News from 2019

In a small PR campaign early 2019, we reached 75 Universities where Experimental Archaeology is taught. We informed them about EXARC and the 11th Experimental Archaeology Conference, #EAC11. Later in the year we also approached 275 archaeological open-air museums who are not member with a personal letter and the latest EXARC Journal Digest. We also sent all IMTAL-Europe members our EXARC Journal. 

The 11th Experimental Archaeology Conference, #EAC11 took place in Trento Italy. This was our largest EXARC convention of 2019. The preparation started already a year earlier and we ended up with almost 200 participants for a three-day long event. 

The EU Project CRAFTER, lasting 2018-2019, where EXARC is a Partner, had many activities in 2019, among which several exhibitions and showing their film at festivals, which continues in 2020.

With NEMO, our Chair went to Hungary for a learning exchange which will have a follow-up in 2020. ICOM, the international council of museums, took us to Japan for a conference with 4,500 museum professionals – and we found out there are hundreds of archaeological open-air museums there. 

Our EXARC Twinning projects, one twinning Germany with Ireland, the other twinning Greece with Russia, go well. Also, the Foundation Colonial Williamsburg Fellowship had some serious activities in 2019, and a good candidate selected for 2020. 

The EXARC Journal was registered in the Directory of Open Access Journals (DOAJ). This, and the relaunch of the EXARC website in 2018, led to almost 125,000 article views over 2019. 

The REARC Conference in Virginia, about Reconstructive and Experimental Archaeology, went well, with over 50 people attending for both a day with lectures and a practical day with demonstrations. 

In Autumn, we started with a coaching project where the Sesam Academy, consisting of retired managers and professionals from among others the museum sector offer their expertise to volunteer organisations like EXARC. We started a large volunteering campaign, leading to an increase of team members to over 50.