Paper Short Abstract:

The contribution reflects on the participatory dynamics within museums that today can represent a cultural presidium in marginal territories, examining two different case studies which underlining the role of ethnography in identifying challenges and good practices.

Paper Abstract:

Within a project aimed at understanding the role that local museums can play in promoting an active sociality through forms of participation in intangible cultural heritage, the intervention retraces the stories of two museums located in the area of Lake Trasimeno.

The first case examines ontogenesis and phylogenesis, as well as the contemporary crisis, of the “Fishing Museum” of San Feliciano (Magione, Perugia), a local museum with fairly conventional characteristics: despite the updating interventions, the contents desired by its creator (a local historian) prevail. Actually, the museum is completely designed for tourist use, with a historical approach that has however excluded reasoning about fishing and those who practice it. An impasse has thus been created which sees, on the one hand, the political-administrative interests, oriented towards carrying out the museum project within initiatives limited to a local level, and on the other, the expectations of the Fishermen's Cooperative, which want to connect it to contemporary fishing and its practices.

The second case reflects on “TrasiMemo. Trasimeno Memory Bank”, a complex project – launched in Paciano (Perugia) thanks to the collaboration between researchers, cultural heritage professionals, artisans, local administrators and stakeholders – which aims to enhance the memories and knowledge of craftsmanship. The general objective (in progress) is to “reactivate”, starting from ethnographic research, important heritage elements for the area, trying to stimulate new professional dynamics that hold together the historically sedimented and contemporary working conditions. Furthermore, the project determines the conditions to build a permanent dialogue between different actors involved.