Directors

Sima Trojanović, originally from Šabac, studied natural sciences in Zurich, Würzburg and finally in Heidelberg. At this University, he received his doctorate in 1885 in the field of biology with anthropology, which makes him the first formally educated Serbian anthropologist. From 1899, he studied ethnology and museological sciences in Munich, Prague and Vienna. Upon his return to Belgrade in 1901, he was appointed assistant curator of the National Museum for the ethnographic department. In the same year, the Ethnographic Museum was formed from this department, and Sima Trojanović was appointed as its director. As director, he initiated the collection of ethnographic material from all areas inhabited by Serbs. After the First World War, Sima Trojanović directed the repairs and reorganization of the museum building. In 1921, he was appointed full professor at the Faculty of Philosophy in Skopje. He was a member of the Serbian Royal Academy from 1921.

Nikola Zega was born into an Aromanian family that moved from Vlahoklisura (today’s Klisura) to Banatsko Novo Selo. He studied painting techniques in Belgrade under Stevan Todorović and in Munich at the Ludwig Schmitt Art School, and subsequently worked as a painting teacher in several Serbian secondary schools. When the Ethnographic Museum was founded, Nikola Zega began collaborating with this institution, first as an illustrator, and later he also began to engage in ethnological research. He participated in the preparation of the exhibition in Paris in 1900 and in Petrograd in 1902, as well as in the commemoration of the centenary of the First Serbian Uprising in 1904. With the departure of dr Trojanović to the position of professor of ethnography in Skopje, the position of director of the Ethnographic Museum remained vacant. Nikola Zega first led the institution in the capacity of acting director, and subsequently obtained full status in 1925, remaining at the head of the Ethnographic Museum until his retirement in March 1927.

Borivoje Drobnjaković completed his primary and secondary education in his native Kragujevac, and graduated from the Faculty of Philosophy in 1913, in the group of anthropogeography, ethnology with ethnography, national history and archaeology. At the same faculty, he enrolled in doctoral studies, which he successfully completed in 1923, defending a thesis on the anthropogeographical characteristics of the Gornja Jasenica area in Šumadija. After the retreat through Albania, he went to France together with the Serbian army, where he taught Serbian children in exile. From 1920, he worked simultaneously as a secondary-school professor and as a curator at the Ethnographic Museum, until 1925, when he devoted himself fully to museum work. Borivoje Drobnjaković was responsible for the establishment of the Glasnik Etnografskog muzeja (Bulletin of the Ethnographic Museum), which he edited from 1926 to 1941, when the Glasnik ceased to be published due to the conditions of occupation. As a part-time lecturer, from 1938 to 1941, he taught ethnology at the Higher School of Pedagogy, and from 1948 he taught museology at the Faculty of Philosophy. From 1950, he began working as a full professor at the faculty and as a permanent associate of the Ethnographic Institute of SASA, the management of which institution he took over in 1957.

Mitar Vlahović was born near Kolašin, where he attended primary school, while he attended grammar school in Cetinje, Podgorica and Skopje. The First World War interrupted his grammar school education. After returning from captivity, and after completing grammar school, he moved to live in Belgrade and enrolled at the Faculty of Philosophy. Through his success in his studies, he recommended himself for the position of assistant to professors Tihomir Đorđević and Jovan Erdeljanović, and thus remained at the faculty until 1927, when he moved to the Ethnographic Museum. After several decades of work at this institution as a curator and collection manager, he was appointed acting director in 1950, while he became director in 1952. During his management of the institution, the Ethnographic Museum marked fifty years of existence by realizing, up to that time, the largest and most comprehensive permanent exhibition and by publishing a collection of papers. Shortly thereafter, in 1953, the museum continued publishing the Bulletin and, at the same time, moved to the former building of the Belgrade Stock Exchange at Studentski trg, where it is still located. For his work, he was awarded the Order of Merit for the People.

Born in Perast, Špiro Kulišić received his primary and secondary education in Montenegro, and in 1933 he graduated from the Department of Ethnology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. After his studies, he taught at grammar schools in Glina, Prijedor and Čačak, from where in 1941 he joined the Partisan movement. After the war, he served as head of department at the Ministry of Education of Bosnia and Herzegovina, director of the National Museum in Sarajevo, director of the Institute for the Study of Folklore in Sarajevo, while he headed the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade between 1960 and 1963. During his term of office, he advocated the introduction of new principles of the organization of the institution and established departments for textiles, economy, the study of social life, documentation, conservation and educational work. In accordance with this, he introduced the specialization of experts for certain topics. He was also responsible for initiating large-scale team field research of cultural-geographical units, which was the norm in the Ethnographic Museum for the following several decades, especially during the period when the museum had the status of a scientific institution, and not only of a cultural institution.

