Category: World of Culture

”The festival hosted by Nottara Theatre, now in its second year, was born out of the wish of the people working in theatre to encourage audiences to come to the theatre and make them part of the whole theatrical experience.”

This is what theatre critic and Radio Romania journalist Crenguta Manea said about the festival held recently by Nottara Theatre in Bcuharest. For one week in mid October, this theatre played host to an international festival that focused on these times of crisis, as the director of the Theatre, critic Marinela Tepus, described it.

The festival started right in front of the Theatre with an event entitled “Smile, click and…gong!” The show, staged by Mihai Lungeanu, started in the street and moved on to the theatre’s foyer and eventually in the performance hall. In the foyer, spectators had the chance to view a photographic exhibition about the first edition of the festival by photographers Maria Stefanescu and Sorin Radu.

The latter explains: “We selected a number of snapshots which we thought best captured specific characters and the actors impersonating them. I don’t really like it when actors are aware I’m photographing them because they may become tense and start thinking about the photo and not the role they’re playing. So I wait until actors really go into their characters before taking a picture, while making sure actors are not aware I’m taking their photo. “

For Maria Stefanescu, it wasn’t easy to choose the photographs in the exhibition: “There were so many photographs and you just don’t know which one to pick, whether to go for a panoramic image that shows the whole stage or for portraits of the actors. I wanted to please everybody, the actors, the director, the set designer. I believe people come to the theatre to see a star. So I chose to take pictures of the stars. “

The first day of the festival at Nottara Theatre saw the staging of Don Quixote, a musical written by Ada Milea and Mihai Maniutiu and directed by Mihai Maniutiu, while the soundtrack was composed by Ada Milea. The show enjoyed so much success with the public, that at the end of the festival it received the award for the most popular performance in the comedy section. Don Quixote was staged by the Liviu Rebreanu Company of the Targu Mures Theatre.

Alina Nelega, the company’s artistic director, tells us more about the performance: ”Don Quixote is more than a novel, it is a myth. It is a masterpiece of world literature and an archetypal work. A characteristic of such works is that, in one way or another, we can relate to them at every moment in our lives. I don’t think Don Quixote belongs to a specific time in history. I don’t think you find fewer crazy artists today than in the age of Cervantes and I don’t think the number of idealist people has decreased dramatically. The fact that the audience understands and is able to relate to this proves to me that I am right, at least to some extent. The performance by Ada Milea and Mihai Maniutiu does not tell the story of Don Quixote. What it does, however, is to create a universe where the individual, the writer and the characters are each looking for their freedom. It is a multi-layered show, a hermeneutical performance, where music, movement and image combine to make it a very pleasant experience for spectators.”

The Nottara Theatre Festival also comprised a competition section. Theatre critic Crenguta Manea was a member of the jury responsible for granting the best performance award: ”The competitive section saw a series of extremely powerful performances which made the task of the jury very difficult. Such examples include a show produced by the Odeon Theatre in Bucharest entitled Titanic Waltz, directed by Alexandru Dabja, a production of the Hungarian State Theatre in Cluj called Christmas at the Ivanovs directed by Andras Urban, and a performance staged by the Rubin Studio from Prague called Meet, which featured two young actresses with a great potential for comedy. So the jury had a difficult job choosing a winner. In the end, the best performance award went to The New Tenant for the show’s rigorous structure, excellent composition, the beautiful stage design created by Helmut Sturmer and the performance of the Spanish actor Francisco Alfosin and the Nottara actors Ada Navrot, Gabriel Rauta and Ion Grosu, who bring a lot of joy and dynamism on the stage. “

The New Tenant, which is written by Eugene Ionesco, was directed by Tompa Gabor and is one of this season’s premieres at the Nottara Theatre. At the award gala, theatre critic Doina Papp, the president of the Master Class Cultural Association, handed the young talent award to the actress Nicoleta Lefter for her role as Sarmisegetuza in Tudor Musatescu’s Titanic Waltz staged by Alexandru Dabija for the Odeon Theatre.

