On 13 and 14 October 2026, Kyustendil hosted the Third National Meeting of Museum Educators with international participation, “Art as a Tool for Expanding the Geographical and Social Boundaries of Museum Education”. The museum educators’ forum is an initiative of the National Museum of Natural History at the Bulgarian Academy of Sciences and has been held since 2024. This year the meeting had a broader focus. It was held as part of the activities of the CULTURAL AREA project, as a seminar on working with young audiences through art, and was funded by the project. The host was the Regional History Museum “Acad. Yordan Ivanov” – Kyustendil, which is also the lead partner of the project. The event was co-organised by Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.
Valentin Debochichki, Director of RHM – Kyustendil, and Nikolay Dochev, Deputy Mayor of Kyustendil Municipality, also a project partner, welcomed the participants. Ani Istatkova greeted the audience on behalf of the CULTURAL AREA project team and as a researcher at the Faculty of History of Sofia University “St. Kliment Ohridski”.
The forum went beyond a professional meeting and became a thematic event for exchanging good practices that link cultural heritage and art. The practices presented by various institutions showed how new audiences can be reached, including across national borders. The lively discussions and the participants’ interest confirmed that when heritage is shared through interdisciplinary work and cooperation between culture, education and tourism, the results are engaging and thought-provoking.
In her presentation, Ani Istatkova introduced the CULTURAL AREA cross-border model for working with new audiences. She also moderated the panel “Living Heritage: Learning by Doing”. The partner teams shared their experience as well. Miroslava Taskova from RHM – Kyustendil spoke about the museum’s learning materials. Suzana Yaneva and Viktoria Krumova from the Historical Museum – Dupnitsa presented the exhibition “Old Town Houses Tell Stories”. Natalija Milkovska and Žaklin Cvetkovska from the City Museum of Kriva Palanka talked about educational activities for children and about the festival as a means of promoting local memory and traditions.
The CULTURAL AREA project: CULTURAL heritage community and AttRactive all-sEAson tourism (BGMK0200027) is funded under the Interreg VI-A IPA Bulgaria – North Macedonia Cross-border Cooperation Programme 2021–2027. #CULTURALAREA #InterregIPA #BulgariaNorthMacedonia #MuseumEducation #CulturalHeritage