"The overwhelming impression of the visit has been of dedicated, enthusiastic people battling against bureaucracy , lack of money and resources to protect, conserve and display their heritage. Many of their problems are universal, for example, the best artefacts going to the big museums rather than staying in the local ones, black market in antiquities and unfair allocation of funds."
Sue Sharp, Alston potter
Sue in discussion at Etera
Bulgaria Innovation in Cultural Heritage Interpretation
ICHI
has been funded within the framework of the” Leonardo da Vinci” programme of the European Commission
April 10th-17th 2009
ARCH
Stara Planina RTA
Sue Sharp. Alston. Cumbria
I am principally a potter but also a director of Alston Craftworkers Co-op Ltd ("http://www.alstoncraftworkers.co.uk") and a member of a group called Tyne Team that stage drama events based around the crafts and life of Roman Britain c100 - 400AD on Hadrian’s Wall.
On the 16th of March I received a mass email from Martin Clark, Grampus via Culture Cumbria intriguingly titled Fwd: Bulgarian opportunity - 10th April - URGENT. Although I didn’t really think I fitted the criteria I thought I would apply anyway and in just a few days I had my ticket to Bulgaria and was rushing around ordering Levs and Euros.
It certainly was an “opportunity”
It's very easy living in a remote, close knit community like Alston to become a bit complacent. Just carrying on making pots etc. I thought I would like to see how others are tackling the problems of rural life, passing on skills to the younger generation and helping tourists to have a better understanding of the area they are visiting.
Friday10th managed to find the other participants at Edinburgh airport next stop Sophia where we met Velislava Chilingirova our guide and translator and Evo the bus driver. Arrived at the Hemus Hotel too late to get a drink but thanks to a 24 hour kiosk on the street we were able to have our first ,of many, bottle of very nice Bulgarian lager.
Day 2
Lazar's Day Play
Gabrovo at the Strannopriemnitsa Hotel in the Architectural and Ethnographic Complex Etara an inspirational open air museum dedicated to the crafts, architecture and way of life of the Balkan mountain people. We were lucky to have arrived on Lazars Day a festival dedicated to flowers, love and fertility. We watched the groups of children singing and dancing and an incomprehensible play which must have been very funny because everyone was laughing. The sun was shining, Velis and Silvia were feeding us with different types of bread sprinkled with a salty spice mixture, it was a lovely introduction to Bulgaria.
Sokolski Monastery
Built in 1834 the Sokolski cloister was closely connected with the liberation struggle of the Bulgarian people. It has been a female monastery since 1959 and has been recently completely restored including the beautiful frescos.
Day 3
Tryavna a handsome town built in the revivalist style and famous for woodcarvers, icon painters , the first secular school 1836 and the birthplace of poets and revolutionaries.
Bacho Kiro Cave
The cave is one of the 100 National Tourist Sites as part of the "Get to know your country" movement. The highlight is the huge hall Haidushko Sboriste (Hall of the Rebels' Gathering). The cave was named after Bacho Kiro, a man who was an important figure during the Bulgarian National Revival, a sort of Bulgarian renaissance which took more than a century and finally lead to independence. He founded the People's Cultural Club at Byala Cherkva in December 1869. In 1870 he set up a theatrical company and staged revolutionary plays. In 1876 during the April Uprising, a revolution against the Ottoman rule, 101 members of his Cultural Club followed him to the battle in nearby Dryanovo Monastery.
Dryanovo Monastery
Only a small number of the Bulgarian rebels survived the battle with the Turkish troops, while the monastery was set on fire with the church being the only building that is left relatively intact.
Day 4
Morning in Etara
Afternoon Gabrovo
Dechkova Kashta Museum
Being served delicious jam and rakia
Exhibition of children’s decorated Easter eggs and paintings. Some lovely singing and playing by three ladies dressed in historical costumes. We were treated to green walnut rakia and strawberry jam according to the high society customs of the 19C
Regional Historic Museum of Gabrovo
House of Humour and Satire see http://www.humorhouse.bg/engl/englindex.html
for it’s manifesto. Like the museum a funny, Gabrovo style witty website.
