Walking
along
"The Path"...

 
Spring 1995: the law establishing the ecomuseums is approved (Regional Law n. 31, 14 March).
Autumn 2001: 13 ecomuseums have been established, and the list of those who have submitted requests for establishment is growing.
But what are ecomuseums? What do they organize? Can they be visited? How do they communicate with each other and with the inhabitants of their areas? And, above all, do they work?
The Path does not answer all these questions, but it has the ambition to make them known.
He will appear twice a year and write about Piedmontese ecomuseums, Italian and foreign institutions, some old and some recent, "innovative" museums, territorial initiatives.
This first issue was written by "experts", but is also aimed at local populations: to be read in the ecomuseum headquarters and in meeting points, it would like to "give a voice" to those who live and work in the area. This is why he expects stimuli, proposals and suggestions from those who read him.
It is the beginning of a "walk together" which, we hope, will become increasingly pleasant and interesting.
Spring 1995: the law establishing the ecomuseums is approved (Regional Law n. 31, 14 March).
Autumn 2001: 13 ecomuseums have been established, and the list of those who have submitted requests for establishment is growing.
But what are ecomuseums? What do they organize? Can they be visited? How do they communicate with each other and with the inhabitants of their areas? And, above all, do they work?
The Path does not answer all these questions, but it has the ambition to make them known.
He will appear twice a year and write about Piedmontese ecomuseums, Italian and foreign institutions, some old and some recent, "innovative" museums, territorial initiatives.
This first issue was written by "experts", but is also aimed at local populations: to be read in the ecomuseum headquarters and in meeting points, it would like to "give a voice" to those who live and work in the area. This is why he expects stimuli, proposals and suggestions from those who read him.
It is the beginning of a "walk together" which, we hope, will become increasingly pleasant and interesting.
Telling the story of the Piedmontese territory
 
"An ecomuseum, which is an expression of the culture of a territory, must have as its main manager the local community where it was born (...), it must involve all the subjects who live and work in that territory, it must arise from the desire of people who live there"
 
The ecomuseum can be considered the last stage of a research journey, carried out in various countries and in different historical contexts which have the main point of reference in the theme of "material culture" and its dissemination.
To renew the relationship between culture and the environment, in a broader perspective than that offered by the traditional museum, the definition of an ecomuseum given by George Henri Rivière in the 1950s, as a museum dedicated to the environment in the broadest sense of the term, is essential for the knowledge and conservation of a territory and the culture it has expressed, it remains fundamental. A "mirror" where the population can look at themselves to recognize themselves and in which they can seek the values ​​of their roots.
In Italy the ecomuseum experience is recent, and the Piedmont Region, the first in Italy, has created the conditions to protect and enhance the specificities of its territory through the establishment of ecomuseums, supporting initiatives that have a homogeneous territory as reference and which , starting from an analysis of local realities, could grow and develop gradually.
The complexity of the activities of ecomuseums have required a careful choice in identifying the managing entities that regulate relations with public and private institutions. Each managing body prepares the project, organizes the activities, the personnel, formulates a financial program with any requests for financing to carry out the initiatives and organizes information and communication programs.
To do all this, an ecomuseum, which is an expression of the culture of a territory, must have as its main manager the local community where it was born. If the ecomuseum aspires to be a system of relationships, then this system of relationships must involve all the subjects who live and work in that territory, it must arise from the desire of the people who live there. And this is the path that the Region has followed in recent years, facilitating the initiatives that have been proposed by local realities to protect and enhance historical memory, the expressions of material culture and the way in which human activities and settlement traditional have characterized the formation and evolution of the Piedmontese landscape. With the law, the Region wanted to prepare a tool that would give the possibility of enhancing the Piedmontese heritage no longer by taking individual elements into consideration, but by privileging the characteristics existing in the territory, understanding them as the basis for the definition of an identity project on a local scale and regional.

Ermanno De Biaggi
Manager of the Protected Areas Planning Sector
- Piedmont Region

 

SUMMARY
The Ecomuseums in Piedmont
Emotions of canvas at the Alta Val Sangone Ecomuseum
To the sound of stones at the Cortemilia Ecomuseum
The ways of wood at Cusius
Experiencing the Alta Val Maira Ecomuseum The
Candelo vineyard - laboratory
The other Ecomuseums
The Ecomuseum of Furore
The Ecomuseum of Western Maiella
The news
The review