.. DEMOCRATIC PARTICIPATION ..
An article from the Newsletter of the International Network of Museums for Peace
On 19th January, a new peace museum – Peace Museum Valcea – was opened in Ramnicu Valcea, the capital city of Valcea County situated in the central-south area of Romania. The historic city, whose foundations go back to Roman times, has a population of 92,000. The museum, which is the first in Romania and in the whole of south-eastern Europe, was founded by Magdalena Cristina Butucca – a peace and human rights activist who is also founder and editor of two online newspapers, Diplomatic Aspects (2009) and Diplomatic Intelligence (2014). She worked as a volunteer at the Peace Museum Vienna in 2017 and was inspired to create a similar educational institution in her country.
Magdalena Butucea at the museum opening
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Peace Museums, Are they giving peace a place in the community?
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The main purpose of setting up the museum is the widest possible dissemination of information on the concept of peace, and on peace education. The museum has started negotiations with high schools and universities with the aim of introducing courses about peace education.
Liska and David Blodgett, founders of the Peace Museum Vienna, and Ali Ahmad, its director, participated in the opening ceremony. The event was widely reported in the media, with many articles in the local, regional and national press, as well as reports on radio and television. A report by the Romanian National Press Agency can be seen here.
A report by Radio Romania (with a number of photographs) can be found here. Also a six-minute film (in Romanian) about the opening of the exhibition can by viewed by clicking here.
A few days after the opening the museum showed a photographic exhibition about social peace, titled Peace and US made by Andrew Niculescu. For more information, please see the museum’s website.