Category: Inside Romania

Romanian animated films originate in journalistic graphics. All great Romanian animation creators started off as cartoonists. The pioneering period was between 1920 and 1948, when Romanian animation had only a few names to boast, such as Aurel Petrescu, the most prolific, with 11 animated films confirmed by the period press, and 70 more short animations, mostly adverts. When great animator Ion Popescu-Gopo emerged on the scene, Romanian animation went into its golden age. In 1964, the Animafilm studios were set up, after Gopo received numerous awards in international festivals. Shortly after, Animafilm became one of the most beloved brands, making around 60 productions per year, bringing Romania over 40% of the revenue it made from exports. Gopos death in 1989 meant the demise of classical Romanian animation.

In the wish to restart the engines of animation, graphics professor Liviu Acasandrei founded a 2D animation studio for children. We asked him to tell us about this initiative:

“I tried to bring back the animation studio, because I saw that many children were interested in manga and anime, and that was the starting point. I wanted them to understand better what animation is, and that it is more complex than digital graphics. This 2D animation studio is in fact based on guiding students towards digital art, and towards understanding the concept of 2D animation. After they go through each module and they graduate the three levels, if they want to still do animation, they get to keep working with me in different projects.”

Liviu Acasandrei also initiates his students in stage design, text, image, all that is needed for animation production, as he told us, and his students are not few in number:

“Right now I work mostly online, three or four students at a time, but the group I work with is 30 students strong, they are all very passionate. Some have native talent, others go to art schools, but they are all deeply interested. This is wonderful for me, seeing that 2D animation is still sought after. This is not just in Bucharest, I have another group in Timisoara, 27 students. That made me think that 2D animation is still in demand, which is great.”

As Liviu Acasandrei said, the course has three modules:

“It takes work, and mostly homework. I tell this to my kids all the time, because they need experience. Some are naturally inclined towards drawing, they work out of pleasure, as they tell me. I begin animation teaching as a blank sheet of paper. Animation by hand is much more complex than digital graphics, which is only composition. Animation needs much more drawing, more creativity and attention. These things work much faster with the kids nowadays, which I love.”

The artist told us that, beyond actual drawing, kids need to understand how the idea of animation developed:

“Now I work with them on graphic tablets, each has their own, others online, but I also work traditionally, for them to understand how animation came about. As a brief history, it all started with photography. In fact, animation came from a Belgian teacher, who looked into the sun for a minute, then he shifted his gaze to a sheet of paper, and he saw yellow spots for a minute, then they went away. He realized that if you look at something long enough, a small animation forms. That is how animation came about, and developed up to this digital stage.”

Liviu Acasandrei sees in his studio a launching pad for his most talented and hard working students:

“This animation studio does more than train these kids. I encourage them to get into different projects, and if I see they are really good, I take them to work with me in the studio, which I want to be an animation studio, as it was back in 92, when we had really good people. They produced animation that they took to festivals dedicated to animation. What I do are not simple courses, I try to promote these students, because it is very hard to develop by oneself, it is much easier in a group.”

We thought this is good news, and we are eagerly awaiting a new wave of Romanian animation, after more than 20 years.

‘Life, imagination, imagination, time.
Orientation, responsibility for young people.’ This is the name of
the campaigns for sponsorship initiated by the YOU program. It
includes articles on the emotional health of young people, about
school, or self-confidence. ‘You Are a Voice’ is a platform that
tries to support young people 18 or younger. It tries to do that by
lifting their spirits, but also assuring them that they are part of a
community, which is more and more needed nowadays, when social
distancing has exacerbated the sense of isolation that young people
have always felt.

We were told about the project by
Florentina Balos, networking coordinator and initiator of the
project:

It is a project for young people in
Romania, dealing with adolescent depression, something that is not
talked about enough, but also about professional orientation. It
includes a call-center line that had not existed until now. It has
started working in September. We formed a great team of dedicated
people, psychologists who council young people, and who were joined
by entrepreneurs and artists who hold during this period workshops,
all online, for vocational orientation, or emotional management, time
management, because when you are in school, it helps to prioritize.

We asked our interlocutor what is the
greatest need that young people have, from the observations of the
call-center, and we found out that it is socialization, reason for
which more and more young people are open to communication, both by
phone and online.

