The Torry Ecomuseum Project (TEP) is a virtual arts project in an ongoing and post COVID era. It highlights the Torry community’s enduring relationship with its built and natural environment, and its distinct social, work and leisure relationships with waterways, including the River Dee, Aberdeen Harbour, and varied coastal settings from beaches, cliffs, coastal walks and wetlands.
The concept of “ecomuseum” originated in France in the 1970s. This is a museum without building nor collection that centralises a place’s identity and heritage through community participation. There are around 300 operating Ecomuseums globally, including Staffin on Isle of Skye. Using a framework of ecomuseum, the TEP invites you to participate in creating three main interactive online exhibitions, covering many thousands of years of local histories.
While visibly promoting the richness of the local riverside and coastal environments under a new creative light, the TEP continues to build up intergenerational legacy. It also fosters the existing international links including a twinning exchange with Yubari community in Japan through the Shimizusawa Project, who inspiringly uses the ecomuseum framework to engage with their local community and coal mining heritage.
A celebratory open day event involving an exhibition and coastal walk was held at the Old Torry Community Centre on 6 November to bookend the 2021 edition of the project.
A video footage of the Open Day event can be viewed here:
Contact: torryecomuseumproject@gmail.com
