How are museum and heritage professionals around the world responding to current societal challenges, such as the climate crisis and social inequalities? How do museums critically engage with their own histories and reflect on their role in society in the face of these challenges? How can they handle collections created and collected during colonial times in more caring and ethical ways? How do they navigate and react to contestations over certain histories and heritage? This exchange programme brings together a group of young museum and heritage professionals from around the world to reflect on these questions and to exchange knowledge and experiences regarding their working practices.
Participant Phumzile Nombuso Twala of the 2023 edition, shares her knowledge about the photos of Ernest Cole on display at the Iziko South African National Gallery in Cape Town.
About the programme
Urgent societal challenges such as the climate crisis, social injustice, economic inequality and the threat to democracy are urging museum and heritage professionals to reflect on their role in society and on their own working practices. Many of these issues have a deep connection to our recent and less recent past, and to the histories and practices of museums themselves. The 2024 edition of the Sharing Stories on Contested Histories programme will explore how striving for equity may look like in our work, by stimulating and facilitating an exchange of knowledge, tools and experiences regarding our professional practices.
This touches on many aspects of museum and heritage work, such as exhibition-making, public programming, research and developing (international) collaborations. It involves reflecting on our positionality and acknowledging the institution’s own entanglements with these histories – think, for example, of museums founded in colonial times to support colonial policies and handling historic objects and belongings that are now at the centre of restitution debates. It requires developing practices of care, inclusivity and accessibility, and sometimes imagining new concepts and professional practices that speak to different challenges and needs.
The increasing focus on notions of care and reparative practices is an important and urgent development in the museum and heritage sectors. Yet it is also a challenging task, as it often involves navigating opposing perspectives and different kinds of tensions and emotions, and sometimes facing resistance from within or outside one’s organisation. The Sharing Stories on Contested Histories programme brings together a group of young museum and heritage professionals and (independent) researchers and curators from different countries around the world to facilitate an exchange on the work practices involved in addressing these challenges. We believe that exchanging knowledge and experience with peers working in different contexts can be really impactful. It can lead to the development of new insights, practices and tools, while learning about each other’s (entangled) histories and building more equitable relations.
We will address these issues by using real case studies from different contexts and from the participants themselves. Through lectures given by invited speakers from around the world, contributions from the participants, listening sessions, site visits in the Netherlands, workshops and team projects, this programme facilitates a space for learning and unlearning, reflecting, exploring and experimenting, while developing new ideas, tools and practices together. The programme will involve working together on concrete shared challenges within the professional practices of the participants, and sharing insights and results with a larger group.
One underlying theme of this programme is an awareness of and ability to deal with contested or violent histories because of the way that these often relate to ongoing forms of inequality and injustice. Furthermore, we will reflect on the impact of such contestations in different contexts. We will focus particularly on colonial histories, because of their entangled character and the way they impacted and continue to impact societies around the world, albeit in different ways.
The programme is structured around four key interconnected themes that speak to different yet overlapping roles and tasks of museums and professionals:
Self-reflecting: Acknowledging our positionality, colonial histories and their afterlives in the present, including of and within the museum itself.
Activating: Developing practices of care and repair in which museums and heritage institutions can contribute to tackling urgent societal challenges (including within the institution itself).
Co-creating: Sharing power, making space, building communities and more equitable relations on different levels (local, national, international).
(Re-)imagining: Exploring and creatively speculating on how museums can be something else and do differently.
This programme is conceptualised for young museum and heritage professionals, researchers and independent practitioners who are actively dealing with the issues described above. We expect participants to have at least three years of work experience in this field and to actively contribute to the programme by bringing in examples and reflections from their own practice, including questions or challenges they are facing or projects that they are working on.
Professionals based in or from one of the following countries: Australia, Belgium, Brazil, China, Egypt, France, Germany, Ghana, Hungary, India, Italy, Indonesia, Japan, Morocco, the Kingdom of the Netherlands (both European and Caribbean regions of the Netherlands), Poland, Russia*, Spain, Sri Lanka, Suriname, Ukraine, Turkey, United Kingdom, United States, South Africa and South Korea.
