Research on Creative, Innovative and Sustainable Practices to get adults (back) in touch with heritage Erasmus Project

Project Title

Research on Creative, Innovative and Sustainable Practices to get adults (back) in touch with heritage

Project Key Action

This project related with these key action: Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices

Project Action Type

This project related with this action type : Partnerships for Creativity

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Access for disadvantaged; EU Citizenship, EU awareness and Democracy; Inclusion – equity

Project Summary

CRISP
Research on Creative, Innovative and Sustainable Practices to get adults (back) in touch with heritage. Strategic partnership KA2 – Cooperation for innovation and the exchange of good practices. KA227 – Partnerships for Creativity (Adult education)

Due to the corona crisis, almost all cultural heritage institutions have seen a huge decline in their visitor numbers. This concerns museums as well as galleries, archives, and libraries. This decline relates to all types of visitors and users but especially to adults. In many cases, it is 50% or more. Even after restrictions have been lifted, the audience does not return immediately, and the expectations for the future are not very hopeful. The institutions are doing their best to remain in the public’s attention in other ways, with great or smaller degrees of success. The question is whether this will be done in a sustainable manner and whether certain population groups are not excluded. Recent studies show that the pandemic has a major impact on a target group that can already be seen as vulnerable. While it is especially important for this target group to have social contacts and come into contact with culture, this is now seriously complicated by the circumstances.

Sustainability and inclusion
It sometimes seems as if every institution is re-inventing the wheel. Do people learn from each other or do they panic and try everything? Is there an exchange of experiences between heritage institutions? Success stories are shared enthusiastically on social media, but the results are often disappointing in the long term. Moreover, little is heard about what did not work. Visiting heritage institutions via online media is very well possible for the public that is already acquainted with this way of accessing information. But what about the elderly or people with less technical skills or opportunities? Or with no economical possibilities? How inclusive are these developments? And what about the audience that failed to show sufficient interest and initiative to visit?

Creativity and vision
Although we have seen many interesting initiatives, we should ask ourselves whether all creative possibilities to address this issue have really been exhausted. Moreover, we might and should take inspiration from beyond our own sector and look at what we learn from each other in an efficient, effective, and creative way. Should we not ask ourselves the more existential question of whether the way in which we have interacted with the public can be sustained into the future? A central question is whether the historical concept of a museum, as a building where one is allowed to experience curated collections of objects, is still of this time. Even after the crisis – particularly after this crisis – we should think of ways to make heritage more accessible but also financially and organizationally more affordable. If heritage institutions are to re-invent themselves, now probably is the time.

The CRISP project
CRISP extensively researches initiatives in the cultural heritage sector focusing on good practice. This research takes place completely using online sources, but we will also interview those responsible – users, people within the industry, and political stakeholders. Also, an extensive survey among users and non-users will be carried out; we are interested as much in practices that don’t work as in those that do, as both will teach us important lessons going forward. We are especially – but by no means exclusively – interested in the experiences of adults that are facing economic, social, or health issues. Using four training activities, we will discuss the outcome of our investigations and prepare conclusions.

– March 2021 Amsterdam NL
Start of the project. Meeting combined with training 1: Identification. Presentation of existing research and publications. Identification of target groups and their needs.
Exchange of experiences. Discussion about the research methods. Attention for sustainability and inclusion. Cross-sectoral approach. Result: workplan.
– June 2021 Plunge LIT
Project management meeting, progress, combined with training 2: Methods. Discussing the results of a quick scan. What are interesting examples in the field in all
heritage sectors? How to describe them comprehensively and in a structured way? At least ten descriptions per partner. Result: choice of best practices and method of describing them.
– November 2021 Athens GR
Project management meeting, progress, combined with training 3: Results. Discussing the results of our research. What do good practices have in common? What is
successful in terms of impact on the target group? Result: synthesis, conclusions, workplan for dissemination, website.
– February 2022 Valletta MLT
Final project meeting, conclusions, combined with training 4: Evaluation and follow-up. Making the final presentation. How will this effect the target group? How can we amplify this effect? How to keep the website active?

Project Website

http://crisp-project.eu

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 60777,15 Eur

Project Coordinator

Quiosq & Country: NL

Project Partners

• Plunges rajono savivaldybes viesoji biblioteka
• Koinoniki Synetairistiki Epicheirisi Erevnas kai Politismou
• ASSOCIAZIONE CULTURALE EDUVITA E.T.S.
• STICHTING HOGER ONDERWIJS NEDERLAND
• VisMedNet Association