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 former Deputy Director General at the Hungarian Open Air Museum in Szentendre, currently the State Secretary for Public Collections and Heritage Protection in Hungary. 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.
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.
Stefan Zimmermann
Board Member
Kiekeberg Open Air Museum | Germany
Since 2017, Stefan Zimmermann has been director at the Kiekeberg Open Air Museum, Germany. Stefan is an historian and has spent most of his professional career working in open-air museums—including, from 2007 to 2016, at the Wolfegg Open-Air Museum in Baden-Württemberg, serving as director from 2010 to 2016. Since 2018 he is Board Member of the Open Air Museums Section of the German Museums Association (DMB).
His most important areas of research are the history of migration in the 19th and 20th centuries, housing and architectural culture, everyday culture, and the history of National Socialism in rural areas
Lise Gerda Knudsen
Board Member
The Funen Village | Denmark
Lise Gerda Knudsen is Head of Development at The Funen Village (Den Fynske Landsby), Denmark.
Lise is a historian by training. She is involved in the strategic development of The Funen Village with a focus on transforming the museum into a museum with sustainability, circular living and community building as the basic narrative.
Before becoming Head of Development, Lise worked as Senior Curator at The Funen Village, with responsibility for development and daily visitor engagement and interpretation, and before that she worked as a historian focusing mainly on the interpretation of agricultural history.
Dagmar Ingi
Board Member
Estonian Open Air Museum | Estonia
Dagmar Ingi has been working at the Estonian Open Air Museum since 2006. Since 2023, she has served as Head of the Department of Rural Architecture and Cultural Heritage, overseeing the development of museum exhibitions, collection management, education, research, consultancy services, and capacity building in the field of rural built heritage.
Dagmar holds a degree in ethnology, and her primary research interests focus on everyday life during the Soviet era.
From 2015 to 2024, she was a member of the Board of the Estonian Museums Association, and from 2021 to 2024 she served on the Board of NEMO (the Network of European Museum Organisations). She is also an expert in cultural heritage and museums for the Cultural Endowment of Estonia.
Contact Us
AEOM | Association of European Open Air Museums
2000 Szentendre, Sztaravodai út 75, Hungary
Email – info@theaeom.org