Persida Tomić was born in Kraljevo into a middle-class family, was educated in Raška, Niš and Belgrade, and completed her studies of ethnology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade in 1937. She began her work at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade in 1945 as a curator, acquired the title of senior curator in 1959, and that of museum advisor in 1970. She was twice acting director of the Ethnographic Museum. She worked at this institution until her retirement in 1971. She is best known for her fundamental research work in the field of folk art, with a particular focus on traditional pottery in Serbia. Thus, the book Pottery in Serbia, published in 1983, is particularly worth mentioning. She is also the author of the significant study The Human Figure in the Folk Art of Serbia.

Born in Mostar in 1918, Slobodan Zečević completed primary school and secondary school in Belgrade, and then studied law and ethnology. He graduated from the Ethnological Group of the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade in 1957, and defended his doctoral dissertation in the field of historical sciences in 1963, on the topic “Pagan Elements in Serbian Ritual Dances.” After a short period of work at the Ethnographic Institute, he came to lead the Ethnographic Museum in 1966, where he was responsible for the organization of large team research projects, primarily in Eastern Serbia. Himself a field researcher with extensive experience, he primarily dealt with the topic of folk customs. He was one of the founders of the Association of Yugoslav Folklorists and its long-standing secretary, as well as vice-president of the Ethnological Society of Yugoslavia, and for many years president of the Ethnological Society of Serbia. He was a member of the Executive Board of the International Society for European Ethnology and Folklore (SIEF) in Paris. Also, for a certain period, he was a member of the Scientific Council of the Ethnographic Institute. After the completion of his term, and until his retirement, he held the position of director for scientific projects and editor of professional publications of the Ethnographic Museum. Before engaging in ethnology, he worked as a legal officer and secretary in various social organizations.

Gvozden Jovanić was born in the village of Jančići, not far from Čačak, the town in which he attended grammar school. A lawyer by education, he held managerial positions in several different work organizations and also served as an assistant to the Republic Secretary for Culture until 1977. He was significant for his merits in the founding of the Ivo Andrić Endowment, whose administration he was a member of from its founding. He was also one of the founders and the first president of the Board of Directors of Vuk’s Endowment, where he played an important role in launching the journal Zadužbina. During his management, the Ethnographic Museum underwent a major reconstruction of the interior of the building at Students’ Square in order for the exhibition and office spaces to be modernized, and the building equipped with modern facilities, including – for the first time – a conference and cinema hall.

Ljubomir Reljić was born into a teachers’ family in the village of Orešac near Knjaževac. He completed grammar school in Knjaževac, and then ethnology at the Faculty of Philosophy in Belgrade. He began his career in 1957 at the Office for Cultural and Artistic Events of Belgrade. He also worked at the Cultural-Educational Community of Belgrade and the Cultural Center of Belgrade. He began working at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade in September 1959. He participated in research and in the expansion of museum collections, as well as in the improvement of the documentation system, which had begun at that time, according to international standards of the museum profession. Between 1969 and 1983, he headed the Museum in Pančevo, when he also participated in the production of ethnographic films. One such film, Thirst of the Dead, received the Grand Prix “Golden Lyre” in 1975 at the International Festival of Ethnological Film in Dublin. For his contribution to the cultural development of Pančevo, in 1983 he received the “Golden Žižak” award. Upon returning to Belgrade, he continued his work at the Ethnographic Museum, and between June 1986 and June 1987 he served as acting director of this institution.

He was the director of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade in the period from 1987 to 1994. He was among the first to support the creation of the Ethnological Film Festival, whose founding in 1992 he supervised. The first festival was held under the name “Prohor Pčinjski Ethnological Film Festival” in 1992. During his term of office, team research was resumed, after having been suspended in previous years due to major works on the reconstruction of the building. Branko Radivojević completed the Teachers’ School and the Higher School of Pedagogy, specializing in defectology. In addition to his work at the Ethnographic Museum, he was also secretary of the Belgrade Education Community, director of the Special Primary School “Radivoj Popović,” director of the “Ilija Birčanin” Primary School in Zemun, president of the Municipal Assembly of Zemun and vice-president of the Assembly of the City of Belgrade.

During the term of Mitar Mihić, team research in Serbia continued, specifically in Knjaževac and its surroundings and the Užice region, primarily the Prijepolje area. In addition, the specialists of the Ethnographic Museum went on field research in Metohija, in the surroundings of Prizren, municipalities in southern Serbia, Sombor, Bor, Niš, Prohorova, and Belgrade. Towards the very end of his term at the head of the museum, he supervised the activities related to marking the centenary of the existence of the Ethnographic Museum, which included the realization of a new permanent exhibition Traditional Culture of the Serbs in the 19th and 20th Centuries, as well as the jubilee exhibition One Hundred Years of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. During his term of office, the documentation work of this institution was modernized through the introduction of an electronic database and object files.

