Date: 29 September 2023
Venue: The National Museum of Lithuania, The Old Arsenal (Arsenalo street 3, Vilnius)
EUROPAST Workshop: Contested History in Museums
An increasing number of researchers and practitioners agree that museum visitors are not only passive consumers of history, but can also contribute to its creation, preservation and communication. This opportunity becomes extremely significant when developing museum narratives about complex historical periods that receive controversial public assessments. How can we ensure that these narratives include different voices and help to unite rather than divide various groups of society?
This EUROPAST workshop seeks to enhance the competencies of museum employees (in particular, curators, guides and educators, communication and marketing managers) and decision-makers relevant for the construction of narratives about controversial periods of history and for initiating co-creation projects. The event will explore the concept of public history and its practices, the current state of the politics of history, stakeholder engagement and similar topics.
Dr. Kristiane Janeke delivered the keynote speech and led the workshop. She is a historian and practitioner with much experience working in German and international museums and deep knowledge of the specificities of Eastern European museology. Her interests include the politics of history, culture of remembrance, museum studies, intercultural communication, German-Eastern European cultural exchange, presentation of war in museums, exhibition, and museum management.
After the workshop, expert recommendations for public history practitioners were created. See and download them below:
PRESENTING “CONTESTED HISTORY” IN MUSEUMS: Recommendations for Practitioners 2023.
Partner of the workshops – the National Museum of Lithuania. Workshops are part of a project that has received funding from the European Union under the WIDERA programme (EUROPAST project, Grant Agreement No. 101079466). EUROPAST is carried out collaboratively by Vilnius University (coordinator, Lithuania), Leibniz Centre for Contemporary History (Germany), Lund University (Sweden), and Luxembourg Centre for Contemporary and Digital History (C²DH, Luxembourg). To learn more, click here.
