Hardanger og Voss museum

Hardanger and Voss museum (HVM) is a regional museum with 6 branches. Its main goal is to become an important participant in the region, exerting positive influences through cultural activity. The Hardanger Maritime Center (HMC) is a large portion of this museum. Using Norway’s maritime cultural heritage as a foundation, the museum has a diverse operational structure, which includes: running a museum (marketing, documentation, research), running maritime workplaces (boatyard, ropewalk, smithy), running various vessels and “camp” schools aboard them. Approximately 50 people work at HMC at any given time. Utilizing the Hardanger jakt “Mathilde” is an important part of the institutions marketing activity. “Mathilde” has a sailing season stretching from late February until early November each year. She travels on cultural tours with various exhibitions eight weeks of the year, has “camp” schools aboard 12 weeks, and during the summer there are tours open to the general public. Maritime history is a history of cultural contact crossing the boarders of many nations, and therefore we consider our Maritime Center a very good basis for a volunteer project.