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Presentation of Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding’s Guide to the Permanent Exhibition

The presentation of the Guide to the Permanent Exhibition of the Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding will be held on December 10, 2019 at 7.00 pm at the Visitors Center in Betina. The Guide will be presented by Jadran Kale, head of the authoring team of the museum concept of the Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding, and Kate Šikić Čubrić, editor of the Permanent Exhibition Guide.
KUD Zora Betina will perform in the musical part of the evening.

Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding was founded in response to long-standing aspirations of the inhabitants of Betina to preserve centuries of knowledge on traditional wooden shipbuilding, which greatly marked and shaped the town’s identity. Shipbuilding has been continuously evolving in Betina since the mid-18th century. The number of shipbuilders has increased over the years and the local local shipbuilders became widely known for their exceptional work. Today, Betina is one of the remaining centers of wooden shipbuilding on the Adriatic Sea, comprising of one large shipyard and several smaller family-owned shipyards where quality traditional wooden boats are constructed.

After a three-year period of doing research, collecting exhibits and renovating the building, the Museum was opened on 14 August 2015. In addition to the team of experts who conducted the research, the permanent exhibition was created with the pivotal assistance by shipbuilders in an advisory capacity, sailors of traditional boats, former laborers, fishermen, local ethnographers and heritage aficionados. All items intended for the future museum were donated by local residents. Numerous items related to shipbuilding, marine equipment, agriculture, fisheries and everyday life were collected. Besides the history of shipbuilding knowledge, techniques of drawing boat lines and woodworking, the Museum also tells the story of the vital role of wooden boats in the lives of the inhabitants of Betina and Murter, both in the past and today. Shipbuilders share their experiences and knowledge in the museum texts, thus providing guidance through the exhibition. There were items that could not be found but, nevertheless, they were reconstructed under the direction of retired shipbuilders who had used those tools in their active years.

The permanent exhibition inside the building is actually an introduction to the Betina wooden shipbuilding industry, whose products may be properly experienced at the open-air museum. The outer permanent exhibition in the town harbour near the Museum building holds 43 traditional wooden boats, representing the art of traditional wooden shipbuilding in their natural environment. The open-air museum of the Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding was officially opened on 8 June 2019.

The Museum is proud to state that it was a project developed at the initiative of the local community. The same community was involved in the design and construction of the museum, and from the opening to this day, they participate in the daily work of the Museum offering their advice, suggestions, help in the form of volunteerism as well as continuous wholehearted support.

I would like to thank all the shipbuilders, owners of wooden boats, the Betina gajeta 1740 and Latinsko idro associations, KUD Zora, local community, associates of the exhibitions, Municipality of Tisno, Ministry of Culture, Ministry of Tourism and Ministry of Regional Development, Šibenik City Museum as well as all the admirers of wooden boats, traditional wooden shipbuilding and cultural heritage of the island of Murter.

Kate Šikić Čubrić, director of the Museum

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