Open-air museums and Ecomuseums as tools for landscape management: some Italian experience

The landscape is increasingly recognized as a part of heritage, not only in the academic debate but also in international and national policies and among the general public. This paper is focused on a particular aspect of this process of heritaging of the landscape: its assimilation amongst the objects and the themes dealt with in museums. Two kinds of outdoor museum (open-air museums of Scandinavian origin and ecomuseums) are examined in their historical development, theoretical principles and operational structures and they are critically valued as possible tools for the conservation and management of landscapes. With reference to the geographic debate on the concept of landscape, it seems that interesting opportunities for research, education and conservation are offered by ecomuseums more than by open-air museums, even if some weaknesses often emerge when both models are put into practice. These questions are then examined with particular reference to the Italian context, characterized by the absence of open-air museums but by a recent and rapid widespread of ecomuseums. At the moment it is premature to give a full appraisal of the role played by Italian ecomuseums in landscape conservation and management, due to the initial stage of development of most experiences. Nevertheless some critical remarks are advanced on the basis of a classification of Italian ecomuseums, according to the role assigned to landscape in their themes and activities, and on the basis of the closer examination of a case study from Piedmont.