The Centenary conference02.02.202410:00 — 15:40
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One hundred years have passed since the important event, when on February 2nd, 1924, at the suggestion of the architect Pauls Kundziņš, the Board of Monuments of the Ministry of Education of the Republic of Latvia made a decision to establish an open-air museum. Aware of the importance of this action, the centenary year of the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia is being launched with an international conference dedicated to the retrospection of the Museum's activities, contemporary challenges and the Museum's importance in the context of cultural heritage in Latvia and the world. Specialists of the Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia, cultural heritage experts, representatives of the International Association of Museums and the European Association of Open-Air Museums, as well as colleagues from Lithuanian and Estonian open-air museums will take part in the conference with reports. The first session of the conference will be opened by Mārtiņš Kuplais, deputy director of the Open-air Museum, chief custodian of the collection, with the report "100 years for the Open-air Museum - facts, opinions, reflections".
The Ethnographic Open-Air Museum of Latvia is a museum of national importance, which was created with the aim of preserving for future generations evidence of the way of life of farmers - buildings, their interior objects and tools, as well as the location of buildings within the farmer's or fisherman's homestead in the time span of 17th -mid20th centuries in different regions of Latvia. Currently 114 museum objects from historical regions of Latvia - Kurzeme, Latgale, Vidzeme, Zemgale and Sēlija - are located in the 87 hectares of the museum - farmsteads, fishermen homesteads, craftsmen's home-workshops, forges, potters' and tar kilns, windmills, several churches, the meeting house of the congregation or Hernhutians, pub, threshing house for dwelling, etc.
Over the years, the Open-air Museum has become a special cultural space where the material and non-material cultural heritage of the Latvian people is preserved, maintained and popularized, which is of vital importance in the formation and strengthening of the national identity and self-confidence of our country's society and the individual.
Date: February 2nd, 2024 at 10.00 - 15.40
Venue: Riga Latvian Society House, Merķeļa Street 13, Riga.
Languages: Latvian and English. Simultaneous translation will be available at the conference.
You can apply to participate in the conference in person until January 29th using the link: https://form.jotform.com/240011536971349
The number of participants is limited, so please confirm your participation in time.
It will be possible to follow the conference online remotely on the Facebook page of the Ethnographic Open-air Museum of Latvia.
Information about the conference: Rozīte Katrīna Ponne, tel. 28665797