The new concept was created by an architectural firm together with the Village Museum in Bucharest, which has a long-standing experience when it comes to exhibitions. As for the selection of the writers invited to the fair, the Ministry of Culture this year focused on the young generation. Romania’s participation in the Frankfurt Book Fair, the biggest event of its kind in Europe, translated into the presence of 29 publishing houses and writers whose works have been translated into German, such as Liliana Corobca and Cosmin Perta. The Romanian stand also hosted readings from two books of poetry by Cristian Popescu, “Stammbaum” and “Familienlokal”, which were translated into German by Ernest Wichner for Hochroth, a Berlin-based publishing house. Anca Fronescu, who is cultural manager, hosted some of the events held by the Romanian stand.

Anca Fronescu: “The stand also hosted a presentation of the most beautiful Romanian books in terms of design. The competition for best book design is a first in Romania, and the winners are on display in Frankfurt on some great bookshelves. Romania’s stand is very modern and eye catching. At a huge event like the Frankfurt Fair, it’s important that people are attracted by your stand.”

The writers invited by the Ministry of Culture to this year’s edition of the Frankfurt Book Fair were Liliana Corobca and Cosmin Perta. The winner of the Young Prose Writer Award of the Year in 2011, Cosmin Perta presented his book “Teofil and the Wooden Dog” brought out by Herg Benet Publishers.

Cosmin Perta: “It was wonderful in Frankfurt. It was my first time at this book fair, which is the biggest in Europe. Even though the fair is mainly focused on the sale of publishing rights, it is wonderful to see so many publishing houses, so many writers and literary agents. It gives you the impression that literature is the most important thing in the world. My book was very well received in Frankfurt and its launch was attended by more people than we were expecting. The most interesting part was the debate that followed, when readers asked me all sorts of questions. The book generated different reactions than in Romania because the German public was mainly interested in totalitarianism and many of their questions were about social and political issues and topical issues in Romania. People were very curious to know whether there were still traces of totalitarianism in Romania and whether people’s mentalities still retained something of the old regime.”

The Frankfurt Book Fair also featured the winners of the European Union Prize for Literature in 2014. The winning titles belong to different genres, from detective stories to historical novels. Established in 2009, this award is granted every year by the European Union to young writers across Europe, irrespective of the language in which they write. Pierre J. Mejlak from Malta is one of the writers who won the European Union Prize for Literature.

One of the guests of the Frankfurt Book Fair was the winner of last year’s European Union Prize for Literature, Marica Bodrozic, who is considered one of the exciting literary voices in Germany, despite the fact that German is not her native language.

Polirom, Casa Radio, Curtea Veche, Humanitas, RAO, Trei, Max Blecher, Monitorul Oficial, Nemira and Niculescu are but some of the publishing houses to have exhibited their book offer at the Romanian stand at the Frankfurt Book Fair in 2014.

Dear friends, RRI had invited you to participate, until September 26, in a prize-winning contest called “The International Radio Orchestras Festival, RadiRo, at its 2nd edition”. The contest was devoted to a unique musical event in Europe, which brought on the stage of the Radio Hall in Bucharest and live, on public radio stations, 5 famous orchestras and world-class conductors. The contest did stir your interest and we received no less than 289 correct answers. We thank you for that, and we warmly welcome you to take part in other contests organized by Radio Romania International. The contest was organized with the support of the “Casa Radio” Publishers and the Bucharest City Hall. Listening to our programs and visiting Radio Romania International’s website as well as our Facebook, Twitter and Google+ profiles enabled you to find out the correct answers to the questions. The contest ended on September 26, mailing date. And now here is the list of winners:

Honourable mentions went to the following RRI English Service listeners or Internet users: Jaroslaw Jedrejczak of Poland, Shahanaj Parvin şi Mohammad Akksan, both from Bangladesh, Fadi Shaaban of Liban, Sepo Lustig of Finland, Beandry Joseph, of Canada, Abdulkarim Ahmed Ali Almabrouk, of Libya, Hans Verner Lollike of Denmark, Mr. Srikanth, from India and Obaid Alam from Pakistan.

