Arman
Džaferagić

Arman Džaferagić is the Scientific Museum Director of the Crafts Museum Ovelgönne. As a trained conservator and restorer (M.A.) specialising in preventive conservation and digital cultural heritage preservation, he has made it his mission not merely to manage this historic house, but to lead it actively into the future.

Founded in 1978, the Crafts Museum was for a long time a quiet place of pure preservation. Today it presents itself as a vibrant cultural space. Together with a dedicated team of paid staff and volunteers who refuse to settle for being just a "small museum", Arman Džaferagić has been driving the modernisation of the museum since 2022. In 2023, an in-house 3D digitisation department was established. In addition, some 11,500 collection objects are being systematically documented in a bespoke database, to research and communicate the material culture of the Ovelgönne community in a contemporary way. The guiding idea: small museums can think just as big as the large ones.

His academic path took him from the University of Sarajevo to the HAWK Hildesheim. During his studies he gained international project experience, including work with UNESCO, Cultural Heritage without Borders, and the National Museum and the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina. His Master's thesis, produced within a DFG-funded project, explored the digital reconstruction of historic wall paintings.

Since 2023 he has been a doctoral researcher in a joint programme between Carl von Ossietzky University Oldenburg and the German Maritime Museum / Leibniz Institute for Maritime History in Bremerhaven. His research focuses on the 3D digitisation of cultural heritage, examining critically the ethical questions, resource equity and democratisation of digital technologies in the cultural sector. Alongside his doctorate he teaches at the University of Oldenburg and leads the "Practical Days" at the Crafts Museum Ovelgönne, a successful collaborative project between the regional museums around Oldenburg and the university.

What makes the daily work in Ovelgönne so special for him is the strong sense of community. It is the interplay of a passionate team and a supporting association that has backed the museum with enormous dedication for decades. This commitment is, for him, the greatest inspiration to keep developing the Crafts Museum together as a modern and open place for everyone.