Born in Čačak, Dragomir Antonić studied ethnology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. He spent his working life at the Ethnographic Institute of SASA and the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. He was one of the founders of Young Researchers of Serbia, whose ethnological projects for the study of tradition and changes in folk culture between 1976 and 1980 he designed and led. From 1991 to 1995, together with the Geographical Institute of SASA, the Government of Serbia, and the Municipality of Štrpce, he participated as the author and leader of the ethnological topic in the project “Economic, Natural, Hydrological and Tourist Potential of Šar Mountain and the Sirinić Župa.” He headed the Ethnographic Museum from the end of 2001 to the end of 2002. As a special innovation in the work of the museum, during 2002 the first website was created, presenting the history, collections, and activities of the museum.

Velibor Stojaković was born in Belgrade, where he graduated in ethnology from the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. He worked at the National Museum in Sarajevo between 1979 and 1991, in the position of an ethnologist-curator for the study of traditional socio-legal relations, and from 1992 he moved to work at the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. During his years at the Ethnographic Museum, he managed the collections of objects related to folk economy and participated in the work of the International Festival of Ethnological Film in its first years. He acquired the title of museum advisor in 2000. He was appointed director of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade in 2002.

She was born in Zaječar, where she completed primary and secondary school, and afterwards studied ethnology at the Faculty of Philosophy of the University of Belgrade. She began her work already as a student by participating in the creation of the permanent exhibition of the urban interior of Radul-beg’s Konak in Zaječar in 1978 and in the creation of the permanent exhibition of the Department of Ethnology of the National Museum in Zaječar, where she was also employed after completing her studies. From 2001 to 2008, she was the director of the Homeland Museum of Knjaževac, when she was appointed acting director of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. She remained in the mentioned position for a short time, because at the end of 2008 she was appointed Assistant to Minister of culture and information, responsible for cultural heritage. Four years later, she returned to the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, where she continued to work until retirement. She was the first trained ethnologist in the territory of the Municipality of Knjaževac.

She was born in 1951 in Belgrade, where she graduated in 1976 from the Ethnology Department of the Faculty of Philosophy at the University of Belgrade. After completing her internship at the Ethnographic Museum, she spent part of her professional career—from 1977 to 1992—as an ethnologist curator at the Museum of the City of Sarajevo. While working at this institution, in addition to managing the ethnological collection, she conducted research into urban and rural culture, with particular emphasis on clothing and housing culture. She joined the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade in 1994, where she worked until her retirement in 2016. At the museum, she was responsible for the collections of traditional costumes from western Serbia and Bosnia and Herzegovina. She was awarded the title of Museum adviser in 2003 and was appointed Director of the museum in 2008. She has been a permanent associate of the Serbian Association of Amateur Artists and the Belgrade Association of Amateur Artists in the field of traditional costume, and in this capacity has served several times as a jury member at traditional arts showcases and folklore festivals. During her term, in 2011, the annual meeting of the ICOM costume committee was organized at the museum.

Miroslav Tasić was born in Belgrade in 1951, and in 1982 he graduated from the Faculty of Law аt the University of Belgrade. He joined the Ethnographic Museum in 1983 as a legal officer. For many years he was secretary of the museum, until 2012 when he was appointed as the State Secretary in the Ministry of Culture and Information. After that, in 2013, he was appointed director of the Ethnographic Museum.

Mirjana Menković was born in Zemun. She graduated in Ethnology in 1980, and in 1987 she began her internship at the Ethnographic Museum. From 1992 onward, she was responsible for the collections of traditional costumes from Kosovo and Metohija, Montenegro, and Macedonia. In 2004, she completed her master’s degree with a thesis entitled Dress in Prizren, 1880–1941, having obtained the title of senior curator two years earlier. She acquired the title of museum advisor in 2008, and in 2013 she earned her PhD with a dissertation entitled „The Contemporary Woman: Gender relations in Serbia in the twentieth century in the light of anthropological research and women’s magazines“. She earned the title of scientific associate in 2020. He deals with the topics of the history of clothing and fashion in the 19th and 20th centuries in Southeastern Europe, as well as topics from ethnographic museology.

Marko Krstić was born in Belgrade, where he completed primary and secondary school, and then the Faculty of Philology of the University of Belgrade, at the Department of General Literature and Literary Theory. He was one of the founders of the literary group P–70. He worked as the head of the editorial office and editor of major publications at the publishing house Data Status. He was the president of the Board of Directors of the Desanka Maksimović Endowment and worked as a copywriter at the publishing houses Laguna and Službeni glasnik. At the Public Enterprise “Službeni glasnik”, he was also the executive director of literary and artistic editions. Before becoming the head of the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade, he was a member of its Board of Directors, and he also served as the director of the Institute for the Study of Cultural Development. He is also known as the author of the novels Viktorija and Mundo libre, and then as the editor of the anthology Agape, by Aleksandar Gajšek.