3rd prizes went to Syed Ali Akbar, Muhammad Punhal Khoso, Lukyari and Jinnah DX Club, all from Pakistan, Sagrika, Zenon Teles and Eyamin Hossain, from India, Sajjaid Hossain, from Bangladesh, S. J. Agboola, from Nigeria and Aderval Lima Gomes from Brazil.

The 2nd prize winners are: Ferhat Bezazel from Algeria, Sourodeed Sarkar, Surendra Kumar, Dr. Siddharta Sarkar and Chinmoy Mahato from India, Brian Kendall and Martin Rogan from the UK, Mustapha Hassan, from Nigeria and Asghar Shah from Pakistan.

The winners of the 1st prizes offered by RRI are: Amela Omerspahic, from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nikolai Matveev from Rusia, Raïf Chaaban from Lebanon, who wrote to the French section, Abdelilah Boubchir, from Algeria, Antonella Monti from Italy, Wang Shufeng from China, Jorge Alfredo Castelli, from Argentina, Gita Chakrabarty from India, Christopher Lewis and Alan Holder, both from Great Britain.

Gita Chakrabarty from India sent us the following message:

“It is indeed a pleasant experience to listen to the English service of Radio Romania International. I have been tuning in to the short-wave broadcasts of RRI for quite some time and I have to express my appreciation to you. The friendly voice of the broadcasters of RRI coupled with the high quality and content of programmes make listening a pleasure. You have programmes on politics, business, economy, culture and sports to keep listeners well-informed about events in Romania, Europe and the world at large. RRI website is well-structured and technically of a high standard. Your programmes are informative and entertaining. In my opinion RRI is one of the best radio stations in Europe.”

Christopher Lewis from Britain wrote us the following message:

“I have been listening to RRI for 16 years or more now. Why do I listen? because your programs are interesting and they make me want to tune in, almost daily. I knew little to nothing about Romania before I started to listen to RRI and it has taught me a lot. there are very few international broadcasters left on short-wave in Europe. RRI provides excellent coverage of Romanian events and those I neighboring countries. I like checking the website to, because it provides me with extra news, frequency information, live audio and much, much more. I like RRI on Facebook too. “

10 special prizes went to the following listeners or Internet users: Nikolai Prigodici from Belarus, André Biot from Belgium, Fritz Andorf from Germany, Mahmoud Hamzaoui from Egypt, Edoardo Pesce from Italy, Zhang Shifeng fom China, José Miguel Domínguez Jurado from Spain, Sanusi Isah Dankaba from Nigeria, Mogire Machuki from Kenya and Mitul Kansal from India.

And here is what one of our listeners from Nigeria, Mr Sanushi Isah Dankaba, wrote about our programs:

“I am a faithful listener to Radio Romania International. Signal is very strong and your programs in English are fabulous. Although I could listen to the radio online, I continue to use my short-Wave radio. I enjoy listening to the programs of interesting countries, such as Romania. I observe that being a listener to RRI and an online fan is both an honor and a privilege. I am also a gainer, in the sense that I enjoy quality programs with excellent audio and video quality. I don’t have to hunt for other radio stations for my daily quota of the latest news and reports on Romania, Europe and the world. RRI is reliable and unbiased in projecting Romania in its true perspective. Imparting valuable information on the socio-political economic , cultural and historical affairs is a special treat of RRI. Its English service is a boon for those listeners, like myself, for whom English is a second language. My friends, relatives and myself are appreciative of the fact that RRI has given us various programs over the years that are educative, absorbing, entertaining and interesting. Isn’t it exciting that we can expect so much by the flick of a key in browsing RRI ‘s well structured website. With Romanian music in my heart, RRI is a friendly source of music of various genres — be it traditional folk, classical, jazz, popular. To me, the hardworking staff members of RRI, with their full dedication and with a lot of interest for its listeners have made RRI one of the best loved radio stations in Europe”.

