site.btaTaraclia Cultural Heritage Museum Offers Restoration of Old Family Photos

The Cultural Heritage Museum offers restoration of old family photos as part of the Future Museums Programme, with the support of Taraclia Town Hall and the Blue Frame project, museum Director Tatiana Nekit said. Any interested resident has a unique opportunity to renew their family photos for free, she added. 

For the event, specialists came from Chisinau to process the photographs. The campaign is social and, according to the organizers, will prolong the historical memory of the life, culture and traditions of the inhabitants of Taraclia - the centre of the Bulgarians in Moldova. In addition to helping Taraclians to preserve the history of their families, the same photos will be digitized and become part of an archive of family photos of Moldovan residents, the restorer, photographer and project participant Victor Organ told BTA. He added that this goal has been in the works for two years.

Old family photos are frequently neglected, unlike monuments or historical buildings, Organ said. Photos from state archives may be of propagandist character, but family photos record true moments of people's lives, he argues.

Organ says the idea actually came from Moldova's National Archives which had a few photos from the interwar period. He himself decided to continue work on the project when he left the archives.

The renovation of photographs is the first stage of the project, which will continue in October with an exhibition of the processed photographs. "In November they will bring us multimedia equipment to work with the population and complete the project successfully. Once the equipment is installed, we will be trained and will be able to restore the photos on site," Nekit clarified.

The Future Museums Programme is part of the Moldovan Culture Ministry's Creative Moldova national programme, in partnership with the Future Activities Project financed by the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) and Sweden, and the COR Association of Creative Companies.