The European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA), was presented on the 12th of May, at the 2018 Award Ceremony held in Warsaw, Poland at the Museum of the Polish Jews. European Museum Forum has awarded Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding with the Silletto Prize! We were stunned and overwhelmed with emotions hearing the name of our Museum and asked to join the judges at the stage for the prize. The prize recognises excellence in working with the local community and involving volunteers which actually is the strength of our Museum. “This is an excellent example of a museum which is an expression of the identity of a community, driven by vision, enthusiasm and commitment. Its collections have been donated by the people of the village, providing an insight into…
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The visit of the President of the Republic of Croatia
The President of the Republic of Croatia visited our museum. She took a tour around the museum, got the chance to know a little more about the village and met a lot of local people from Betina and the entire island Murter who came to welcome her.
Exhibition: Headscarves of the Murter island
The exhibition was opened on the April 13th, 2018. Headscarf is a part of a traditional women’s folk costume. During the past times, it was worn for everyday and special occasions, too. Each headscarf is a so-called identity card of a woman who wears it, by seeing the scarf you could guess how a woman feels, is she married or not, or is she perhaps in grief. Headscarfs of the Murter island are in bright colours, usually with flower details. The authors of the exhibition, Sandra Barešin and Jasminka Paić, decided to find out a bit more about this part of the traditioanal folk costume. The exhibition was set in a collaboration with the highschool students from Šibenik who actively participated in the data collecting.
Palm Sunday in Betina
Palm Sunday, or locally, Cvitnica, is a custom where Christians throughout the world are celebrating Jesus’s coming to Jerusalem. It’s celebrated on the last Sunday before Easter and the Holy Week. Townspeople from Betina are celebrating it too. Before the Sunday it’s important to cutt down the right olive branches so they can be decorated as a palm. It’s never easy to select the proper branches between different types of olives in the groves. There is a local type of olive – duška, with long leaves easy to knit in palms. There are two different palms that can be made in Betina – a male one and a female palm. A male palm is made out of a single branch, while the female palm is more…
Brganja – Etimology of the Term
Brganja is a traditional tool for harvesting shells. It was made of a square metal construction with a strong net for the shells. All the metal pieces for this tool – brganja were made in local blacksmitheries while the boat owners made the net themselves. In the older days net was made out of copper wire while today it is made of a fishing net. Brganja was very important for locals, for their daily eating routine. What’s interesting is that people in Betina had more shells on their daily menu than fish. Nowadays a celebration festivity is being held every August in Betina. Celebrating the Festivity of Brganja is a dedication to all the hardworking people in Betina in the older days and their will to make…
EMA Awards Ceremony, Skopje
During the weekend on the 28th September till the 01st October we visited Skopje in Macedonia for the annual EMA Awards Ceremony. We were so proud to be there among all other beautiful museums from all over Europe. It was a great achievement to find ourselves as one of the 10 best museums among all who applied for the award. This is what the judges said about our Museum: “Croatia has provided the MUSEUM OF WOODEN SHIPBUILDING at Betina, a small historic village of about 800 inhabitants on the island of Murter, where the main activities are fishing, agriculture, craftsmanship and tourism. The museum was officially opened in 2015 and is in a building of cultural, historical and architectural importance. It has close ties with…
Scale model of a Betina gajeta has won 1st prize as the best souvenir of the year
Recently held Festival of Croatian Island Products has surprised us in the most wonderful way – our scale model of the Betina gajeta has become the best souvenir in Šibenik – Knin County! Souvenir Betina gajeta scale model has been made by the original type of Betina gajeta – a firm, stable boat with a flat keel and a straight frame, made specially to meet the needs of islanders – the inhabitants of Betina and Murter village. The primary function of the gajeta was to transport all sorts of materials, including of course families and domestic animals. Everyone knew how to navigate the gajeta. The scale model is hand-made, requires a number of working hours, every tiny piece of detail tells the story. The materials…