Mission of AEOM
The AEOM is an open and inclusive network of open air museum professionals where knowledge, experiences and ideas are exchanged in an atmosphere of collegiality and collaboration. The AEOM represents the interests of its diverse member museums, promotes the open air museum sector on the local and international levels, and contributes to its development.
Objectives of AEOM
The AEOM is a non-profit organisation functioning on a voluntary basis and without a regular budget. The following objectives should serve as a structure for fulfilling the mission and aims of the Association within the next ten years.
On the community level, the AEOM will:
- build on the strengths of the Association that are most appreciated by its member museums and fellows and use these to keep investing in a vibrant and active network;
- reinforce the intensity of exchange and share good practices, standards of work, methodologies, and other inspirations regularly;
- open the network to all open air museum professionals, with special attention to the younger and new fellows who can benefit from the experience of and encounters with the long-standing ones;
- use different platforms to connect member museums and fellows with similar interests, such as working groups, webinars, or regional meetings;
- use digital formats more widely to intensify the current means of communication and to develop new ones;
- facilitate finding partners for cooperation on projects, research, exhibitions, or common problem-solving.
On the international level, the AEOM will:
- strengthen communication with the broader museum sector and international organisations;
- increase the visibility of open air museums and highlight their role in society on different levels;
- promote interests of open air museums within Europe;
- do things with joy!
Every two years, the AEOM board will report to the General Assembly on the actions it has taken to realize its mission and objectives and on the impact it has created.
AEOM Board
Zsolt Sári
President
Hungarian Open Air Museum | Hungary
Zsolt Sári is the Deputy Director General at the Hungarian Open Air Museum in Szentendre. Zsolt is an ethnologist and politologist and obtained his PhD in 2004.
His most important area of research is lifestyle transformation in the 20th century, especially concerning the period of communism. He has long been interested in the exhibition methodology of open air museums, the involvement of communities, and the participation of disadvantaged people in museums.
He first participated in the AEOM conference in 2001, and since 2009, he has been regularly present at the association’s meetings. He became a member of AEOM at the 26th conference in Germany in 2013, was elected a board member in 2019 and served as a vice president from 2020 to 2024.
Rhiannon Hiles
Vice President, Treasurer
Beamish, The Living Museum of the North | United Kingdom
Rhiannon Hiles is the CEO of Beamish, The Living Museum of the North. With over 30 years’ experience in the culture sector, she has extensive strategic and operational leadership experience within a major visitor attraction. Rhiannon has a curatorial and architectural history background and worked in the antiques business prior to working in museums. She is a board member of the AEOM, Director of a learning trust and governor of a further education college, a council member of the National Museum Directors’ Council, a member of the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions and Association of Independent Museums, and Council member of the North East Chamber of Commerce.
Kitt Boding-Jensen
Board member
Den Gamle By | Denmark
Kitt Boding-Jensen is Head of Hospitality and Storytelling at Den Gamle By, Denmark.
Kitt is an ethnologist by training. She is involved in the strategic development of Den Gamle By with a special interest in commercial activities. Her focus is on the visitor experience at the museum across different departments.
Before Den Gamle By, where she started in 2012, Kitt worked in several cultural history museums on the topics of urban planning, the culture of daily life, and industrial history.
Jens Scheller
Board Member
Freilichtmuseum Hessenpark | Germany
Since 2009, Jens Scheller has been museum director at the Hessenpark Open Air Museum, Germany.
Jens is a banker by training who worked from 1997 to 1998 as a freelance geographer and from 1998 to 2002 as a research assistant at the Institute for Cultural Geography, Urban and Regional Research (Frankfurt/Main). From 2002 to 2008, he was the head of the Department for Regional Land Use/Planning in the Frankfurt/Rhine-Main Regional Association.
Today, he is a member of the German Academy for Urban Development and Regional Planning (DASL), the State Monument Council of Hesse and the Board of the Open Air Museums Section of the German Museums Association (DMB).
Eva Kuminková
Board Member
National Institute of Folk Culture | Czech Republic
Eva Kuminková has been working in the open air museum field since 1999, first as a guide and later as a curator of traditional textiles and deputy director general of the National Open Air Museum, where she focused on strategic planning, research or museum interpretation.
Eva has a background in ethnology. She works at the National Institute of Folk Culture as an intangible cultural heritage expert and is also responsible for international relations. As a facilitator of UNESCO’s Convention for Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage, she actively seeks ways how open-air museums can contribute to effective safeguarding and strengthening the viability of ICH. She also participates in developing national strategies for its protection and transfers her experience to ethnology students at Masaryk University – including the history and contemporary work of open air museums.
Ciprian Stefan
Board Member
ASTRA Museum | Romania
Ciprian Stefan is the president of the National Network of Romanian Museums and the manager of ASTRA Museum, the largest open air museum in Europe. By the power of example, he consolidated a team that sets new standards in Romanian museology. He is also very active and involved in safeguarding the cultural landscape in rural areas, supporting local communities in the attempt to preserve and promote built and intangible cultural heritage and local craftsmanship, the principles of sustainable development – with a deep respect for traditions.
Barbara Karl
Board Member
The Swiss Open-Air Museum Ballenberg | Switzerland
Barbara Karl is an art historian and museum curator. She is head of research and deputy director of Ballenberg, the Swiss open-air museum. She has carried out research projects at MAK-Museum für angewandte Kunst in Vienna, the Warburg Institute in London, Bard Graduate Center in New York, the Scuola Normale Superiore in Pisa and the Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften Vienna. Her studies have focused on the history of collecting, global art history and textile history. Focusing on the Early Modern Period up to the early 20th century, she has published two books and numerous articles on the influence of India on European material culture, merchants as agents of cultural transfer, collecting of Islamic art in Medici Florence and Habsburg Vienna and Ottoman textiles.
Contact Us
AEOM | Association of European Open Air Museums
2000 Szentendre, Sztaravodai út 75, Hungary
Email – [email protected]