*Cooperation with Russian state institutions and organisations is currently suspended (see the letter of the State Secretary, in Dutch.) We will consider applications from Russian professionals and academics working in private and independent organisations or independently.
Sharing Stories on Contested Histories is a project of the International Heritage Cooperation programme of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), executed together with the Reinwardt Academy (Amsterdam University of the Arts). With different editions in 2018, 2019, 2021 and 2022, Sharing Stories on Contested Histories approaches challenges in the field of cultural heritage that are widely shared by bringing together professionals from different countries to exchange perspectives and develop new knowledge and practices together. These challenges are not confined within national borders, and we believe that it is only by joining forces and learning and unlearning from each other that we can fully benefit from the potential of cultural heritage to address societal challenges. Sharing Stories on Contested Histories aims to contribute to an international dialogue on the practices involved in navigating complex histories and their legacies today, and to strengthen the international heritage community.
Participants of the Sharing Stories on Contested Histories-training in 2019
Set up and dates of the 2024 edition
More information regarding the content of the programme will be added here when ready.
The programme includes online sessions across five weeks and a one-week physical programme in the Netherlands. It is made up of the following parts:
Preparation: ahead of the start of the programme, participants will receive reading, listening and watching materials.
Online sessions: 5 sessions which will explore different issues and topics by examining and discussing concrete case studies from different countries. During these sessions, the participants will get to know each other and learn about the work they are doing. This module provides the foundation for module 2.
One-week programme in the Netherlands: live programme in Amsterdam, the Netherlands. During this full week, participants will be working on real case studies and challenges that they will bring and encounter in the Netherlands.
Wrap-up: 1 online gathering at the beginning of December to reflect on and share outputs of the programme. Date to be confirmed.
The programme is case-oriented and practical in approach, comprising the following elements:
Lectures will offer both theoretical reflection as well as case-studies
Listening sessions and discussions will ensure reflection and exchange amongst the participants
Practical and immersive workshops will lead to deeper insight
Fieldwork and excursions will offer interactive experiences
Team work will offer opportunities for co-creation and learning and unlearning with and from each other.
Literature will be provided in advance for orientation and self-study.
The online sessions will take place between 12:00 and 14:00 CET on Thursdays and Fridays on the following dates:
26 and 27 September
3 and 4 October
10 and 11 October
17 and 18 October
31 October and 1 November
The live programme in the Netherlands will take place from 9 to 17 November.
How to apply
The programme will accept a minimum of 15 participants. To apply for the training, candidates are invited to submit a motivation letter (maximum of 2 A4 pages) and a CV to Sofia Lovegrove by 29 June 2024.
Please include the following information in your CV:
Personal information: full name, address, email address, gender, date of birth
Education
Relevant work experience
Level of English
The motivation letter should address the following questions and be no longer than 2 pages:
Work experience: Please write about your current responsibilities and day-to-day work and how they relate to the topics of this programme. Please provide us with a brief summary of your most important career stages up until now.
Motivation: Why do you want to join this programme?
Goals: What are your specific goals for your participation in this programme? What do you hope to gain from this programme?
Challenges: Which challenges are you faced with in your work that you would like to further address during your participation?
Benefits: How would you use your experience of Sharing Stories on Contested Histories to benefit your work and organisation?
Exchange: What do you feel are the benefits and challenges of participating in an international exchange programme on these topics?
Is there any further information that you would like to share?
The participants will be selected on the basis of the following criteria:
The candidate works in the museum, heritage, or academic field in one of the countries listed above.
The candidate is proficient in the English language, both written and spoken, since all participants are expected to actively participate in all parts of the programme.
The candidate has at least three years of relevant work experience.
The candidate is available for the entire duration of the programme.
Motivation and level of involvement in the topics addressed in the training.
We will seek to create a balanced representation in the group of participants, taking notice of country, age and gender.
The deadline to apply is 29 June 2024, to ensure sufficient time to make the necessary travel arrangements. The results of the selection will be communicated in the second week of July 2024. An interview may be part of the selection process.
