site.btaBulgarian Museums Association Awards Announced

The winners of the Bulgarian Museums Association's awards have been announced. The 2023 Museum of the Year Award goes to the Etar Regional Ethnographic Open Air Museum.

Since 2016, these awards have been distinguishing museum institutions for their contribution to the preservation and popularisation of the cultural heritage of the country.

The Etar Regional Ethnographic Open Air Museum is awarded for its Etar REOM - A Museum for Creative Cultural Tourism project, the museum said on Tuesday. The project aims to transform the cultural institution into a living museum, providing opportunities for non-seasonal cultural tourism. The museum, which is located near Gabrovo, was created by Lazar Donkov and opened its doors in 1964 as an Ethnographic Park Museum. It is a centre for the study of the traditional Bulgarian culture in the Balkans.

The Heritage Award goes to the Plovdiv Regional Ethnographic Museum for its children's educational book called Adventures with Argir. The museum noted that the award is a recognition of the cultural institution's commitment to the development of the educational sphere and the preservation of Bulgaria's cultural heritage. The story offers young readers to journey through the rich heritage of Bulgarian culture and has become an indispensable part of the educational process in many educational institutions, the museum added. At the end of the book, the main character presents readers with a key to the Ethnographic Museum in Plovdiv, with the possibility of one free visit per child.

The award in the Events and Work with Audiences category goes to the Veliki Preslav Archaeological Museum for The New Glow of Simeon's Golden Age project.

The official award ceremony will be held on April 25 at the Regional History Museum in Plovdiv (South Central Bulgaria).

On the Bulgarian Museums Association's jury were Prof Vasya Delibaltova, Head of the Didactics Department at Sofia University's Faculty of Education, National Gallery Director Yaroslava Bubnova, National Military History Museum Director Sonia Penkova, Ekaterina Djumalieva, Director of the Cultural Heritage, Museums and Fine Arts Directorate at the Ministry of Culture, and Eleonora Avdzhieva, Director of the Troyan Museum of Folk Art Crafts and Applied Arts.