And here is what Mitul Kansal from India, wrote :

“What inspired me to take part in the contest is the fact that for me, Radio Romania has been best means of communication and information since 2004. It has always provided me with plenty of information about Romanias culture and especially, music. “

Our heartfelt thanks go to all those who took the time to answer the questions, also adding some extra wording on what spurred them to take part in our contest.

The happy recipients will receive prizes and honorary mentions via snail mail. We kindly ask you to send a letter, a fax or an email massage acknowledging the receipt and the content of the package. Thank you once again for taking a chance and sending your answers for the contest dedicated to the 2nd edition of the International Radio Orchestras Festival RadiRo, and please don’t hesitate to take part in out future contests. Thank you!

It’s already a tradition, for some of Romania’s national theaters, to present some of their premieres before the start of the theatre season. The “Radu Stanca” National Theater in Sibiu, the organizer of the famous International Theatre Festival, did just that, in early October. Theatre lovers, critics and journalists alike were invited to see the first five premieres, out the total fourteen that make up Sibiu’s 2014-2015 theatre season.

This micro season started with the opening of a photo exhibition dubbed FOCUS TNRS: ”Visions of Revolt and Tragedy”, by Sebastian Marcovici and Dragos Dumitru. The two young photographers displayed an insider’s view of the five new productions staged this autumn.

Sebastian Marcovici: ”We used 30 photos for the exhibition, a set of six for each performance. We use our own panels for their display, the panels of the Focus Sibiu Association. Each set is made up of photos that are representative for every particular show. From my point of view, the key element when taking pictures of a staged play is to watch understand and feel the show. That is exactly why on stage photography is among my favorites. It is a challenge to feel the show, visualize it and take pictures of it, all in just one hour. The shows are very good, very visual, vividly colored, very dynamic and with a huge potential for some extraordinary photos.”

The series of premieres presented in early October was inaugurated by “Marat/Sade”, directed by Charles Muller of Luxembourg, an adaptation after Peter Weiss’s play “The Persecution and Assassination of Jean-Paul Marat as Performed by the Inmates of the Asylum of Charenton Under the Direction of the Marquis de Sade”, written in 1963. The renowned British director Peter Brook staged this play, in London in 1964, and on Broadway in 1965. Peter Brook later turned it into film script in 1966. Peter Weiss won a Tony Award for best play in 1966 while Peter Brook received the Best Director Award. Locked up in the Charenton mental hospital, the Marquis de Sade staged a play about the last days of Jean Paul-Marat, one of the most radical writers and politicians of the French Revolution, with the patients and political convicts confined in the asylum. This is, in short the play’s storyline. Charles Muller believes the text of the play is still very fresh.

The German section of Radu Stanca National Theatre has brought out a premiere – Peter Shaffer’s Amadeus, directed by Gavriil Pinte. The plot is about the life of Mozart, whose mysterious death was amplified by the rivalry between him and Salieri, initially believed to be the most talented composer at the Austrian Emperor’s court. But mystery was not of great consequence for director Gavriil Pinte.

Gavriil Pinte: ”I wasn’t particularly interested in that aspect, but the fact that the artist often fell prey to political and economic constraints — as we are today, not as much ideologically as economically — is of great notoriety and inherent in this issue. Mozart faced misery and poverty, the obtuseness of those who were supposed to support him financially and socially. We cannot tackle the condition of an artist and leave aside the social and political component just the way we cannot simply sidestep the aesthetic aspect. Mozart was a cut above the rest of his contemporaries. And I mainly focused on the artist’s condition, on this dramatic dialogue between a mediocre artist and a genius, between Mozart and Salieri. It’s about the agony and ecstasy of creation with Mozart and about the misery of mediocrity and sheer envy in Salieri — the only one able to fully understand Mozart’s music and the one who hated it the most.”