We train alongside professionals.
We will have a plan that will be ready by November, when everything
will be running smoothly. Right now, when it comes to young people,
all our attention is focused on fighting depression. This
call-center, which has already offered counseling to around 1,200
young people who called the number or wrote on WhatsApp, contacted
them, and they told us what they were going through and the areas in
which they could use our help.

Beyond the fact that, once on the
page, we find that we can invest in the future, by donating 2 Euro to
the call-center, we find lots of personal stories, one more
interesting than the next. We can find out how we can change the
feeling that ‘a friend is better than you at what they do’, that
‘failure is the best thing that can happen to you’, being at the
basis of everything that you succeed in life at. All these life
stories are meant to increase self-confidence and the ability to
understand life, with everything it brings, good or not-so-good.

Florentina Balos invited us to visit
them online:

We have the website you.com.ro, or
the you.youth Facebook page. When young people access the Facebook
page or the website, they see directly a WhatsApp page, where they
can contact us, and have a hotline they can call easily. Right now
we don’t have a 24 hours a day schedule, but we hope to soon have
that. Right now our schedule is Monday to Friday, 10 AM to 6 PM, and
on Saturdays from 9:30 AM to 3 PM. We soon hope to go round the
clock.

Also here you can find information
about schools around the world, and how to select programs for
studying abroad or domestically, and about all that defines a
teenager. Florentina Balos encourages young people to open their
hearts and minds to this form of socialization, with the promise that
results will not be late in coming.

Romsilva, the National Forestry Administration, is mainly in charge with protecting forests, assuring rational exploitation, and primary wood processing. The county of Bistrita-Nasaud has a special situation, because the National Administration has a single workshop making carriages and horse-drawn sleighs, opened in 2004. It initially was associated with the Beclean Horse Farm, which was set up in 1955, mainly as a stud farm. In 1985, the farm started to work on a new breed, the Romanian Semi-heavy, and in 1993 they started working on improving the Lipizzaner breed. Here is the only place in the world where they raise on a large scale Lipizzaner horses with black and chestnut coats.

In order to diversify their activities, tourists who visit the horse farm can now take advantage of a variety of activities, according to Doita Varna, veterinary with the farm:

“Starting in August, we offer riding lessons, horseback strolls, carriage rides, visits to the farm, riding lessons, horse-drawn sleigh rides in winter, with two or four horses. Riding lessons cost 36 lei, about 8 Euro, for half an hour, and 18 lei, about 4 Euro per person for carriage rides.

Romsilva now produces over 30 models of sleighs and carriages. Last year they did market tests for a new model. Ivan Gheorghe, head of the Bistrita-Nasaud Forestry Directorate, told us about it:

“It is a fast food camper trailer, with everything you need. And orders were not late in coming. We have a lot of orders from Bucharest. Right after we launched the model, we got no less than ten orders from the capital. We also have orders from Brasov, we have orders from Sibiu. We can make about one and a half a month. So we make three trailers every two months, without neglecting everything else we do, of course.

Food trailers appeared first in the US, with New York being the market leader, as trailers are the main competition to fast food places.

Even though things are slow in moving in Romania, Ivan Gheorghe assured us that Romsilva Bistrita-Nasaud already has 50 on order, most of them from Bucharest, where owners of street food businesses want to draw in as many customers as possible. Requirements for trailers vary quite a lot, Ivan Gheorghe told us:

“Some want to have a window on the side, others want to have a separate room for the staff. It was hard to find people who want to do something like that, and also have the necessary skills. Some of them are retirees, but we also found younger people. We could use more, but some of them, especially those who know how to make metal structures and have lathe and welding skills also work in maintenance for forestry equipment.

We found out that the price for a carriage can be as high as that for an automobile. They are highly mobile, because they can be drawn by horse or automobile. They can be as long as 6 meters, as wide as 3 meters, and as high as 2.8 meters, are made of recyclable materials, with thermal insulation, and have everything that is needed to prepare and serve food right on the side of the street. Standard equipment consists of table tops, stainless steel sinks, tanks for fresh and residual water, an electric pump for water circulation, interior and exterior illumination, mostly LED, as well as outdoor tables.

Romsilva is also looking abroad for customers, and soon they will start making customized carriages for EU countries.

We went out on the streets of Bucharest to see for ourselves how often we could encounter fast food trailers. We found quite a few of them, but we could only find a couple of carriages. We found the Sausage Carriage in the Old Center, and another one on Unirii Boulevard, also selling sausages. However, we were told that this type of vehicle can easily be turned into a flower shop, a bookshop, a souvenir shop, a cafe, as well as a sweets shop.

