The Museum der Völker in the Austrian Schwaz in the county of Tyrol was founded in 1995 as a cultural association Haus der Völker by Gert Chesi and belongs to the well known Ethnology museums in Europe. After a new construction and remodeling the exhibition operation opened on the 12th of April 2013 as Museum der Völker. Translated the name means museum of the peoples or museum of the tribes.
Gert Chesi, photographer, journalist and author, had collected more than a thousand exhibits from all over the world in the period of fifty years. The art objects are the base of the Museum operation and give an insight into the religious and artistic creation of mankind.[1][2] In recent years, the museum underwent a complete redesign. Today, it features new building sections and an integrated studio gallery. The museum spans three levels with distinct exhibition themes: the permanent exhibition "Between Heaven and Earth" on the ground floor, and special exhibitions on the first and second floors.[3]
Today the cultural club Museum der Völker runs the museum. Art objects from distant cultures determine the Museum: Stone sculptures of Khmer, Buddha images from many eras, terracotta figures of the Nok, ancestral figures of the Dajak, grave finds from China and old bronzes from South-East Asia are displayed in addition to contemporary Voodoo objects and utensils of animism.[4][5]
Artifacts from over a period of four thousand years ethnographic exhibits from four themes will be presented to the public:
Currently, in fall 2020, the museum celebrates its 25 years anniversary as well as its founder Gert Chesi´s 80th birthday by a special exhibition.
Another special exhibition is about Ethiopia and a local medical doctor who worked there in the 1950s and very early 1960s. A permanent exhibition is about Asian religions and its interest to the western world.
please refer Gert Chesi
1999, the Museum der Völker received the Tyrolean Museum prize[29]
1999 Recognition Award of the Austrian Federal Ministry for Arts and Culture [30]