In this mini-season in Sibiu, the series of premieres continued with Eugen Ionesco’s ‘The Lesson’, directed by Mihai Manutiu, a very strong political text about manipulation, ‘Why Hecuba?’, by Matei Visniec, directed by Anca Bradu, a modern tragedy about Trojan queen Hecuba, and ‘Oidip’, directed by Silviu Purcarete and written by him based on ‘Oedipus Rex’ and ‘Oedipus at Colonus’ by Sophocles. This show was also present at this year’s edition of the International Theatre Festival in Sibiu, and will be staged at this year’s National Theatre Festival. In April 2015 it is going to be presented in Tokyo.

The awards were granted by Androulla Vassiliou, European Commissioner for Culture, and tenor Placido Domingo, president of Europa Nostra. On the list of the 27 winning projects, picked out of 160 nominations from 30 countries, there is a Romanian project, awarded in the conservation section: restoring 17th century frescoes in the Dragomirna Monastery in Suceava County.

The team who worked on the project was made up of 50 professionals and students, coordinated by assistant professor Carmen Solomonea, PhD, head of the mural art department of conservation and restoration of the George Enescu Art University in Iasi.

The initiative to apply for the awards belongs to the professor Carmen Solomonea: “I believed we had to do that simply to promote a very interesting project, and a Romanian monument which, at least in terms of mural painting, was restored for the first time in 400 years. We never thought that we would win, because this is a very tight competition each year. The criteria are tough, they apply very high standards for the competition, they promote work based on how old the object of restoration is, but also the quality of the works and the way they are promoted. All these have to result from the project.”

Dragomirna Monastery is part of a fortified group of buildings 12 km north of Suceava. It has been around for four centuries, and its mural paintings were restored for the first time as part of this very special project.

Professor Carmen Solomonea: “There is no precise documented age for the buildings, because the church doesn’t have a register, as others do. However, from the documents of the age we know that Metropolitan Bishop Anastasie Crimca, the church’s financer, could not have paid for those paintings after 1629, when he became unable to do so. Therefore this painting dates back to the early 17th century, covering the nave and altar. The rest of the rooms no longer have paintings. Back then it was very difficult to obtain large quantities of dies and gold leaf, and almost a third of the painted surface is covered in gold leaf, of sculpted stone, which the painters have covered with a fine layer of fresco and decorated with floral motifs, with birds… this is what makes a difference in the painting in Dragomirna. It comes with a newer, slightly changed repertoire. It was probably the influence of those times which were to come. It was probably a western influence, with sculpted and painted elements.”

One of the criteria for selecting the winner was the impact on boosting the visibility of a given project.

Carmen Solomonea told us that the impact could be seen even before the project was finished, between August 2010 and March 2012: “As this was the first restoration of these paintings, the images changed. Before, they were covered in soot, layers accumulated in time, and it was hard to see it. Now you can even read the iconographic program, there are lots of people around who are interested in it and can read it. After we were done, we noticed that the visibility of the church increased. This convinced us to compete in the Europa Nostra. I have worked in a few more places in Bukovina, but they had their visibility already assured. Here we dealt with an objective that wasn’t on the beaten trail, was not known as well as it should have been. This objective is different, because it reflects the changing times and ages, as well as the change in mentality. It was the dawn of the modern era, even if it was the early 17th century. A lot of groups of people came around to admire it even while we were working. We expected to see a lot of people. We spread the news that it could be visited once we finished the project, and much more groups than we expected came to visit. The management of the monastery told us that the visibility had increased. We had to carry the promotion further. We already have a project to put together a monograph of the church, to include this restored part, with pictures made during restoration, as well as when it was done, pictures taken especially for such a book.”

