditional Crafts and Occupations, whose
organization is contributing to the
preservation, popularization and evaluation
of craft skills, cultural identity and
intangible cultural heritage, promotion of
the craft activity status and attracting
young people to trades 25 . The tendency of
the Museum is to preserve the handicraft
production from disappearing and
excessive commercialization, to preserve
forms and structures of handicrafts in the
local community that needs to be
developed through this activity, to adapt
certain products to modern needs of
society, to identify the endangered values
and find ways to sustain 26 .
The Fair of Traditional Crafts and
Occupations is an ethnographic exhibition
that presents everyday life, the living
legacy of craftsmanship. This is an
exhibition of objects belonging to the past,
but that are currently being made, because
there is a real need for their use. Some
artisans create items in the presence of
visitors. Artisanal product gains its value
from its creator at the time and place of its
creation, within the cultural context.
Everything that is happening here and now
is being noted.
The programme Fair of Traditional Crafts
and Occupations gives the possibility that
“an object of culture is something one can
feel, smell and use in a variety of ways...
24 Tomić-Joković, S. (2008): Uloga Muzeja na
otvorenom ,,Staro selo” u Sirogojnu u očuvanju i
oživljavanju starih zanata i zanimanja, in: Muzeji,
ur. Ljiljana Gavrilović, Beograd: Muzejsko društvo
Srbije, str. 95-101
25 Vašar starih zanata i zanimanja 1,2, Sirogojno:
Muzej na otvorenom ,,Staro selo” Sirogojno, 2011/
2012.
26 Drugi vašar starih zanata, Sirogojno: Muzej na
otvorenom ,,Staro selo” Sirogojno, 2012.
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Involvement of other senses in the museum
exhibitions, smell and hearing primarily,
would provide beside spiritual, a physical
acceptance of information on the observed
/ presented culture ...” 27 Artisans are actors
accessible to the public, one can have a
dialogue with them on everyday life.
Handicraft products represent individual
creativity with local and regional
characteristics. Hand-made products versus
industrial production convey stories and
messages in which we look for alternatives
to the modern way of life in the future.
This program is important because it
represents a kind of museum
communication - direct communication of
visitors with artisans and the opportunity to
watch and participate in the process of
making a product. The support programs of
the Fair show the use values of craft
products: cooking (beans, cabbage, pie,
strudel pie, buckwheat flour pie, etc.) in
ceramic pottery of the village of Zlakusa
prepared on fireplace in the permanent
exhibition of the Museum, preparing and
tasting polenta, making traditional plum
cakes, tasting dairy (cheese, cream) and
vegetable dishes (preserves, jam, brandy)
and dried meat products (prosciutto,
sausage, bacon).
The educational aspect of the Fair is
reflected in the organization of workshops
for visitors: Learn to knit, Decorating
garments of wool conducted by knitters
from Sirogojno.
Organizing the event offers visitors the
experience of the space in which they are
located, participating in the amenities and
activities, learning and understanding of
life in the local community and eventually
they take memories about their
experiences. Presentation of heritage
through events and supporting contents
contribute to the creation of extra value of
cultural sites and increases number of
visits to the Museum.
Conclusion
People create their cultural tradition,
cherish and pass it in succession. It is up to
us to preserve and cherish traditional crafts
and their techniques; we will succeed in it
if we recognize them as an asset and as an
important part of the environment in which
they act, if we consider the possibilities of
their sustainability, if we find ways to
improve the skills, if we promote them.
Crafts and craft skills make regional
cultures distinctive and they can enrich the
tourist offer of the region. Preserving crafts
should become ambition of the entire
society in accordance with their needs.
Contribution to their conservation could be
provided particularly by individuals as
bearers of knowledge, institutions of
different professional orientation, local
governments, public authorities,
legislation, etc.. The task of a museum is to
engage tradition in various forms of
sustainable development.
“Self-definition of museum practice as
applied ethnology / anthropology, which in
recent years more and more often appears
in our literature, should mean that the
knowledge created within ethnology /
anthropology as “pure” science and,
thereafter, applied in museological
practice, produces visible short or longterm
effects on social reality within which
it is applied, or that it directly or indirectly
affects the maintenance or change in
everyday behaviour and/or thought
patterns of people in the society in which a
museum operates” 28 .
27 Gavrilović, LJ. (2007): Kultura u izlogu: ka
novoj muzeologiji, ur. Dragana Radojičić, Beograd:
Etnografski institut SANU, p. 57
28 The same, p. 95
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