Networks and Partnerships

The Portuguese Museum Network (RPM), created in 2000, is an organized system of museums based on voluntary membership, progressively configured and aimed at decentralization, mediation, qualification and cooperation between museums. RPM aims to: - Valuing and qualifying the national museological reality; - Institutional cooperation and articulation between museums; - The decentralization of resources; - The planning and rationalization of public investments in museums; - The dissemination of information on museums; - Promoting the rigor and professionalism of museological practices and museographic techniques; - Fostering articulation between museums. The Mértola Museum has been part of the RPM since 2002 and, in this context, has developed some actions, namely the training and qualification of its technicians and the development of projects in the areas of research, dissemination and preventive conservation.

The set of rural museums in the Alentejo and Algarve is today an extraordinary asset for the region and one more element for the diversification of the offer and the dignification of the communities where they are located. However, given the social, economic and functional reality of today, it is urgent to work in partnership so that the offer is of more diversity, more quality and around more comprehensive and more universal themes. Created in 2015, this Network informally integrates the Museum of Rurality (Entradas – Castro Verde), the Museum Nucleus of Alcaria dos Javazes (Mértola), the Rural Museum of Pias (Serpa), the Archaeological and Ethnographic Museum of Santa-Clara-a -Nova (Almodôvar), the Flour Museum (S. Domingos – Santiago do Cacém), the Work Museum (Abela – Santiago do Cacém) and the Rural Center of Ervidel (Aljustrel), aims to create a network for sharing knowledge and experiences that function as a workspace that facilitates, streamlines and makes the work carried out by these museums more comprehensive.

The RMBA was created in 2011 and integrates the Municipalities of Almodôvar, Aljustrel, Alvito, Beja, Castro Verde, Cuba, Ferreira do Alentejo, Mértola, Moura, Serpa, Ourique, Vidigueira and the Rainha D. Leonor Museum (Beja), having been integrated into the Intermunicipal Community of Baixo Alentejo (CIMBAL), in 2016. The museums that integrate it are characterized by a interesting thematic and museographic diversity and have similar characteristics at the level of management and resources. The RMBA works as a privileged interlocutor with the adhering museums, in order to in order to make them aware of the need to preserve, value and disseminate the Heritage, understood here in its broadest sense, always complying with the principles established in national legislation and international guidelines. It is intended a unbureaucratic functioning that allows real and effective cooperation, that allows rationalize expenses and charges and define common operating and improvement in the museum units, with results in terms of compliance with their functions and the strengthening of relationships between museums and the community. Among the actions and projects already developed, the traveling exhibitions “Marcas do Territory – Testimonies of Heritage in Baixo Alentejo” (2013 and 2014) and “Writing in Baixo Alentejo” Alentejo – From origins to our days” (2017-2020), and the holding of 4 Meetings themes in Castro Verde, Aljustrel, Mértola and Serpa. Main objectives of the RMBA: - Qualification, enhancement and dissemination of museum units in this District; - Cooperation, partnership and articulation between the museological units of the municipalities that integrate the Network; - Optimization and profitability of resources, mainly in terms of human resources and realization of common projects; - Dissemination of information on the Network's museums; - Promotion of rigor, ethics and professionalism in museum practices.” (Cláudio Torres in, www.camertola.pt )

The RMBA was created in 2011 and integrates the Municipalities of Almodôvar, Aljustrel, Alvito, Beja, Castro Verde, Cuba, Ferreira do Alentejo, Mértola, Moura, Serpa, Ourique, Vidigueira and the Rainha D. Leonor Museum (Beja), having been integrated into the Intermunicipal Community of Baixo Alentejo (CIMBAL), in 2016. The museums that integrate it are characterized by a interesting thematic and museographic diversity and have similar characteristics at the level of management and resources. The RMBA works as a privileged interlocutor with the adhering museums, in order to in order to make them aware of the need to preserve, value and disseminate the Heritage, understood here in its broadest sense, always complying with the principles established in national legislation and international guidelines. It is intended a unbureaucratic functioning that allows real and effective cooperation, that allows rationalize expenses and charges and define common operating and improvement in the museum units, with results in terms of compliance with their functions and the strengthening of relationships between museums and the community. Among the actions and projects already developed, the traveling exhibitions “Marcas do Territory – Testimonies of Heritage in Baixo Alentejo” (2013 and 2014) and “Writing in Baixo Alentejo” Alentejo – From origins to our days” (2017-2020), and the holding of 4 Meetings themes in Castro Verde, Aljustrel, Mértola and Serpa. Main objectives of the RMBA: - Qualification, enhancement and dissemination of museum units in this District; - Cooperation, partnership and articulation between the museological units of the municipalities that integrate the Network; - Optimization and profitability of resources, mainly in terms of human resources and realization of common projects; - Dissemination of information on the Network's museums; - Promotion of rigor, ethics and professionalism in museum practices. https://redemuseusbeja.blogspot.com https://cimbal.pt

The Baixo Alentejo Museums Guide is a concise guidebook that presents us the region’s ex-libris: must-see museums that celebrate the unique identity of each place. Baixo Alentejo Museums is witnessing and experiencing humankind, it is adventure, opportunity and discovery. It is a unique wold, home, narrative that is the path travelled from generation to generation, it is evolution, knowledge, and wisdom. It is to experience and breathe the fresh breeze, the clean air, to listen and contemplate the astonishing scenery surrounding us. Memory, the records of history, are fundamental to the understanding of our past and presente behaviours and, also, to idealize our future with knowledge.