This year’s winners of the Europa Nostra Awards join the other 360 winners declared since 2002. Juries were made up of independent experts from all over Europe, and evaluated the nominations based on several criteria: conservation, research, exemplary contribution, as well as educating the public. All the winners received a plaque or a trophy. Each of the six winners of the grand prize also received a 10,000 Euro prize.

The modern world is characterized by an unprecedented intrusion of technology into our daily life, and the field of culture makes no exception. Museums and cultural institutes around the world are reinventing themselves trying to reach out to the public even beyond the walls housing their art collections. One of the world’s best known museums, the Louvre, is preparing a surprise to visitors, which is going to be an absolute first: 3D consoles, guiding art lovers all the way through the Louvre’s vast collections, are to become available next year.

The Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest is also a special kind of museum, which differs from traditional institutions of this kind. Anamaria Iuga, an ethnologist with this museum has more.

“A traditional museum is one with a traditional way of displaying collections, and from this point of view the Romanian Peasant Museum cannot be included in this category. In 1996 it reaped the ‘Museum of the Year‘ award as it came with a new way of displaying its exhibits accompanied by an exquisite presentation discourse, which was quite new at that time. I am referring to painter Victor Bernea’s discourse and the way of presenting exhibits, connected to each other, supporting one another, creating and recreating contexts from their original environment. That manner of presenting things in a museum was very new indeed as compared to traditional museums, which are more didactic. First and foremost they present the basic occupations of the peasants and their collections are structured in keeping with this idea. So, tools and objects that were used in shepherding or in agriculture are grouped in separate sections. Horia Bernea however, has conceived the museum as divided in two parts: the life of Christian communities and secular, daily activities. There are halls presenting the importance of religious faith, the way the peasant relates to the cross, for instance, or to the Tree of Life. These aren’t religious objects, but objects the peasant uses everyday; they have the symbol of the cross engraved on them for protection though.”

After the transformation it underwent under Horia Bernea’s revolutionary design, the Romanian Peasant Museum is now going through a fresh stage, keeping up with the digital age. This has pros and cons, as Anamaria Iuga told us.

”We’ve got an extremely well-made virtual tour, where we included some info which comes as an addition to what visitors can see when they come to the museum. The text on the tour is taken from the audio-guide and can be accessed by anyone. And that is something extraordinary, since anyone can access us from the comfort of their homes. However, a virtual tour cannot possibly replace the museum, it rather offers people a preview of what they can see for themselves on the physical tour. A museum is meant to be a museum and we need to experience the whole atmosphere it creates. The virtual tour, however, displays bits of this and that, despite the overview it offers.”

Yet not only the museum’s permanent collections have virtual tours. The Internet offers exclusively virtual museums, made up of collections that are no longer accessible to visitors. Speaking again is Anamaria Iuga.

”The Romanian Peasant Museum also has a small online. It is the childhood Museum, which can be accessed at www.childhoodmuseum360.ro. It is the outcome of a project we ran for two years, and which was financed though the Cultura 2007-2013 European Program, which helped us create a virtual museum of childhood, just as we planned. For a whole year, the museum’s team of specialists staged a string of exhibitions devoted to childhood. Exhibitions were run for one month each. We wanted to have a museum, which, space-wise, could be venued in one single hall, in various forms. For instance, the first exhibition revolved around birth and baptism-related beliefs. Pictures were taken of each exhibition in detail and the exhibition got a panorama from various angles of the hall. Then the pictures were uploaded on the website, accompanied by additional info, texts or interviews with toy collectors or with various other people, focusing on their childhood memories. For this very reason, the site is much more complex than the exhibitions proper. The virtual tour of the museum makes all seven exhibitions accessible to visitors, given they were all staged in one single year and are thus no longer available”.

