Expert meeting in Regional Museum of History - Sofia

On April 4, 2023, a meeting will be held at the Regional Historical Museum - Sofia for managers and experts from the museum who participated in the creation of the exhibition "Jewish Street - Reconstruction". The invitation was sent to them by the State Cultural Institute and hosted by the Museum of History in Sofia. The two directors are Assoc. Veneta Handzhiyska and Snezhana Yoveva welcomed the participants, emphasizing the peculiarities of the project, which presents a panorama from the preserved history of the Jewish community to the Bulgarian memory institutions - museums and archives. The director of the DKI pointed out that the exhibition is a key element of the Institute's activities under the initiative "Strategic cooperation between Bulgaria and Norway in support of Bulgaria's international commitments to combat anti-Semitism and the preservation of Jewish heritage" and became part of the National program for the 80-th anniversary from salvation to Bulgarian Jews.

For the State Cultural Institute, the work on this exhibition is a valuable opportunity for joint research and cooperation with partners and cultural institutes, Snezhana Yoveva pointed out. She also noted an important role in the creative project of exhibition design and multimedia - teachers from the National Academy of Arts, led by Assoc. prof. Myroslav Bogdanov, who built a visual narrative for the exhibition, which combines a dynamic in multimedia into one clean space, but also relies on direct contact with the museum object.

The curator of the exhibition, Ivanka Gesenko, presented the work of researching the history of each object included in the exhibition and the effort to direct the story of fate to its owner. I would like to thank the initiators and hosts for the opportunity to work on this project, which opened additional pages of the history of the Jewish community from the Liberation of Bulgarian state in 1870s to the 1940s as an important page of the history of Bulgarian society.

In the discussion, it was emphasized that the coordination of efforts and resources of the museum and archives, support from institutions and ministries will give even more opportunities to implement partner networks, which will also give Bulgaria the opportunity to become part of European cultural routes related to Jewish heritage, respectively to expand the audience to the rich cultural heritage of our country. In this connection, some of the points highlighted in the European Strategy for Combating Anti-Semitism and Protecting the Jewish Life were indicated. The possibilities for projects such as the synagogue and cultural center in Vidin, the upcoming work on the revitalization of the synagogue in Samokov as a cultural center were also discussed.

The participants in the meeting examined the exposition and discussed the possibilities for its multiplication in other exhibition spaces in museums in the country.