The Goethe-Institut Namibia supported by the Museums Association of Namibia (MAN) recently held a five-day workshop for officials from across Namibia to share knowledge on marketing a museum using social media.

The first of the two-part training under the Museums Outreach Programme (MOP) also focused on the general management of a museum.

The MOP stems from past cooperation between the Goethe-Institut and the University of Namibia on the paradigm shift in museology across post-colonial Africa with emphasis on the importance of community engagement in the operations of a museum as an institution of heritage management and conservation.

MAN’s museums development officer Tuuda Haitula in a media statement on Wednesday said they designed the workshop to be interactive and responsive to the needs of the museums.

“Participants were able to give their input and understood the importance of cultural heritage and why it needs to be safeguarded, as well as how they are contributing towards that,” he said.

Haitula noted that the idea of a local conservation kit was well received and participants look forward to having their objects and stories travel to different parts of Namibia.

“The conservation kit will be produced for any person in communities to learn and function as a custodian of objects, while schools are to receive teaching kits to empower the youth at an early stage,” he said.

The statement further said Goethe-Institut Namibia Director Dennis Schroeder noted that participants in the MOP have the opportunity to document traditional forms of conservation and thus value the indigenous knowledge systems that exist in Namibia, adding that cultural heritages provide individuals and societies with a sense of belonging.

“We feel grateful and privileged to support local living museums in their task to become sustainable and vital expressions of cultural legacy as well as a living cultural practice,” he said.

Officials who attended the training included representatives of the Ju/’Hoansi-San Living Museum, the OvaHimba Living Museum and the Damara Living Museum.

Source: Namibia press Agency