Villages that never were : the museum village as a heritage genre

Villages of relocated buildings now constitute a phenomenon of the world's repertoire of heritage. They go by a multitude of names depending on particular inflection: open air museum, folk museum, living history museum, heritage village, museum village and so forth. 1 This paper reviews the context of the form of the genre's manifestation in Australia, where it is often known as the `pioneer village'. They are the fruit of a populist vision of national history which celebrates white rural settlement as its central theme. In practice, the villages manifest a deep commitment to collecting and saving old buildings as the meaningful construction of a favourite historical identity. But the generation that established Australia's villages has been overtaken. Today, the intersection of museum villages with the managerialist pressures of local economy enhancement and modern professional standards of heritage management challenge most villages' survival.

The model of Chinese ecomuseums -- benchmarking, evaluation and a comparison with Australian open-air museums

This thesis is a comparative study of Chinese and Australian ecomuseums in terms of their governance & strategies, local participation & empowerment, and heritage interpretation & conservation. It concluded their difference and critical problems. In the end, a model is built up towards a better management of Chinese ecomuseum.

Participação artística : dinamização do Ecomuseu de Torredeita

O presente projeto propõe acrescentar valor ao património do Ecomuseu de Torredeita através da Animação Artística. A criação de uma performance artística traduzida numa visita itinerante pelo Ecomuseu, é a proposta apresentada no sentido de dinamizar a localidade de Torredeita e o Ecomuseu em si. O trabalho é realizado em conjunto com a comunidade, mobilizando sinergias locais e chamando todos os intervenientes a ter um papel ativo na participação artística. A música, o teatro, as tradições e o humor dão vida a cenários museológicos característicos de ofícios e profissões antigas. O que é a arte como trabalho coletivo e até que ponto a animação artística poderá trazer valor a espaços museológicos são questões que este projeto coloca.