Community engagement gradually becomes a mainstay in the public programs of heritage institutions worldwide. A variety of methods and good practices have been developed to successfully engage the bewildering variety of communities and publics that such institutions address. Still, the uncritical application of “toolkits” for effective engagement is perhaps not the ethically appropriate way to incorporate cultural differences in the field. In this hybrid (physical/ online) program, we aim to develop a different approach to community engagement, that is based on social and artistic research with community-led initiatives. Research-led practice can lead to exhibition design and collaborative actions that are better suited to the cultural and social particularities of each milieu and each specific group or community and its relation to others. This course draws from our long experience with community engagement through heritage and will discuss several examples from our own and other work. In this hybrid program we collaborate with a citizen’s initiative, the Paros Festival, from the Greek island of Paros. This is an art and heritage festival organized from below, with a remarkable volunteer base and significant impact on the town community, and with the local oral history initiative Ai Mnimai (the memories). Both initiatives will help discuss the ways in which research can lead to collective modes of knowledge creation and the preservation of local heritage. During the course, participants will familiarize themselves with the context of community engagement through heritage, will discuss methodologies based on ethnography and oral history, will engage in practical exercises, and will be called to produce multimedia content based on interviews conducted with the guidance of the instructors. The duration of the course is two weeks, with daily meetings, exercises, and assignments both in situ and online. Online fora will take place three times a week with enough time for online participants to work on their readings and assignments.
In-person students: They will participate in on-site ethnographic and oral history research. They will be trained to use various ethnographic techniques such as direct and participant observation, interviews, focus groups.
Online students: They will delve into theory and practice in online short exercises in asynchronous mode. Online meetings will be arranged with instructors for further support and discussion.
Learning Outcomes
Participants will:
- be introduced to the principles of community engagement and heritage values,
- be presented with a dynamic mode of interdisciplinary research tailored to community needs,
- practically engage in conducting collaborative research,
- be involved in community engagement initiatives,
- receive training on applied ethnography,
- conduct oral history interviews,
- learn to document personal narratives and material objects,
- learn to file and catalogue the oral history archive,
- practice the curation of multimedia content and create narratives for online, exhibitions and/or podcasts
- ponder on the possibilities of cultural heritage becoming part of online, repositories and temporary exhibitions
For questions regarding the application process and the administrative aspects of the course, contact us at info@heritagemanagement.org.
Los anuncios del ICCROM son un servicio para las instituciones profesionales de nuestros Estados miembros. Los anuncios son una lista de avisos o eventos sobre temas relacionados con la conservación en todo el mundo. Se ponen a disposición del público de ICCROM únicamente con fines informativos. La publicación de un artículo en los Anuncios no implica la aprobación del ICCROM sobre su contenido.
El ICCROM se reserva el derecho de moderar el contenido publicado en los Anuncios y puede eliminar o editar cualquier contenido por cualquier razón o sin ella, incluyendo, pero sin limitarse a ello, lo que se considere fuera del ámbito o inconsistente con el estatus intergubernamental del ICCROM