At a time when people are facing unexpected challenges, many are reinventing themselves, and give themselves time for things they used to be passionate about. Today we will be talking about an initiative that aims to hit the restart button. This is the reason for the creation of the Re:Start Romania Association, and of a number of projects. We spoke about the most recent one with Alina Stoian, communication adviser of the Association:

“There have been several initiatives, some of them very successful, but the one that is interesting right now, even though we don’t get out of the house, it is maybe tempting, in the ten minutes we get out, to find a book to read. This is the project called ‘The Open Library’, a project born a year and a half ago, almost two, when the Re:Start Romania Association thought it should promote once again reading paper books, and, in addition, to encourage access to culture, so that people may have access to titles that they maybe can no longer find in bookstores, which means that it selected several libraries to which people can donate books. We establish which libraries are part of the program, we put up special shelves in them, and put up donated books on them. The moment someone who wants to read a book in one of the units, they must give a book in exchange. This gives the name of the initiative: ‘get a book and give one in exchange’.

They want to provide a space for expression and action for all Romanian citizens who are motivated, confident, ambitious, with socially progressive views, irrespective of age, gender, religion, or political leanings, according to the website of the association. Alina Stoian told us how the project grew with the help of these people:

“So far, the project has grown unexpectedly. Basically, in less than a year we made 12 partnerships, both in Bucharest and in other cities, such as Constanta and Pitesti, where we have such libraries that volunteer to become partners, and offer to take care of our shelves. We give them a stand full of books, and they take care to have books on the shelves, and to encourage people in the area to bring in other books too. Moreover, in the last three months we initiated a mini-project, supporting and promoting Romanian authors. We did this starting with a series of live mini-interviews, which we now plan to do on-line. We already have 4 or 5 interviews. From the moment we started them, people have started becoming more and more interested in the project. They want to become volunteers and ‘adopt’, as we say, such a library, taking care of a stand that we provide. I believe this initiative took flight faster than we expected, and this can only makes us happy.

The idea came from the wish, through non-political means, to stimulate the involvement that Romanians have in their own communities, with direct impact on the quality of life of everyone, as our interlocutor told us. And there is such involvement, because we found out that in the 12 existing libraries, the titles on the shelves change every single day, with about 200 books already available in each library:

“Everything is on-line now. First of all we found temporary solutions, with the interviews with Romanian writers. As long as we are making the interviews, the libraries will not disappear. And, even if we are in this period in which things are serious, and everyone is in isolation, we have during this period the most proposals to adopt a library. We will get over this period successfully! Please, stay at home and help us!

This is an appeal to normalcy at a time when nothing is normal. It is an appeal to rediscover oneself with choices in reading material, today, but, more importantly, tomorrow.

Over 200 people from the city of Oradea attended the inauguration of the Permanent Exhibition Discos in the 70s and 80s. This was a trip back in time, in order to find out how youth in Romania in the 70s and 80s spent their free time at the discotheque. This landscape was populated by cassette tapes, reel-to-reel players, and vinyl, and was regulated by the secretive Committee for Visual and Audio, which was the deciding factor when it came to what one could see or listen to in such a space.

Cristina Puscas, a museographer, told us that the idea behind the exhibition came after a few donations were made to the museum, after which came a period of extensive research:

“We started in September 2016 the campaign Dont throw away the future, bring it to the museum!. As a result, dozens of people from Oradea got actively involved in this campaign of collecting items from the communist period, and among the thousands of donated objects we found loads of vinyl records, reel-to-reel players, tapes, and we found ourselves in possession of a wide array of stuff typical of discos of that period. We thought we could take advantage of this collection, instead of putting it in storage. This is how we got the idea of this exhibition complex. We started off on the idea that there hasnt been such research before, trying to see how discos were organized in the communist period. In the pre-research period, I could find no official regulation for the functioning of discotheques. Therefore I went to the archives, and found the archives of the Bihor County Committee for Culture and Socialist Education. There we found a few regulations related to discos, based on a few orders from the central authority, what the Committee for Visual and Audio was, what censorship was like, and what the restrictions were like. But we were not satisfied with this single voice, that of public institutions, and so we went to stage two, interviewing Oradea DJs who worked in discos in the 70s and 80s. This was how this disco was born, which blends a real disco with an exhibition full of items, photos, etc.