The costs for accommodation in Amsterdam, breakfast, lunch and local transportation (between 9 and 17 November) are covered by the organisers. Participants are expected to cover for their travels to the Netherlands (including visa and insurance costs) as well as some of the meals during their stay. In circumstances where participants are not able to cover for their travel costs, we will explore possibilities of financial support.
About the organisers
This programme is put together and facilitated by Sofia Lovegrove of the RCE and Ruben Smit of the Reinwardt Academy. The programme will also include other facilitators and the contribution of many museum and heritage professionals and researchers from different countries. Their names will be shared once confirmed.
Sofia Lovegroveworks at the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Dutch Ministry of Education, Culture and Science, where she is project leader of the Slavery Memorial Year and the programme Sharing Stories on Contested Histories. Originally trained in Archeology in Portugal and the United Kingdom, she did a second MA degree in Heritage and Memory Studies at the University of Amsterdam. As a heritage professional, her work focuses on the colonial past and its afterlives in the present, and on developing ways to ensure that heritage (practices) become inclusive, plurivocal and representative of current societies. She also works as an independent researcher and project manager, where she centres around the restitution debate and decolonial and reparative practices of (international) collaboration. She is an alumni of TheMuseumsLab 2022 and a founding member of the collective Disrupting & Reorienting Restitution.
Ruben Smit is Senior Lecturer and International Knowledge-Exchange Programmes Manager at the Reinwardt Academy (Amsterdam University of the Arts). Originally trained as a teacher in History and Geography, he obtained his post-graduate degree (with honours) in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester (United Kingdom). He has been lecturing for the last 18 years at the Reinwardt Academy and has previously held a number of managerial functions in the museum sector. In his capacity as senior trainer, he has a long-standing experience with work in countries like China, Indonesia, Morocco and Russia. His main professional interest are focused on: audience development and participation, museum exhibiting and interpretation, learning and education, and international training and knowledge sharing.
About the facilitating organisations
The Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE) is closely involved in listing, preserving, sustainably developing, and providing access to cultural heritage in this country. The agency is the link between policymakers, academics, and practitioners, providing advice, knowledge, and information, and performing certain statutory duties. The Sharing Stories on Contested Histories programme falls within the RCE’s International Heritage Cooperation programme, that in turn stems from the International Cultural Policy of the Netherlands. Responsibility for the Netherlands’ international cultural policy is jointly shared by the Minister of Foreign Affairs (Buitenlandse Zaken | BZ), the Minister for Foreign Trade and Development Cooperation (Buitenlandse Handel en Ontwikkelingssamenwerking | BHOS) and the Minister of Education, Culture and Science (Onderwijs, Cultuur en Wetenschap | OCW). In the International Cultural Policy 2021-2024, the RCE has been appointed as one of the executing agencies on the topic of cultural heritage. Other executive organisations are: National Archives, DutchCulture, the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage (Kenniscentrum Immaterieel Erfgoed Nederland | KIEN) and the Dutch embassies in the partner countries.
The Reinwardt Academy is a knowledge-, research-, and training centre of cultural heritage in the Netherlands. This vocational university is located in Amsterdam and offers the only bachelor’s programme on cultural heritage available in the Netherlands, as well as a master’s programme on Applied Museum and Heritage studies. Additionally, the Reinwardt Academy operates as a platform for (inter)national heritage professionals to exchange knowledge and experience.
FAQ: Sharing Stories on Contested Histories edition 2024
A participant cannot attend the programme part-time. If you must miss some hours of the programme, you are expected to catch up on the materials on your own time.
If you do not fit one or more of the requirements, the organising team can consider your application based on your professional qualifications. However, the applications that meet all requirements will be prioritised.
The complete programme will be shared in the coming months. Since this online edition accommodates multiple time zones, the schedule can involve irregular work hours for some participants (early in the morning, or late in the evening).
The online part of the 2024 edition will take place via an online communications platform. We will use social media platforms such as WhatsApp for information or quick communication.
Participants will receive a certificate of completion for the programme.
An overview of reading, listening and watching materials will be shared before the start of the programme. Participants are expected to prepare for the programme before and during its duration.
Yes, you can apply for the programme.
Yes, you can apply for the programme. However, the organising team will prioritise applications from candidates who are citizens of partner countries.