3e Tricky Peter Bronze Outside gabrovo Museum of Humour
Outside the building a series of sculptures, three made from bronze the rest, in line with the celebrated sense of Gabrovo economy and thrift, are made from scrap metal. The monumental,Tower of Babel assembled in 1989 by Gredi Assar, Nedko Solokov, Vilbroni Popredelev, Andrei Daniel, Bozhidar Boyadzhier, Filip Zidarov, see photos.
Day 5
Monument of Liberty on Shipka Peak proposed in 1878 and completed August 1934.A symbol of the gratitude of the nation to the Bulgarian and Russian defenders who lost their lives for the liberation of Bulgaria.
Shipka is the name of the pass through the Balkan mountains on the road between Russe, on the Danube River, Stara Zagor and Edirne, Turkey at an elevation of 1,330 m. One of the greatest battles of the Russo-Turkish Liberation War (1877-1878) took place here. The day we visited there were still patches of snow and it was shrouded in mist. It was a shame we couldn’t see the views but it was very atmospheric and appropriate somehow for a place where a great many lives were lost in the battle or were frozen and starved to death.
Dantscho Vassilev Dantschev the director of Shipka but also carrying on his families tradition of working with wood. He was kind enough to show us his workshop were he transforms walnut, plum, cherry ,apple and pear wood into combs and hairslides."http://www.woodensouvenirs.hit.bg/" in Bulgarian and German unfortunately but you can translate it from the German with Babel Fish.
Shipka Monastery
Golyama Kosmatka Thracian tomb
Kazanlak
Kazanlak Thracian tomb
Iskra History Museum and a meeting with the curators.
Lutherie violin makers http://www.violinstoinov.com/
From a small workshop violins, violas and cellos are exported around the world. Regular exhibitors at the Cremona Fair, Northern Italy, the most important exhibition of handcrafted musical instruments. 234 exhibitors from 212 countries.10,000+ visitors from 34 countries.
Day 6 Karlovo
Mummers Masks Museum
Koukeri (The Day of the Mummers): held on the first Sunday before Lent. It marks the beginning of the spring calendar with mummer games performed only by men.
The heavy swaying movements of the leading mummer are meant to represent wheat heavy with grain, while the bells tied around the mummers' waists are intended to drive away evil forces and sickness.
Crafts co-operative run a shop in the local culture house and have ambitious plans to restore and convert the rest of the building into workshops and apartments.
Back to Sophia
Day 7 Sophia
National Politechnological Museum director Ekaterina Tsekova
http://www.polytechnicmuseum.org
A brilliant museum with enthusiastic staff committed to spreading the word about science and technology. applications. We were treated to a demonstration of how some of the laws of physics work using very basic equipment. The result was amazing I understood things that had completely evaded me in science class at school. Training programs aimed primarily at pupils of secondary schools showing the attractive side of physics and its practical applications by it’s “see, touch, understand” method.
Although it was established in1885 it was 1992 before it was able to move into it’s own building. The Museum has managed to preserve over 22,000 exhibits. The collection includes old household goods, sewing machines, a transport section with a cute three-wheeled messerschmidt KP200 , film, mining and textile industries to name but a few.
National History Museum
Day 8 Sophia
Alexander Nevski Cathedral Church
Sight seeing
The Bulgarian people have a long history dating back to at least the Early Bronze Age. It’s a story of changing borders and invasions, particularly the Ottoman Empire’s domination which lasted for 5 centuries. The Turks were eventually defeated in 1877-78 with help from the Russians. Maybe this explains the great pride all the people, we met, had in their country and it’s customs. There were constant references to the National Revival of the 19C and the great desire to document and conserve their heritage.
The Arts and Crafts are certainly alive and well in Bulgaria today outdoor sculptures abound and the walls of every hotel and restaurant were covered with paintings.