Discotheques were organized in cultural houses, culture and education clubs, bars, restaurants and other public food places, hotels, or resorts. They had to comply with the so-called Norms on the organization of discotheque and videotheque schedules. A disco could only work based on an annually issued permit from the Bihor County Committee for Culture and Socialist Education. That was obtained only after the Committee for Visual and Audio itself issued in writing their opinion on the content of the schedule and the appropriateness of its public presentation. The schedules, in the 80s, had to contain at least 2/3 Romanian music pieces of the total.

We asked Cristina Puscas what the experience is for the museum goer in terms of encountering the socialist environment:

They go inside a typical discotheque, with the mirror ball, the strobes, colorful lights, and black lights. We added to the exhibition objects such as vinyls from that period, with music from that time, and several reel-to-reel tape players, record players, and old photos of DJs who used to work here, which they donated to the museum. There isnt much documentary material on this topic, because they didnt take their own photos, they had no idea that at some time in the future someone would look into the history of this community. We also have songs handwritten by youth in the 70s, we have love letters in which they told each other what they listened to, or newspaper cuttings they made. These are original materials, and we are very proud of this very rich documentary base, and rich inheritance.

We then asked Cristina Puscas about the venue of the exhibition:

It is in Oradea Fortification, where we also have the Oradea City Museum, on two floors. On the second floor we found a proper room. It is one of the most beautiful rooms, and that is where we set the disco. It proved too cramped at the inaugural event, once the dancing started people couldnt breathe, considering that 200 people showed up, we never expected to have such success. We had a regular inauguration, but afterwards we wanted to be true to the spirit of the 70s and 80s, and we held an old fashioned disco dance. We had loads of people who came out of nostalgia, but we also had plenty of young people who came to listen to the music from back then. We were happy to have people of all generations. In the end, the work to put together this event proved very rewarding.

Functioning hours for discos were typically between two and four hours, therefore the disco exhibition promptly closed at 20:00 hours.

Once upon a time there was an abandoned village, like many in Romania. This village is in the west of the country, in Arad County. Its story had not always been sad, but now the 5 villagers left out of the 500 that used to live there lived a life outside of time.

Then an Italian entrepreneur fell in love with the area. Osvaldo Martinelli came to set up there the culmination of his project Agro Village.

Paulo Zanetti, who works with Osvaldo, told us about it:

“Agro Village is a project with three main components: tourism, real estate, and farming. Right now only the first component, the tourism one, is operative, because in Labasint, in Arad County, there is a resort made up of a few elements: a 4-star hotel, a hostel, a disco, a pool, and a restaurant. There are there several structures spread over 4 ha, in a superb location, surrounded by forests, pastures, completely isolated from the civilized world.”

This year they plan to build homes for people who love country life. The third component, farming, outside the village, will consist of niche crops, in order to develop the agro-tourism side, as we were told about by our interlocutor:

“The idea is to involve elements that already exist in the area. We have small producers of dairy and honey, with a view to developing a network from already available elements, in order to develop the entire area for tourism. The idea came out of love of nature, for authentic places, for beautiful things. In addition, I must say nowadays there is a great need to get closer to nature once again. There are studies in Japan and the US which proved the fundamental importance of contact with nature, with forests, with trees, open spaces, far away from screens and smartphones. This has a major positive effect on the mind and the body.”

Paulo Zanetti told us that they want to offer all that, to bring people closer to nature:

“Our modern way of life has a lot of limitations, many of which emerged because of the pandemic, we saw the limits and shortcomings of our system. We should take a step back and get back in touch with nature, with simple and authentic things.”

We found out that Osvaldo Martinelli started the Agro Village project in 2007, but that it began with a house for his family and guests. They have started working on several buildings, up to the point when he opened them to the public, which was back in 2016.

Paulo Zanetti, Osvaldos partner, told us about how a typical day is there:

“There is no one formula, because we avoided any formula, pattern, or schedule. Everyone makes their own day. There are many activities available. We have bicycles and ATVs, which we use for guided tours around the Agro Village, because around the place we have hundreds of hectares of forest, with hundreds of kilometers of trails and forest paths. This year we want to try something different: to organize motorized paragliding events, allowing people to fly low above the valleys and the forests. We have mountain biking, and many other activities, such as Nordic Walking. If you love wild mushrooms, this is the perfect period. If you dont necessarily enjoy such activities, you can catch some sunshine by the pool, which is heated using solar panels, where you can swim until late into the night, or you can just sit down for a beer with friends.”

