Description
Alba County Council, the present owner of the former Military Hospital, aims to restore this heritage building, to rehabilitate it and adapt it to new use as an Icon Museum – Museikon. The general objective of the project is to revitalise cultural heritage by the renovation of the building and the founding of a new museum and cultural facility. The restored building will provide better conditions for the safeguarding and public access to the Romanian project partners' collection of icons and manuscripts. As a result of this project the current building will be restored and given new use: 52 icons and 15 important heritage books will be restored; the museum inventory will be fully digitalised; and 2500 cultural objects officially listed as heritage. In addition 2 icon exhibitions will be developed and work will be carried out between the project partners in Alba Iulia and Bergen to further increase public access to this important heritage. Target groups are tourists (including Romanian and Norwegian cultural and ecumenical tourists), people interested in this heritage (including school children, those involved in lifelong learning, heritage students and professionals). The University Museum of Bergen is directly involved in the development of the program around the Transylvanian Icon, based on the thematic project and plan for the exhibition. This contributes to strengthening bilateral relations.
Summary of project results
Icon and old book collections, both that of the National Museum of Union, and that of the Orthodox Archbishopric of Alba Iulia, presented a high risk of degradation. Poor storage and precarious conservation status were the main menaces. The building of the former Military Hospital, owned by Alba County Council, was similarly in an advanced state of degradation, necessitating urgent restoration interventions. Its revitalisation, by establishment of a new museum and a new cultural facility was the answer to the need of preserving for future generations the tangible collections and the intangible meanings attached to them. Restoration of the building offered the chance of bringing it back to its initial shape, thus, enriching the architectural heritage of Alba Iulia citadel, but also the opportunity of discovering some archaeological vestiges, which complete pages of history that were previously unknown. By these novelties, the museum of icons and old book became more interesting, addressing to a much wider category of audience. Additionally, by diversity and offered novel museal experiences and interest shown to contemporary artists, Museikon has already a substantial impact in the community. The project financing allowed restoration of a construction whose architecture became itself the object of a visiting route and proper endowment with functions of art and old book museum, allowed salvage from deterioration of 15 old books and 52 icons, of which three classified in thesaurus category, were restored and put on display; allowed the access of the public to the whole collection, following digitization and spread of the information in the virtual area; similarly widened knowledge of the Romanian icon, by the exhibition organised at the Museum of Bergen University, and, following its innovating offer (the painting workshop, the typographical workshop, films and manners of addressability specific to the young generation) ensured a much better visibility of the cultural life from Alba Iulia.
Summary of bilateral results
As a result of the meetings, study visits and the organization of the Bergen Exhibition, a close and fruitful cooperation between the partners in Alba Iulia and Bergen University Museum was carried out, The main results of the cooperation are: 1. dissemination to the Norwegian public of the knowledge about Romanian art with religious utility; 2. the transfer to the the Romanian team of a new vision on the role of the museum as a factor of education; 3. Achieving a dynamic, more interactive and attractive concept of exposure, capable of transmitting information itself, by analogy, shape, color; 4. last but not least, the established inter-human relationships have resulted in lasting friends who will always be keen to update the institutional partnership.