National cultural and exhibition projects of the Ministry of Culture and virtual catalogues

The Republic of Croatia is a country of unique natural and cultural treasures that in the journey through time and space and its history link the resources that by being diverse shape its visual, textual, musical, artistic, and simply put -cultural identity.

Like stacking scattered stones, lifting the new beams on the ceiling, reconstructing homes, the national cultural and exhibition projects that have been implemented by the Ministry of Culture since 2007 are characterized by devoted research activities, providing the most comprehensive review of selected regional units by creating its own heritage cartographic scale and showing its inscription on the map of global, and especially European cultural circles. Such exhibitions contribute to the reconstruction of monument units of the areas being presented, to the restoration works, additional collection of heritage documentation and they encourage economic, and especially touristic development of the region. Such valued space presents a basis for further learning and skills acquisition, it represents the same educational progress of local inhabitants as well as on national and international levels and encourages further research, scientific and technical programs and projects. National cultural and exhibition projects in their implementation gather many connoisseurs and experts in certain topics aimed to mediate a broad variety of materials as well as many cultural institutions in which the material is collected, processed, stored and available to the public.

The lifetime of such exhibition project as well as each exhibition project in a specific exhibition space has a limit as to time and space. When the lights that illuminated the set exhibits are turned off, the exhibition goes to the memory of those who worked on, just as to those who had visited it, satisfying their interest in a particular topic. Digitization of cultural heritage, the process by which we protect and make available valuable archive, museum, library and any other heritage materials, both immovable as movable and intangible heritage, represents a measure by which we extend the duration of such heritage materials and large national cultural and exhibition project. The exhibition which extends beyond its physical closure is a basis for further upgrading and subsequent networking based on collected material and offers the possibility of virtual search by time, theme or some other way.

"Croatian cultural heritage", the portal of the Ministry of Culture, which brings together digitized material welcomes the web catalogue of the "Slavonia, Baranya and Syrmia – the Origins of European Civilization" exhibition project. This online catalogue represents a virtual catalogue model that from the first day of work on the physical realization of the exhibition systematically monitored its course and offered the support for the implementation of the exhibition, the most review of that cultural environment. To the extent which the "Slavonia, Baranya and Syrmia" virtual catalogue entered into a worldwide virtual space both by its content and technologically, its wholeness and unity with the "Croatian cultural heritage" national portal represent a unique enterprise, and change our previous vision of visual exhibitions. The exhibition, which lives its future virtual life, is not just more visible to its authors and a limited number of visitors, but becomes visible to millions of visitors of the portal. The exhibition, which lives its future virtual life never stops, but becomes consistent with the new media on which data will be migrated, enriching the new contents and structure, networking and growing.

We believe that the model of the “Slavonia, Baranya and Syrmia – the Origins of European Civilization " web catalogue will be used again very shortly on the very first national cultural and exhibition project “Dalmatian Zagora- an Unknown Country” and continue to be an important guide for future projects in the totality of the presentation of Croatian cultural environment.

Dunja Seiter-Šverko