This bucolic and relaxing place, with its forests and pastures, is now open to anyone who enjoys spending time in nature.

As we have gotten used of late, we will be staying on-line. This time we are celebrating a new idea launched by Google in Romania, Internet Heroes, a program helping children learn basic digital skills, as well as on-line safety and security. The program has its own page, https://g.co/EroiiInternetului.

We talked with Dan Oros, marketing director with Google, to find out what it is all about:

“Internet Heroes is a platform teaching children fundamental notions of digital citizenship and on-line security, so that they can explore the world with confidence. The platform is available to anyone, and is aimed at three main segments: first of all children, second of all parents, and third of all teachers. Our suggestions would be to explore these resources, because right now children spend more and more time on-line, and it is important to spend this time keeping in mind certain principles. This platform is based on some very important principles when you go on-line. For instance, to distribute information carefully, not let yourself be fooled by what you see on the Internet, to learn how to secure your secret information, how to select strong passwords. Another interesting principle is civility, the Internet is a strong amplifier for messages, and we want them to be positive. We want to teach children how to treat others the way they themselves would like to be treated. And, last but not least, to teach them that when you are in doubt, ask questions! This is particularly important for the kids that spend more time on the Internet now, so that they are open to going to their parents and teachers and ask questions when they are in doubt.”

And, because when we say Internet Heroes it makes us think of play, Dan Oros explained:

“This platform and the game it contains, an extremely interesting and interactive game, helps children explore the Internet safely. We can all be Internet heroes, as long as we abide by principles. On this platform you can find resources as a parent who wants to open a dialog on this topic with their children. Because in the end education begins at home, and the guide is available from there, Internet Heroes guide for families, where they are asked to create games and scenarios to discuss with the children at home. That is for parents, while for teachers we have a curriculum, organized like a school curriculum, with over 20 lessons, which can be taught in class, also on these topics. They are interactive, fun lessons that make learning a pleasure for kids.”

Children can test their skills in the game Interland, where they have to cross unharmed the Land of Treasures. The Land of Civility, the River of Reality, and the Mountain of Attention; after successfully completing each challenge, they get a diploma. Therefore feedback was not late in coming, as Dan Oros told us:

“We have extremely good feedback from the kids who have already started on this platform, but from teachers too. In addition to this platform, we have announced a grant worth 200,000 dollars for an ONG to run safety activities online for kids and parents. It is extremely important, especially during this period, and we are trying to help to the best of our ability.”

The Internet Heroes is free for all. Also, in cooperation with various partners, Google will hold all over the country seminars and training sessions for teachers in the area of on-line safety and security, protection of personal data and privacy, on-line behavior, and digital skills.

Dan Oros, Google marketing director, added:

“The platform is relevant for parents too, even though it has dedicated content for kids. That is because while parents are going with the kids through these activities, they themselves will learn a few interesting things, which they may not be familiar with. These are things such as how to have better passwords on the Internet, how to stay away from disinformation, or how to spot fake news, and so on.”

As opposed to other safety programs on-line, which emphasize threats and restrictions, Internet Heroes focuses on educating and providing skills for young people for everyones good.

84 years on, the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum of Bucharest is younger than ever, and celebrates its youth with a series of events, including the Dimitrie Gusti Homage Year for the Bucharest Sociological School, an event created by the Romanian Academy for the 140th anniversary of the birth of Dimitrie Gusti, a prestigious academician, who went on to preside over the Romanian Academy between 1944 and 1946.

Paula Popoiu, manager of the museum, told us about how the Academy declared 2020 as homage year for the great scientist:

“2020 was declared the Dimitrie Gusti and the Bucharest Sociological School homage year early in the year, when the Romanian Academy held an anniversary conference. This makes me very glad, because it showcases this great man of culture, great professor, and great minister, who is a major part of the history of the school of sociology. I want to emphasize the importance of this creation, the only thing left, after the Sociological School of Bucharest was banned, and Dimitrie Gusti was expelled from cultural life. What is important is that his and his schools assiduous labor resulted in this creation that we call the Village Museum. And, as you all know, the Sociological School of Bucharest did not run its research to create the museum, but to improve the life of peasants in villages. The research had another purpose, but this museum is what remains.”

