United for those in Needs: Learn, Open, Care, Keep – the Museum Mediator as Diversity Integrator Erasmus Project

Project Title

United for those in Needs: Learn, Open, Care, Keep – the Museum Mediator as
Diversity Integrator

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 : Strategic Partnerships for vocational education and training

Project Call Year

This project’s Call Year is 2020

Project Topics

This project is related with these Project Topics: Inclusion – equity; Intercultural/intergenerational education and (lifelong)learning; Access for disadvantaged

Project Summary

“United for those in Needs: Learn, Open, Care, Keep – the Museum Mediator as Diversity Integrator” – the reason the project partners chose this title is based on the fact that people with special needs are everywhere, while their needs are more or less recognized and accepted by the society where such people live. It is not a chance that we chose these four verbs, which define our partnership.
We want to LEARN, from each other, we want to share our knowledge, and thus we shall become all better.
We want to OPEN our eyes, our minds, so that we become as adaptative as possible to the target audience’s needs.
We want to show them that we CARE, they need to know that they can count on us.
We want to KEEP doing this after the end of the project, as we are convinced our project is a sustainable one.
Since the project is a continuation of a previous project that the leader and three of the project partners undertook together, we decided we should try to take the concept of Museum Mediator to the next step, so that it answers the challenges of the contemporary world. This new level is one where the museum/ cultural specialist becomes the Diversity Integrator. The contemporary society needs to be inclusive, integrative, it cannot afford to leave people aside, whatever the reason of discrimination.
We have reached such a phase of civilization where everyone should have understood that each person has its rights in this world, that sometimes providing equal opportunities is not providing the same tools to everyone, but the same perspective, meaning if a person is tall and can see everything and one is short and cannot see because of somebody or something taller that hinders the view, then the shorter person must be provided “higher heels”, or a stool, or a table to step on, so that the view he/she has access to is similar to the one of the taller person. This is a metaphorical way of speaking about the rights of people with special needs. But their rights should not be metaphorical, should not elliptical, they should be provided in full by all civilized societies!
This is a project about the qualitative experience persons with special needs are entitled to enjoy in museums and cultural organizations in the contemporary society. Museums are vectors of societal development, are catalyzers and have an exemplary role in shaping consciousness. Therefore, museums should act for assuming this role actively and in our particular case, the project teams wants to create the context for providing better experiences in museum environments for people who generally are prone to various forms of exclusion (for medical or social reasons).

EU Grant (Eur)

Funding of the project from EU: 254695 Eur

Project Coordinator

COMPLEXUL MUZEAL NATIONAL MOLDOVA IASI & Country: RO

Project Partners

• SC BEACON WAVE SRL-D
• ESPACIO ROJO
• FUNDACIÓN UXÍO NOVONEYRA
• CPA di Giuseppina Bomba
• Österreichisches Museum für Volkskunde
• weltgewandt. Institut für interkulturelle politische Bildung e.V.
• INSIEME PER CAMMINARE