Well I just got excited.. Collaborative approaches to cultural heritage for social cohesion

In our session on the Culture Squad this afternoon with @noemi and @alex_levene, I happened upon this call as I was scanning for examples of potential H2020 projects associated to culture.

As I’ve delved in deeper it actually looks like it could be very interesting and feasible for us to consider either a) building a concept and consortium around it or b) scoping out consortia being built and offering our value add.

Collaborative approaches to cultural heritage for social cohesion

In summary:

Specific Challenge:
While a key mission of the cultural heritage sector is to provide inclusive access, some socio-cultural groups are still not sufficiently integrated in cultural heritage experiences. The challenge is to improve the design of cultural experiences by enhancing participatory and collaborative approaches and by fostering mutual cultural understanding and resilient strategies.

Scope:
Proposals should develop strategies for fostering collaborative and participative approaches to cultural encounters via communication channels such as social media platforms, participatory approaches, art and co-designed activities. Proposals should consider both tangible and intangible heritage, researching new applications and tools that allow for a more inclusive approach such as digital tagging of objects or co-authoring of societal and place-based memories. The active involvement and engagement with, different groups or communities such as migrants and other communities at risk of exclusion should be promoted. Proposals should design options for these social groups to review or shape both contemporary and historical content, contribute new material or customise and personalise cultural heritage and digital humanities content in a meaningful and effective way. Collaborative tools and applications should help the cultural tourism sectors and cultural heritage institutions, NGOs, community organisations etc. in Europe and beyond to enhance the analysis and understanding of cultures and communities.

The Commission considers that proposals requesting a contribution from the EU of between EUR 3 and 4 million would allow this specific challenge to be addressed appropriately. Nonetheless, this does not preclude submission and selection of proposals requesting other amounts.

Expected Impact:
The action will contribute to fostering cultural diversity and social cohesion and to the recognition of multiple identities and voices. It will also have a positive impact on cultural institutions by attracting contributions from and boosting involvement of new audiences. In addition, the action will provide disciplines such as computing, design and the social science and humanities with new research tools.

What are your thoughts @alberto @noemi @alex_levene @bob @natalia_skoczylas @hugi@nabeel_p @matteo_uguzzoni @mariacoenen @Sofien-Dahem @HadeerGhareeb @kate_g @iriedawta (And can someone please forward to Annette Mees?)

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Good catch. Be mindful of the difference between “culture” and “cultural heritage”. In Italy, the latter swallows 80% of the public budget and is a very closed space, inhabited by moneyed organizations who are sitting on (a) old, prestigious buildings or (b) libraries and archives (that’s your “intangible” part. In Italy, that does not mean your friend’s theater company, it means the National TV’s audio-video archive). Both need a lot of money to maintain.

Maybe an alliance with a capital of culture?

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Absolutely hear you re: the difference and most of my masters was focused on experimental, participatory and citizen-led approaches to cultural and environmental heritage because of your very point.

Rijeka, Croatia (ECoC 2020) are doing interesting things in terms of participatory governance in culture and I have some contacts from when I presented at their conference. @noemi you may remember my mentioning them back in November. What are your thoughts on potential alliance there in this context?

I think I could talk to my friend who just became a director of a theater in Anderlecht - Zinnema. He’s doing pretty radical and experimental stuff there, letting people from minorities lead the programming and now trying to create a program for Brussels where non-professionals would be showcased in main performative arts venues. That’s possibly a partner. I can also poke around Berlin and Poland, I’ve made some interesting contacts recently in the art scene. I’m now out for the weekend, but maybe we can have a call next week to compare notes and see how we imagine it progress?

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This sounds great (!) @natalia_skoczylas and yes I’d be more than happy to have a call to think further on it together. Anyone else that’d be interested in joining let us know here and then we schedule around shared availabilities

I think i could offer a physical place in the UK that would be interested in exploring this type of research and practical application. And could be a good opportunity to intersect Edgeryders and home for me.
I’ve got some skin in the game on questions around both 'how do we better integrate and make space for the voices of refugees and asylum seekers" and also the inevitable “making space for EU voices in a post-Brexit landscape”
How that fits in with other options on the mainland and further afield is part of the work that could be developed, but i think between those of us talking on here we’ve got the basis of an attractive team to bring other partners on board

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