The museum opened for the public in 1936. This permanent exhibition has 14 ha and over 380 monuments, 60,000 heritage collection items, and over 250,000 archive documents on traditional village life. The permanent and temporary exhibitions attract half a million visitors annually. The Village Museum is usually open the week round, and is the most visited objective in Romania.

During vacations, the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum of Bucharest holds workshops for children, so we asked Paula Popoiu what the situation is this year, when, after two months of shut down, museums are tentatively opening their gates under social distancing, something no one had even considered before:

“Our event Summer on the village road will be held in August this year. For the time being we did not make any decisions for this event, because a lot may happen until August. But we did not want to sit idly by, we thought we could do this with a limited number of kids, because we have the possibility of bringing them into the courtyards of houses to hold workshops, the few that we are able to. Meaning we provide some activities for the kids, so they dont have to spend all their summer vacation at home. Most of the activities with the kids will be online, for the time being. We will take things in stride, but we wont forget the chidren. We already have an online portal, Fairytale House. In addition to the actors who helped us, and whom I thank, I and my colleagues read stories too. We will continue to have activities online for the time being, and we will be adapting as things go along.”

The museum organizes traditional events and festivals, in which traditional craftsmen and musicians show visitors slivers of village life. But, because it does not want to be stuck in the past, the museum created a digital project, Living Human Treasures, after it digitized its archive. Paula Popoiu told us about it:

“This is thanks to Ms. Camelia Moise, a journalist who made the movies, and we joined this project, and will continue, together with her, to run the research for showcasing these craftsmen and musicians, who are very important, they are the essence of traditional culture right now.”

Irina Cajal, undersecretary with the Ministry of Culture, recalled for us her beginnings at the museum, with an encouraging message:

“I am reminiscing about how 60 years ago I set foot in this museum, to my left I had Mr. Focsa, and on my right I had Mr. Stahl and Mr. Tancred Banateanu. These were the three great founders of this museum, who loved it dearly. I have a degree in anthropology, I am one of Levi Strass students, but I live in this museum, I have been loving it for many years, and I still love it. A good part of my life has been dedicated to it, and I love the people here. We have a lot of projects at the Culture Ministry, I deal a lot with minorities and their festivals, I deal with everything that has to do with traditional art. As the daughter of an expert in viruses, Professor Cajal, who dealt with them all his life, and talked about them with us all the time, I assure you that this virus will go away, and will leave us be to see to our beautiful life that now we are pining for. I promise you that.”

The museum is full of flowers right now, and things are getting along as it always has. Now you can once again enjoy them, the scenery, the scents, and the feeling of peace.

For the last 43 years, around the date of May 18, museums around the world are invited to celebrate the International Day of Museums. Starting in 1977, we got used to events organized for a whole day, a weekend, or even a week.

This year, even though it seemed unlikely, around May 18 several museums around the country are reopening. Also this year, 84 years since the inauguration of the Dimitrie Gusti National Village Museum, complying with the social distancing measures instituted as part of the national emergency measures, then national alert state, the Village Museum opened its gates to the public.

On this occasion, Minister of Culture Bogdan Gheorghiu said:

“If we learned anything during this very difficult period for us was that we saw how important and present culture is in our society, in our cities, and in our lives. Culture brings inspiration, creativity and hope in our cities and our lives. We believe it will be essential in getting back to normalcy not only in Romania, but all over the world. Until two months ago, we thought access to a museum was normal, a natural thing. Today I want us to appreciate the freedom to choose, and to appreciate these historic institutions, but also educational institutions, because museums are the protectors of the past, but also of prospects for the future, fixes against oblivion. I hope that we have sparked the curiosity of people that have not set foot in a museum since childhood, or maybe have never visited one, and that the news of museums opening will attract new visitors, who wish to spend some healthy time outdoors. Culture, in all its forms, is a therapy for the soul, especially in these trying times.”

The consultative body of the International Council of Museums, set up in 1946, picks every year the theme for the International Day of Museums, such as globalization, indigenous populations, reducing culture gaps, and care for the environment. Minister of Culture Bogdan Gheorghiu told us about what happens this year:

“Reopening museums, we hope, will be close to the date of May 18, the International Day of Museums, which this year will revolve around equality, diversity, and inclusion. I would also add solidarity, because together we can overcome this situation. I would wrap up by inviting you to visit museums, but paying attention to the rules of safety and public health, because this is the best proof of mutual respect.”