The “jewel in the crown” as far as crafts are concerned must be the Etar open air museum established September 7th, 1964. The vision of one man Lazar Donkov 1908-1976 to preserve the rapidly disappearing craft traditions of the Balkan Mountain people.
The unique feature of this museum is that everything works. The artisans rent their workshop spaces and produce work for sale. The water power is still in use. The nap raising mill originally used for making the pile on woven woollen blankets and rugs soft and fluffy is hired to local people for a small fee for washing large items such as bedcovers and rugs. No detergent is used it just relies on the cleanliness of the water and the power of the whirlpool.
Water Powered Wash Tub at Etera
Etar manages to combine a tourist destination that is also well used by local people, genuine crafts, not the mass produced knick knacks we see so often in “heritage sites” in England, with research. I was really impressed by the booklet Natural Dye Techniques with Plants .It is well produced clear and concise, good illustrations and packed with information that would be of interest to both the amateur and professional. I shall be passing it on to our textile artists, after I’ve taken a few notes. It is the result of 2 years work by Chikako Sato (a Japanese volunteer JOVC) and Liliya Lekova.
The cultural calendar for 2009 is packed with events from decorating Easter eggs for children to the International Fair of Traditional Crafts held every September. There is also a conference scheduled for September entitled Crafts-Past, Present and Future it would be interesting to know their thoughts on the prospects for crafts in the coming years. The training for craftspeople is long, 5 years and then examinations by master craftsmen and while this produces very skilled, competent artisans I wonder if it will become harder to attract young people to become apprentices in the future? I understand it is also difficult to get training once you are older to switch careers although Petko Stoinov now a lutherie, master violin maker started work as a boat builder.
In England low status and pay , high rents for studios, expensive equipment all make it very hard for young people to make a career in craft work.
The overwhelming impression of the visit has been of dedicated, enthusiastic people battling against bureaucracy , lack of money and resources to protect, conserve and display their heritage. Many of their problems are universal, for example, the best artefacts going to the big museums rather than staying in the local ones, black market in antiquities and unfair allocation of funds. Some things like the lack of voluntary help are peculiar to Bulgaria. Curators explained that many people had two or three jobs and had to work into retirement so didn’t have the necessary spare time. In sharp contrast the Vindolanda Charitable Trust, Hadrian’s Wall, charges volunteers £50.00 per week to help with excavations and has managed to keep all the artefacts found on the site apart from the world famous writing tablets which are now in the British Museum. Remarkably Etar only received 20% from the state and earned 80% of it’s revenue from the Hotel, restaurants, rents for workshops etc.
As a stranger in a foreign country I was made aware of the importance of “ interpretation” or lack of it. For instance at the Mummers Museum the exhibits were fantastic and would have been familiar to a Bulgarian audience but a short film of the Mummers in action would have added so much more for visitors who had not had the opportunity to see the real thing. I have always been a bit sceptical about the need to explain and believed that the work should speak for itself. However after being in the position of a relatively ignorant consumer I think the more background information available the better. I will be looking at the Alston Craftworkers website from a different perspective and will be making some changes, maybe adding some video clips.
I can pass on leaflets and links to local organisations that I think might be interested in what’s going on in Bulgaria. Velis has passed on the contact details for a potter in a village near Troyan I will be adding their website to ours as a link and hope to find out more about ceramics in Troyan.
Some local web sites of outdoor/industrial museums and crafts that may be of interest. Cumbria, Northumberland and County Durham. U.K.
http://www.beamishcollections.com/
http://www.beamish.org.uk
http://www.killhope.org.uk
http://www.npht.com/nentheadmines/
http://www.alston-hub.org.uk/
http://www.woolclip.com/
http://www.woolfest.co.uk/
http://www.cybermoor.org/
http://www.alstoncraftworkers.co.uk/
http://www.potfest.co.uk/
http://www.vindolanda.com/
http://www.pottedhistory.co.uk
Many thanks to all the people we met who helped to make the visit so enjoyable and informative and humble apologies for forgetting your names..
