On 9th and 10th of June, 2016, the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography together with the Special Psychopedagogy Department of Babes-Bolyai University and the Special Highschool for Visual Impairments Cluj-Napoca organised a new activity within the BaGMIVI Project (Bridging the Gap between Museums and Individuals with Visual Impairment) which unfolds in the Erasmus+ Program.
The students of the Special Highschool for Visual Impairments took part in a special visit in the Ethnographical Park “Romulus Vuia”. During this visit, they were initiated in the secrets of the traditional architecture and Transylvanian pottery. In front of Telciu house, the visually impaired students researched a miniature replica of the house made by the folk craftsman Tudor Schimbischi, which they had the opportunity to compare to the original. In the second stage of the visit, at the Dugeana de joc (construction for traditional dances) in the centre of the Ethnographical Park, the visually impaired students studied the special guidebooks made especially for this project by the specialists of the Transylvanian Museum of Ethnography and had contact to the shapes and patterns of the Transylvanian pottery. At the end of the visit, during a pottery workshop the visitors were initiated in the clay secrets and the use of potter’s wheel.
The BaGMIVI Project is implemented by the cooperation between museums and universities in Greece, Bulgaria, Hungary and Romania and aims to facilitate the access of the visually impaired persons to the museum spaces.