Dr. Paula Popoiu, manager of the Village Museum, pressed on some further points:

“It is said that women are more active. We have prepared during these months, which have been said for us, because we were used to the museum being full, with a variety of activities. I, for one, really miss the children that were all over the alleys in the Village Museum, because they gave us the best feedback on what it is that we are doing here. We are running a village here, after all.”

Sergiu Nistor, presidential adviser, had an encouraging message:

“The resumption of activity will be very fast in museums. I want to convey an encouraging message for people working in culture, who can not yet have physical contact with the public. That moment will come. We have the example of George Enescu, born over here, who spent his youth during the Great War, where he played his violin in the trenches and in field hospitals. In spite of that, after the Great War was over and national unity was achieved, Enescu said: Culture shall prevail! It is impossible for something created for so many centuries to vanish. Humanity has been through difficult periods before and made it.

And he concluded: We must have faith and we will win! I am saying that because I am convinced that what the Village Museum does today is more than preparing a reopening. It is a call to optimism, it is a call to creativity and collaboration between cultural institutions in order to take the most appropriate measures to start welcoming visitors back.”

Since in Romania Museum Day is around the same time of the relaxation of lockdown, Dr. Paula Popoiu, manager of the Village Museum, told us what the museum caretakers did during this time of isolation, and what measures they are taking for a safe visit to the museum, one of the most popular in the country:

“We will obviously take all the measures possible when opening the museum, just as we take in our personal lives. I have to make a confession: during all the time that the museum was shut down, professional life was not good at all. We have had people with a lot of initiative all the time we have been open. One day I came to the museum, and found my colleagues digging in the gardens to plant flowers, because people worked with even more love for the job than before. We got a few hundred masks, we made proposals to some large stores to form partnerships, which means that we are putting up their logos and they provide masks and disinfectants. We will apply two kinds of rules, some for indoor and some for the outdoor. Because we have the exhibition rooms, with temporary exhibitions, and the fact that each house is a micro-exhibition, which is why we have limited access to them. I think that we cannot let ourselves be overcome by problems, but find solutions.”

Once upon a time there was a painted box with faded pictures that told the story of a family, like an old-time puzzle. Photos that had on the back a name, maybe a message, linking the person in the picture with other members of the family. Because she loves photography as both image and story, Cristina Irian and her associate, Dorian Delureanu, founded the Photo Omnia Association. Cristina Irian told us the story of the origin of the project:

“Our story as an association starts with discovering two sources of photos, not archives as such, but two photo studios that were active in the interwar period, one in Craiova, the other in Bucharest, named Studio Photo Omnia, hence the name of the association. We looked for photos made by photographers who worked in the two studios. This was the initial project, and it was very interesting, because we discovered two formulas of photos, two types of photography activities, one studio more focused on portraits and events, and the other focused on photography projects, which, it seems — we dont know for sure, this is what a researcher told us — had to do with a group of students in the architecture and design domain, in the period between the wars.”

Cristina Irian told us about the archives they recovered:

“We dealt with a number of archives. We have two large scale projects, one is about family and professional archives, the other a number of family and travel albums, a sub-genre of family albums. We ran a few pilot projects focused on family albums in several areas of Romania, and on travel albums, especially of young people or business people in the period between the wars in Bucharest. As for the archives that we uncovered and we worked with, I can say that there are lots of stories. Somehow these archives came our way.”

One of the most beautiful stories is set in Gura Humorului, between 1897 and 1960. Here with details is Cristina Irian:

“The first archive, Ioanas box, the box of stories from northern Romania, appeared at one of the events I organized with a good friend of mine in 2017, an event about old and new photography, old and new techniques, a sort of photography re-enactment, which we tried also, and together with Paul Aioanei we held an event at his studio, and there we found Ioana Brunet, the owner of this archive, from Gura Humorului. This is how this box emerged. It took a while for this box to reach digital space. It was digitized as part of the pilot project, and from there we took this research further, and we turned this archive into a double digital product, a digitized map of the trajectory of the photos and people in the box. We also had a small digital product, and audio-video presentation based on the photos and documents we discovered, an archive narrated by Ioana. The initial intent was to tell the story of these archives in the presence of their owners, but we also wanted to preserve in some form these presentations, and so we reached this formula of illustrated presentation, recorded in a maximum of 10 to 15 minutes of text and image.”

Each photo has its home, we find out from the story. Once the viewer gets into the house of the photo, he is revealed life stories, sometimes captured in detail. Parents, grandparents, grandchildren, the story of cities, countries, borders that shift its configuration in time, and carry with the people that are in the photos.

