Lecture tour in Vesterålen
Published 30 September 2026
Liv Helene Willumsen and Gøril Karlsen have been on a lecture tour in Vesterålen
16 June 2025
José Cruz på tur til Kvalvika, Lofoten
Between the 12th and the 26th of May, we had a visit from José Cruz, an archaeologist from Portugal. As part of an Erasmus+ exchange program, this PhD student from the University of Lisbon was keen to find out more about how we organise our organisation, both in terms of heritage and archaeological management, as well as the relationships between our museums and the local communities.
José travelled throughout Lofoten, Vesterålen and Ofoten, visiting 13 museums and several archaeological sites. The opportunity to meet and interact closely with several members of staff and collaborators of Museum Nord provided a unique experience in terms of exchanging knowledge and good practices in the area of heritage management and safeguarding of cultural sites and artefacts.
Based on his doctoral project “Archaeological map of the municipality of Lourinhã – Portugal”, José highlighted several key points that make Museum Nord so interesting
- the challenge and extraordinary capacity of managing a vast network of museums in three regions
- the uniqueness that each museum presents, creating a series of possibilities for the future
- that we have many more museums per person living here than in most countries of Europe.
José was fascinated by the centralised norwegian online heritage databases (Digitalt Museum and Kulturminnesøk) which covers documentation, mapping and planning services. He sees this as a very essential base layer of protection work of which he would like to see much more of in his own country.
Being in direct contact with the inhabitants and people involved in the management of the territory gave him a closer and more genuine understanding of the culture of this region. The connection of the community to the existing natural resources, from prehistoric times to the present day, was one of the highlights, giving this region a unique cultural landscape.
He told us that he was grateful for the way he was welcomed and the fantastic experience provided by this exchange. In return, his visit gave us ample opportunities to discuss museum practice and enabled us to look at our organisation with the view of a visiting expert.
