We are very happy to inform you that six museum projects have received funding from BMN Small Grants 2023, thanks to generous support of the Hedley Trust UK.

Congratulations to the following institutions are their inspiring projects:

• MuZEH Lab – Toys and Plays and the forgotten childhood
• Museum Society of Montenegro – Heritage touch
• Museum of Vojvodina – Picture book “Who is snacking?”
• Zenica City Museum   – Playing Middle Ages
• National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina – Youth Museum Theater
• National Museum of Surveillance “House of Leaves” – Narrative Objects: The Everyday Dictatorship

MuZEH Lab – Toys and Plays and the forgotten childhood

The project wants to evoke the feeling of creating with nothing, playing with basic materials like we did in the past. With this the project would build a common understanding of the meaning of freedom! Involving children, their families, educators and teachers to jointly create the toys of the past with materials of today! The project started in May 2023, with collecting oral stories and creating digital archive about the contemporary plays. These activities will be complemented with the research about archaeological artifacts of toys production, forming necessary knowledge for the narrative that will be presented in an exhibition.

Museum Society of Montenegro – Heritage touch

The project brings together heritage workers from several institutions in Montenegro:  the Montenegro Library for Persons with Visual Impairments, the Homeland Museum from Pljevlja, the Natural History Museum of Montenegro, the Homeland Museum from Nikšić, the Museum from Kotor and the Homeland Museum from Tivat. Together with volunteers from the association that is dealing with the rights and needs of people with disabilities, they will prepare and realize the exhibition “Heritage touch“. The exhibition will tour several cities in Montenegro so that as many blind and partially sighted people as possible will have the opportunity to visit the institution where the exhibition is being held and, in this way, to create habits of including people with disabilities in the activities of local cultural institutions. Parts of the exhibition will become part of the permanent collections of participating institutions.

Museum of Vojvodina – Picture book “Who is snacking?”              

The picture book includes a story in verse about one segment of museum life, as well as corresponding illustrations. It is intended for children up to 5 years of age, as well as children with visual impairments, as the text will be translated into Braille and illustrations will be transferred to tactile pictures. A worm, a moth and a mouse live in the Museum and feed on museum artefacts, they enjoy it because they have a lot of tasty food, but they are often very loud and get into trouble because of that. At the end of the picture book you will find a small dictionary of museum terms. The emphasis is on the protection, preservation and importance of cultural heritage, through a humorous story. The project includes: creation of illustrations, design, translation into Braille, transfer of illustrations into tactile images, printing. The text of the picture book will be created by the museum educator. A copy of the Braille picture book will be on permanent exhibition at the Museum of Vojvodina. Copies of the picture book will also be given to the library for the visually impaired.

Zenica City Museum – Playing Middle Ages

The Vranduk Fortress has collections that give insight and tell stories about life in medieval Bosnia. With this project, the museum will to enrich the existing offer introducing something new, educational and interesting, primarily for children, but also for tourists. The museum will create the game that  fully follows the medieval theme, so it is an ideal addition to the existing contents at the fortress. Game will be interactive, educational but also inclusive and adaptable for various groups of children.

National Gallery of Bosnia and Herzegovina – Youth Museum Theater

The project is based on the museum’s permanent exhibition and artworks of prominent BiH artists with contemporary topics and problems, such as identity, social inequality, youth migration and emotional expression. Young participants will be involved in this interdisciplinary process in order to become more socially empowered citizens.

National Museum of Surveillance “House of Leaves” – Narrative Objects: The Everyday Dictatorship

The exhibition aims to bring to the audience four different objects that symbolize the resistance of ordinary people during the communist regime in Albania. The objects in question were considered forbidden and seen as foreign expressions. But at the same time, they represented the aspiration of the people to be connected to the Western world. Together with the objects, 4 individual stories from ordinary persons will be collected and video-recorded. The stories will be shown as part of the exhibition. The project will be implemented together with the General Directorate of Archive that will provide the documents. Also, four panel discussions will take place with the participation of students of social sciences.