Social Connections
Community Access Scheme for Historic Royal Palaces: Exploring the Social Impact of Participation in Heritage Sites
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Jatinder Kailey, Kim Klug
‘Community Access Scheme’ is a programme delivered by Historic Royal Palaces aimed at engaging local community members who experience real or perceived barriers with our palaces. In addition to providing free entry to the palace, this programme engages people with the stories, collections and historic spaces in ways that are meaningful and relevant to them. This paper will draw on 12 years’ worth of experience developing and delivering The Community Access Scheme and explores our approach and impact to sustainable community engagement. Our success relies on working in mutually beneficial partnerships with local community groups to reach new audiences and to meet shared agendas relating to inclusion, reducing social isolation and empowering audiences. We present with one of our group leaders / partners, who can share their perspective of the Community Access Scheme. Together we explore how by making heritage relevant and accessible to people who would not normally visit the palace or see it as a place of interest for them, we can help build more resilient individuals, organisations and communities. This work explores how heritage sites can build new local audiences from hard-to-reach communities by enabling them to create meaningful connections with stories and collections. In turn, communities can help heritage sites see a new value and purpose in what they offer society by being relevant in the modern world.
A Naturally-Occuring Ecomuseum in Polish Spisz View Digital Media
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Janusz Barański
The topic of the paper is a naturally-occurring ecomuseum in the region of Spisz in southern Poland. With respect to the scope of the paper, this unique complex of museums encompasses the rustic household aesthetics, school regional chambers, a local family museum, and annual cultural events. All of these enterprises use artifacts from the past or their replicas, which constitute metonymic vehicles that connect the residents of Spisz with the local cultural legacy. They are part of a greater whole, i.e., the regional cultural heritage, which contains elements of folklore, traditional attire, architecture, aesthetic and ethical values, religious beliefs, the local dialect, etc. Indeed, the process of musealization, which is an inextricable aspect of the creation of cultural heritage, expands beyond the aforementioned protomuseal activities and forms a type of extended naturally-occurring ecomuseum.
Generating a Healing Gallery: Anti-Racist and Anti-Oppressive Education Through Participatory Artist Residencies
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Natasha S. Reid
Tensions and violence associated with racism and other forms of oppression are on the rise, deeply affecting individuals from equity-deserving groups. Within this divisive and increasingly oppressive social climate, museums and galleries have the potential to become spaces for care, transformative action, and healing. The research at the centre of this study is exploring how contemporary artists working with anti-racist and anti-oppressive practices that encourage social participation can promote shifts in cultural and social attitudes and behaviours. Three racialized artists working with anti-racist and anti-oppressive artistic practices were invited to engage in artist residencies in a university art gallery. Data collection processes included visitor and artist interviews, observations, and participatory action research with university students. Analysis of this data revealed how each artist utilized distinct strategies to engage publics in social participation to critically examine, dismantle, and prevent racism and other forms of oppression. They created spaces for visitors to join them in reflecting on and engaging in reciprocity, relationality, and well-being practices, generating a gallery space for healing and growth. As a storyteller, facilitator of rest, and nurturer, each artist created the conditions for visitors to collectively participate in artistic actions that promoted care, renewal, and reimagined futures, aligning with maternal gift economy principles. The artists’ participatory practices provide creative pedagogical methods for critiquing, disrupting, and transforming oppressive narratives and practices within and beyond museums and galleries. This study highlights artistic methods for supporting social participation, care, transformative action, and healing in museum and gallery education.
