Astra Museum elaborated a report of the first implementation year of the project with EEA financing.
Regarding the construction of Astra Centre for Heritage, the external structure is about to be finished. The interior organization including the sanitary, electrical and communications network setting is in incipient phase. The recommendations for the public acquisition procedure for the different equipment for the new Centre are at the end, the acquisition being estimated to start in May. The first project intermediary report regarding the activity from May to December 2009 was sent to the Ministry of Public Finance, PHARE payment and contracting office, in February.
A number of 10 out of 45 pieces of furniture from the painted furniture collection of the Open Air Museum are finished. The restoration documentation written procedure has been started for the next batch of wood boxes to be restored.
The reception of one monument out of the six included in the reconstruction thematic plan of the Museum was done. Other three monuments are to be finished. The monuments execution levels can be watched by the visiting public in the Open Air Museum.
Soon the drainage and waterproofing works included in the project for the protection of the ethnographic wood monuments will start. Other conservation and restoration works are found on the museum list under the form of recommendation in so far as a reallocation of sums is concerned of the project budget.
The aspects related to the project information dissemination have not been omitted either. From the beginning the project has been successfully promoted by being frequently published in the local newspapers. The project has a dedicated website www.conservareapatrimoniului.ro, with periodically updated bilingual information. It contains general information about the project, news and a photo gallery. A first movie was created in order to promote the project by the help of Astra Film Studio of Astra National Museum Complex. An electronic newsletter will be periodically sent by e-mail both to the press as well as to the correspondence database containing the specialists in the museums in Romania and Norway, with whom bilateral relationships concerning the project have been developed.
In view of the exchange of experience development a team of conservators and restorers of Astra National Museum Complex were in a study trip to Norway between the 15th and 21st of February 2010. The itinerary included The Museum Centre of Hordaland / MiH, Universitetet i Bergen | Bergen Museum, the Museum of Cultural History, Norsk Folkemuseum Oslo, Maihaugen Museum, Norwegian Crafts Development (NHU), Sandefjord MuVE/Komma Consolidated Museum.
In 19th of February in Lillehammer, at Maihaugen Museum the first meeting took place with the representative of SINTEF Building and Infrastructure Foundation having as objective the discussion of the activities to be performed in partnership as part of the project. We remind the fact that SINTEF representatives will lecture during workshops the second half of September 2010 at the new Astra Centre which will host an international workshop with participation from the visited museums in Norway as part of the project. The themes which will be brought into discussion will mainly focus on the conservation and value enhancement of the wooden architectural heritage in the open air museums.