On the website of the association you can also find pictures of Dacia cars, part of an anniversary project, called Dacia 50 is still running, as well as the projects Wells of Oltenia and The Mysteries of Craiova.

Cristina Irian explained the purpose of these two archives:

“It has a double purpose. Our wish was, on the one hand, to present the archive and the contents of the archive as they are, the story of the people who used to own it, and on the other to emphasize the photographic content: the types of photos, the ways in which people were photographed, the current practices at the time, and, where relevant, to showcase the name of some photographers that were important in their time. In each archive we have discovered very important names of their time, and rare photography material.”

Another project of the association is Analogic 192021, a long term project of research, digitization, promoting analog photography, of photo collections and archives from Romanian communities, run in partnerships with cultural associations and institutions. Analogic 192021 consisted of exhibiting photos made in 2017, based on an Omnia Photo concept, related to practices in using photography in communities in Ialomita, the county of origin of Costica Acsinte, the author of the processed photographs.

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Significant changes have occurred in the organization of companies and institutions in the context of the pandemic. From halting or converting production to shifting to working from home, or even temporary shut downs, companies had to find not only solutions, but convert their business models altogether. In this context, Ingenius HUB, through the Ingenius NET network, launched between March 31 and April 18 a line of research on the impact of COVID-19. The data will be used to inform a memorandum to be sent to the Presidency, the government, and local authorities, with a coherent set of measures needed to support Romanian organizations in the context of the COVID-19 crisis.

We talked about this project with Rodica Lupu, founder of Ingenius HUB:

“Since early last year, we founded, through Ingenius HUB, a network of stakeholders in innovation and technology transfer, because we are mainly concerned with innovation, and the network partnered with major universities, companies, employers associations, and with associations of SMES, but also local public authorities. These are the four pillars of the quadruple spiral of innovation, which we complied with, and in which we believe. Therefore we are able already to act at a higher level. I think we have managed to have a more comprehensive understanding of the difficulties that face various types of organizations in general, but especially when going through a crisis.”

Ingenius HUB is a space for co-working and acceleration for young entrepreneurs, created in 2014-2015 together with the Academy of Economic Studies. Since then, Ingenius HUB has financed over 200 businesses. However, the organization had to adapt, as Rodica Lupu told us:

“Right now, in the middle of an unprecedented crisis, we believe it is imperative that we consult organizations from all these environments, because we cannot risk founding our decisions on previous experience. And the way in which organizations are affected now is fairly heterogeneous, the problems are diverse, and I dont think they can be covered by existing experience. We believe that without widespread research and public consultation we cannot take effective measures, which are needed for a speedy recovery.”

Ingenius HUB is meant to address all industries, services, technologies, and IT. Here is Rodica Lupu once again:

“We cater to all kinds of organizations that can propose solutions with sizable impact, without disproportionate investments, or some that the state could not sustain. Our aim, with the research we launched on March 31, is to understand the diversity of the issues and the exact impact of this crisis, as we can understand it at this point. Obviously, the impact is hard to calculate, because we dont know what is to come, and everything is unpredictable, not just for us, but for all states. Which is why we have included in the questionnaire questions related to estimates on the next six months. Of course, these estimates will give us more of an X-ray of the state of mind of entrepreneurs, rather than of the actual impact. Thirdly, we have put into the questionnaire a set of fairly wide ranging guidelines. They are examples of measures that we can propose, with an emphasis on the industries that were most affected and are now shut down, including by executive order. We are not dealing only with those industries, the measures are meant to cover the entire spectrum of companies and organizations. “

Ingenius HUB was created because of the growing concern in all areas relevant for the Romanian economy, businesses, NGOs, public institutions or research institutions. We asked Rodica Lupu how she believes that we can restart the engines:

“Hard to say. We believe that we must take measures on several directions at the same time. Immediate and direct measures are needed for industries that are most affected, all that is meant by tourism, then training, events, private education, all very important for the social fabric. We believe it is essential to not allow companies to fail, or to keep the number of those who do as low as possible. At the same time we need social measures for the collateral victims, to the extent that we already have a very high number of unemployed.”

The campaign Building Life Together #Life after COVID-19 is aimed at gaining real input that could lead further down the road to feasible proposals. The participants had access to results, and can themselves make their own proposals as part of the final memorandum.

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