Abstract
Egypt is currently witnessing a rapid opening of new museums across the country. The process mirrors attempt of the central government to make the archaeology and history of the country accessible to an Egyptian audience outside urban and touristic centres. However, the initiative has been launched with little recognition of local communities, and the museums do not attract the envisaged visitors. The paper investigates the reasons and effects of this development and contributes to a change of museum practices in the Egyptian provinces, using the Sharm ElShiekh Museum as a case-study. The results are related to wider discussions of museum roles in preserving local community identity, applied to the content and display of the Sharm El-Sheikh museum. Sharm El-Sheikh museum one of the most recently opened museums in Egypt. The museum exhibits a rich exhibition of the contemporary heritage of Sinai. This paper explores the content of this exhibition and its relationship to local community identity, the activities which relate to this exhibition, people’s reactions to the exhibition and how the museum employed the Bedouins in setting up the museum display.
Presenters
Shenouda Rizkalla Fahim YoussefMuseologist, Museum section, Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities-Egypt, Shamal Sina', Egypt
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Museum Transformations: Pathways to Community Engagement
KEYWORDS
LOCAL COMMUNITY, MUSEUM PRACTICES, BEDOUINS, NEW MUSEUMS