Irrespective of the curating approach, a virtual tour can never replace an on-site visit and the direct contact with the exhibits. Presenting a museum’s entire range of collections through the Internet is at the most an instrument that comes in handy, usefully in stirring visitors’ interest, but also in storing the museum’s previous collections online.

The modern world is characterized by an unprecedented intrusion of technology into our daily life, and the field of culture makes no exception. Museums and cultural institutes around the world are reinventing themselves trying to reach out to the public even beyond the walls housing their art collections. One of the world’s best known museums, the Louvre, is preparing a surprise to visitors, which is going to be an absolute first: 3D consoles, guiding art lovers all the way through the Louvre’s vast collections, are to become available next year.

The Romanian Peasant Museum in Bucharest is also a special kind of museum, which differs from traditional institutions of this kind. Anamaria Iuga, an ethnologist with this museum has more.

“A traditional museum is one with a traditional way of displaying collections, and from this point of view the Romanian Peasant Museum cannot be included in this category. In 1996 it reaped the ‘Museum of the Year‘ award as it came with a new way of displaying its exhibits accompanied by an exquisite presentation discourse, which was quite new at that time. I am referring to painter Victor Bernea’s discourse and the way of presenting exhibits, connected to each other, supporting one another, creating and recreating contexts from their original environment. That manner of presenting things in a museum was very new indeed as compared to traditional museums, which are more didactic. First and foremost they present the basic occupations of the peasants and their collections are structured in keeping with this idea. So, tools and objects that were used in shepherding or in agriculture are grouped in separate sections. Horia Bernea however, has conceived the museum as divided in two parts: the life of Christian communities and secular, daily activities. There are halls presenting the importance of religious faith, the way the peasant relates to the cross, for instance, or to the Tree of Life. These aren’t religious objects, but objects the peasant uses everyday; they have the symbol of the cross engraved on them for protection though.”

After the transformation it underwent under Horia Bernea’s revolutionary design, the Romanian Peasant Museum is now going through a fresh stage, keeping up with the digital age. This has pros and cons, as Anamaria Iuga told us.

”We’ve got an extremely well-made virtual tour, where we included some info which comes as an addition to what visitors can see when they come to the museum. The text on the tour is taken from the audio-guide and can be accessed by anyone. And that is something extraordinary, since anyone can access us from the comfort of their homes. However, a virtual tour cannot possibly replace the museum, it rather offers people a preview of what they can see for themselves on the physical tour. A museum is meant to be a museum and we need to experience the whole atmosphere it creates. The virtual tour, however, displays bits of this and that, despite the overview it offers.”

Yet not only the museum’s permanent collections have virtual tours. The Internet offers exclusively virtual museums, made up of collections that are no longer accessible to visitors. Speaking again is Anamaria Iuga.

”The Romanian Peasant Museum also has a small online. It is the childhood Museum, which can be accessed at www.childhoodmuseum360.ro. It is the outcome of a project we ran for two years, and which was financed though the Cultura 2007-2013 European Program, which helped us create a virtual museum of childhood, just as we planned. For a whole year, the museum’s team of specialists staged a string of exhibitions devoted to childhood. Exhibitions were run for one month each. We wanted to have a museum, which, space-wise, could be venued in one single hall, in various forms. For instance, the first exhibition revolved around birth and baptism-related beliefs. Pictures were taken of each exhibition in detail and the exhibition got a panorama from various angles of the hall. Then the pictures were uploaded on the website, accompanied by additional info, texts or interviews with toy collectors or with various other people, focusing on their childhood memories. For this very reason, the site is much more complex than the exhibitions proper. The virtual tour of the museum makes all seven exhibitions accessible to visitors, given they were all staged in one single year and are thus no longer available”.

Irrespective of the curating approach, a virtual tour can never replace an on-site visit and the direct contact with the exhibits. Presenting a museum’s entire range of collections through the Internet is at the most an instrument that comes in handy, usefully in stirring visitors’ interest, but also in storing the museum’s previous collections online.