The Shipbuilders’ Wives On Wednesday, June 5, 2025, our traveling exhibition “The Shipwrights’ Wives” was opened at the Croatian Maritime Museum in Split. The exhibition sheds light on the invisible and often overlooked contributions of women within traditional boatbuilding families. While they did not build boats themselves, women were an integral part of the everyday life in the shipyard — they handled and transported wood, prepared materials for construction, painted hulls, took part in launchings, organized shared meals and events, all while caring for the household, children, elders, and farmland. Curated by Kate Šikić Čubrić, director of the Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding, the exhibition presents life in a shipwright’s family from a woman’s perspective. Her curatorial concept emphasizes how women’s presence — though barely…
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Exhibition: Journeys
Journeys Last Saturday, to mark International Museum Day, our museum ceremoniously opened a new thematic exhibition dedicated to journeys – movement through space and time, encounters, memories, and personal stories that shape our identities. This exhibition invites visitors to reflect on the meaning of travel – not just physical journeys, but also inner, symbolic, and emotional ones. Museums, as we have once again affirmed, are the starting point for such journeys – without borders, without passports, without time constraints. We extend special thanks to the artists who participated in the program and whose contributions brought unique energy and emotion to the exhibition space. Our sincere gratitude also goes to our partners from 90-60-90 / Platform for Contemporary Art and the Punkt association, for their dedication,…
Night of Museums in Betina: Visible and Invisible Worlds!
Night of Museums in Betina: Visible and Invisible Worlds! Unveiling Hidden Stories and Artifacts! This is our 10th Night of Museums in Betina! In collaboration with our loyal friends, volunteers, and partners, and following this year’s theme, we have prepared an exciting program. This year, we are joined by the women’s choir KUD Zora from Betina, MNK Kalafat, the Betina quiz scene, many students from Murterski Škoji and Vjekoslav Kaleb elementary schools, one small creative first-grader, and many, many dear collaborators and guests. In line with this year’s theme, we are unveiling what has been hidden from view and presenting interesting items from our museum storage. In each of the rooms where the museum collections are on display, we will reveal intriguing objects from our…
Golden Certificate of the Sunflower Award for Rural Tourism
Sunflower Award for Croatian Rural Tourism / The Sunflower Award We are thrilled to announce that our museum is this year’s recipient of the prestigious Sunflower Award for Croatian Rural Tourism! We won the award in the category of “Active Tourism in Rural Areas.” This recognition highlights our contribution to preserving cultural heritage and promoting rural tourism in Croatia, which fills us with great pride. Through our activities, exhibitions, and workshops both within and outside the museum, we work tirelessly to preserve the tradition of Betina wooden shipbuilding. In doing so, we contribute to the sustainable development of our region and enhance its tourism offerings. This award is a testament to our dedication to community work and serves as further motivation to continue our efforts….
Happy Holidays!
Dear friends, we wish you all a happy and joyful holidays surrounded by your loved ones! Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding staff
Exhibition: Adriatic Maritime Pilgrimages
An exhibition titled “Adriatic Maritime Pilgrimages” has been open in our museum since October 7th. The exhibition is the result of the joint project “Adriatic Maritime Pilgrimages in Local, National, and Transnational Context” carried out by the Department of Ethnology and Anthropology at the University of Zadar, the Šibenik City Museum, and the Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding. The project is also supported by the Šibenik-Knin County Tourist Board, the Rogoznica Tourist Board, and the Kornati National Park. The exhibition is part of the European Heritage Days 2024 and will be available for viewing in our museum until the end of October. In our region, we visited two sites that are part of the exhibition – the Church of the Nativity of the Virgin…
Shipbuilding Through the Lens by Jadranko Bosna
The exhibition ‘Shipbuilding Through the Lens’ highlights the photographs of our local and well-known photo chronicler, Jadranko Bosna, dating back to the days when he acquired his first analog camera in the 1980s and began pursuing amateur photography. Jadranko’s body of work is rich and diverse, and just for the preparation of this exhibition, he brought us a USB with over 10,000 photographs for the museum! Jadranko Bosna, the author of photographs Jadranko Bosna was born in 1959. After finishing elementary school, his father, who was a shipbuilder, anbd later an electrician, encouraged him to start working as soon as possible, which was common at the time. While many people worked in agriculture, he chose to work in shipbuilding. He began his professional career as…
Sail In a Gajeta
Sail In a Gajeta Discover sailing in a gajeta: an educational journey If you want to experience something special, our educational sailing program in the museum’s gajeta Marija offers a unique opportunity. During July and August, once a week, we will sail the old labor routes of the inhabitants of the island of Murter, enjoying the coastal landscape. Our expert staff will provide you with a deeper understanding of the context and circumstances that shaped the coastal landscape of the island of Murter and its surrounding waters. You will learn more about everyday life and the trips to the fields for which a sturdy, labor boat was essential. Our gajeta Marija, an old Betina gajeta built in 1922 and restored in 2021 in Betina, perfectly…
Betina Reminiscences
People, ships, the sea, sardines, seagulls, and stone in an exceptionally realistic and highly expressive artistic form—all familiar details, but with the hyperrealistic brushstrokes of the master of visual arts, Zoran Homen, the boundaries between reality and unreality have almost ceased to exist. The author’s view of Betina is captured in this incredible opus titled Betinske reminiscencije (Betina Reminiscences). The exhibition can be viewed until August 16th. Exhibition Review Hyperrealistic art, also known as photorealism, is an artistic style that aims to create images that resemble highly detailed photographs. This style developed in the late 1960s and early 1970s, with artists using various techniques to achieve extremely realistic depictions of their subjects. It emerged as a reaction to the abstract and expressionist styles that dominated…