The Heritage of the Craftsman: 15 Stories from Museum Etar and 2 Stories from Škofja Loka Museum

29 September 2026 – 14 February 2027

Exhibition team: Mojca Šifrer Bulovec, Jasna Kejžar Hartman, Saša Nabergoj (Škofja Loka Museum), Kremena Petrova, Rositsa Bineva (Regional Ethnographic Open-Air Museum Etar, Gabrovo, Bulgaria), Katarina Sekirnik (Arts & Crafts Center Škofja Loka)

Opening of the Exhibition: Tuesday, 29 September 2026, 18:00

The exhibition brings together Bulgarian and Slovenian craftsmen’s stories to present a single exhibition narrative that will provide visitors with an insight into common roots, diversity of artisanal techniques and modern ways of preserving artisanal skills. It encourages the understanding of crafts as a living, creative part of cultural heritage that connects the past and the present.

The exhibition The Heritage of the Craftsman: 15 Stories from Museum Etar and 2 Stories from Škofja Loka Museum is an extension of the exhibition project The Craftsman Heritage: 15 Stories from Etar Museum (Bulgaria), which aims to connect with the local environment and is supplemented with new exhibition materials at each new touring exhibition venue. The core of the exhibition consists of fifteen traditional Bulgarian crafts – including shoemaking, pottery, weaving, mead and honey-bread making, milling and metalworking – presented through texts, objects, tools, photographs and videos that show various craftsmen and the ways they transmit their knowledge and skills. The Bulgarian exhibition will be supplemented with two new crafts presented by the Škofja Loka Museum – basket weaving and leatherwork – which represent an important part of the history of local crafts and their modern-day continuation.