The country's leading school museums present their project activities experience in Vitebsk

Leading museums of educational institutions of Belarus are presenting their research and project activities experience at a republican seminar, which is taking place in Vitebsk on December 7-8.

Such events are held annually in different regions of the country with the aim of exchanging experience, and the theme of the meetings differs each time. This year, the Vitebsk Regional Museum of Local Lore is hosting the guests – about 50 heads of the best museums of educational institutions in the country. The theme of the seminar is "Museum of an Educational Institution – a Center for Activating Search, Research, and Project Local Lore Activities".

"Currently, there are 1.5 thousand museums in educational institutions. New ones are also being created, of various profiles; sometimes, due to the closure of educational institutions, their museum collections are merged with others. However, this improves the quality and diversity of expositions. Our goal is not to create a museum in every school, but to create a museum that will work, engage students in interesting activities, and be attractive to visitors. Everyone has interesting developments. This time, the seminar focuses on search, research, and project activities. New forms of work will be presented, for example, through joint projects with the Orthodox Church or various departments. Interactive projects using information technologies," explained Alexandra Kravets, Head of the Department of Local Lore and Patriotic Education of the Republican Center for Ecology and Local Lore of the Ministry of Education of Belarus.

She noted that the problems of museums in educational institutions (currently, all of them without exception are state-owned) will also be addressed: a shortage of funds for maintenance and reconstruction, and the lack of specialized education among museum directors. Participants will also discuss the prospects for the development of the electronic catalog of the Museum Fund of the Republic of Belarus, which is currently being created on the initiative of the Ministry of Culture to collect data on historical and cultural values contained in all museums of the country.

In addition, according to the seminar program, its

the participants will visit two historical and local lore museums in the Vitebsk district - the Vymnyan Kindergarten - Secondary School and the Zaronevo Kindergarten "History of the Zaronevo Region"; the museum of Vitebsk State University named after P. Masherov, as well as Kindergarten No. 111 in Vitebsk, which houses the museum complex "City of Childhood". "School museums in the Vitebsk region are known beyond the region. Because the main result of their work is the children who then participate in local lore competitions and win. And the museums themselves are the result of extensive research work, expeditions, searches, processing of materials, including with the participation of students. They are indeed centers of educational work, and often career guidance," noted Alexandra Kravets. The organizers of the seminar are the Ministry of Education, the Republican Center for Ecology and Local Lore, the Department of Education of the Vitebsk Regional Executive Committee, the Regional Palace of Children and Youth, and the Vitebsk District Executive Committee.

Ekaterina Knyazeva – BELTA. Photos from open sources.