Romania's Museum of Abandonment (Muzeul Abandonului) is one of the five cultural projects shortlisted in the Best Use of Digital category of the 2024 Museums + Heritage Awards. The winners will be announced at a live ceremony in London in May.

Now in its 22nd year, the Museums + Heritage Awards is one of the world's leading museum and heritage industry events, recognizing excellence and innovation in the field.

The Museum of Abandonment is an independent, digital, and participatory museum born in 2021. Its aim is to "explore an immense collective trauma that was never really recognized and publicly disseminated," namely the hundreds of thousands of children who were abandoned during the years of communism and the recent history of Romania.

"When we initiated this project, we wanted it to bring about a change in perception, to become a social mediator between the never-seen community of those who have suffered the effects and stigma of abandonment and society. Change can only come from the new generation, for whom we thought this digital and immersive format, and now this choice of a digital museum brings us a nomination that puts us in the international spotlight," said founder Oana Drăgulinescu.

The Museum of Abandonment developed a virtual reality application, has an archive of almost 20,000 items, and a map of all the institutions where Romanian children lived between 1966 and 1997. The Map of Abandonment contains hundreds of institutions, records, and associated documents, making it the largest public research initiative on the subject.

The complete 2024 shortlist of the Museums + Heritage Awards is available here. The awards ceremony will take place at the Hilton Park Lane in London on the evening of May 15.

irina.marica@romania-insider.com

(Photo source: the museum)