Mariana ANDONE-ROTARU
Cluj-Napoca marianapislaru11@gmail.com
The pedagogical programme of the History Museum in Turda, had a great evolution in 2019, by providing 11 interactive workshops to students, in order to improve their talents, extracurricular work and to develop their skills in several domains.
Our ‘Easter egg painting’ programme stands for continuing the tradition by meetings between artisans and public, through the interactive workshops, not just as demonstration. In the seven editions, there were organized around 30 workshops, with more than 500 participants, students and adults from Turda, Cluj-Napoca and surrounding areas, activity which was very much appreciated.
The purpose of this workshop is to convey the correct value of the egg painting activity to a large and diverse public, so that they perceive it as important as the pottery and glass painting. Our workshops go through all the stages of the egg painting, decorating with the archaic techniques of successive colour baths, protecting with bee wax, decorated with vegetal, zoomorphic, solar and more. The colours used are also limited to the traditional ones, monochrome or polychrome – red, white, yellow and black. Via this workshop, made in the old times at the countryside, the museum has direct implication in the preservation of traditional handcraft, loaded with symbolism.
Keywords: Easter eggs, painted eggs, traditional craft, workshops, museum education