March 25th - 29th, 2009
Spring 2009, our liveARCH partner in Modena (IT) organised a 3 day conference, themed "1st International Forum of Archaeological Open-Air Museums" which included a Conference and a Workshop. The meeting will also host the Annual General Meeting of EXARC. Several international speakers, representing some of the most significant European archaeological open-air museums, presented to a public of about 300 people their experiences and underlined the most important issues related to Archaeological Open-Air Museums (living history, reconstructions, quality of activities, dialogue with scientists and visitors, etc.). The second day, about 150 people participated in an excursion to the Parco Montale (parcomontale.it). The EXARC AGM was attended by over 40 people and with some changes in the board, the main tasks for 2009 were formulated as having a new constitution ready and continue with discussion on quality.

The third day was dedicated to liveARCH discussions - most EXARC members had already left. All in all, this Forum made clear how many people are interested in archaeological open-air museums combined with experiment, science and living history.