Meeting of Experts Involved in The Creation of the Exhibition "The Jewish Street – a Reconstruction"
On April 4, 2023, a meeting of managers and experts from the museums that participated in the creation of the exhibition "The Jewish Street - a Reconstruction" was held at the Regional History Museum - Sofia. The invitation to them was extended by the State Institute for Culture and the hosts from the History Museum of Sofia. The two directors - Prof. Veneta Khandzhiyska and Snezhana Joveva welcomed the participants, emphasizing the features of the project, which presents a panorama of the preserved history of the Jewish community in the Bulgarian institutions of memory - museums and archives. The director of the State Institute for Culture 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 to mark the 80 years anniversary since the salvation of the Bulgarian Jews.
For the State Institute for Culture, the work on this exhibition is a valuable experience of joint research and cooperation with the partners from the cultural institutes, pointed out Snezhana Joveva. She also noted the important role of the authors of the exhibition design and multimedia - the teachers from the National Academy of Arts, led by Assoc. Prof. Miroslav Bogdanov, who built a visual narrative of the exhibition, which combines a dynamic narrative in multimedia in a clean space, but also by reading and of direct contact with the museum object.
The curator of the exhibition, Ivanka Gezenko, presented the work of researching the history of each object included in the exhibition and the effort to make a narrative about the fate of its owner. She thanked the initiators and hosts for the opportunity to work on this project, which has revealed additional sides of the history of the Jewish community from the Liberation to the 1940s as an important page in the history of Bulgarian society.
In the discussion, it was emphasized that combining the efforts and resources of museums and archives, support from institutions and ministries will give more opportunities to realize partner networks, which will give opportunities for Bulgaria to become part of European cultural routes related to Jewish heritage, respectively to expand the audience of the rich cultural heritage of our country. In this regard, some of the highlights of the European Strategy for Combating Anti-Semitism and Protecting Jewish Life were indicated. The possibilities for projects such as the synagogue and cultural center in Vidin, the upcoming work on the revitalization as a cultural center of the synagogue in Samokov were also discussed.
The participants of the meeting examined the exposition and discussed possibilities for its multiplication in other exhibition spaces in museums in the country.