Report

Teaser, summary, work performed and final results

Periodic Reporting for period 1 - REACH (Re-designing access to CH for a wider participation in preservation, (re)use and management ofEuropean culture)

Teaser

The REACH project is based on the proposition that cultural heritage (CH) plays an important role in contributing to social integration in Europe, and that a fuller and more detailed picture of the range, type and impact of research and participatory research methodologies...

Summary

The REACH project is based on the proposition that cultural heritage (CH) plays an important role in contributing to social integration in Europe, and that a fuller and more detailed picture of the range, type and impact of research and participatory research methodologies, current and future, associated with these subjects, will further enhance their potential for social good. The REACH project aims to establish a Social Platform as a sustainable space for meeting, discussion and collaboration by a wide-ranging network of development tourism bodies, education, creative industries, policymakers, CH professionals, academic experts, arts practitioners, professionals in archives and galleries, and associations, local societies and interest groups representative of non-professionals– all those with a stake in research and practice in the field of culture and CH.

REACH consists of three practical areas of work:
• development of a sustainable REACH network aggregating the widest range of stakeholders and audiences, and offering concrete participatory experiences through the REACH pilots (Minority, Institutional, Rural and Small Towns’ Heritage)
• implementation of a programme of public encounters (workshops, conferences and meeting with local stakeholders) focusing on participatory approaches to preservation, (re-)use, and management of CH
• publication of the REACH online portal (reach-culture.eu and open-heritage.eu websites) to give access to open spaces for debate, dialogue, interaction and experimentation, and provide a repository of resources to be exploited in research activities.

Work performed

The project’s website – www.reach-culture.eu – was developed to provide an introduction to and an overview of REACH activity. Dissemination materials and presentations were put together, text was prepared for formal Associate partner agreements, to enable sharing with CH stakeholders. Partners have also contributed to blog posts that reflected both REACH and associated activities.

A database was established to record findings from prior CH related projects, included those less well known, but from which lessons that could be learned. With a view to the final project outcome, the REACH proposal for Resilient European Cultural Heritage, three pillars were drawn up (milieu, resilience and participation) to critically map prior projects that involved initiatives that were bottom up, rather than top down. The development of participatory models built upon this analysis and was designed as an iterative process. As activity took place across the project, feedback received helped to provide greater definition for these models.

The Minority Heritage pilot works with the Hodász Roma Country House that preserves Roma traditions and also in the 8th District of Budapest. The Institutional Heritage pilot works with large international and local community museums, comparing participatory influences to extract best practice examples. The Rural Heritage pilot works with farmers/irrigator communities to organise them, bringing them together in response to environmental threats such as drought. The Small Towns’ Heritage pilot works with Associate partners across Europe to understand what small towns consider to be their own heritage. The remit for each pilot was to experiment and this has taken place through Local Encounters, held in local languages, and by working closely with stakeholders. All of this knowledge and understanding has been fed back into interlinked REACH tasks to build towards its designated outcomes.

The opening conference was held in Budapest. One of its remits was to involve many voices; it did this by inviting other projects to present posters and videos on related CH topics and through a dual themed world café discussion that considered social cohesion and resilience in practice.

The Berlin workshop invited European institutions to discuss the advantages and disadvantages of participation within the management of CH. The Coventry workshop’s objective was to discuss creativity, entrepreneurial (re-)use of CH, including consideration of intellectual property.

With the remit to build a network of stakeholders, the REACH project, in partnership with the European Commission, co-organised, a symposium in Brussels entitled Horizons for Heritage Research – Towards a Cluster on Cultural Heritage. Discussion was wide ranging, but included the notion of building a broad stakeholder cluster and strategy for CH related research debate on important questions.

Aligned with building this cluster is the social platform website - www.open-heritage.eu. The REACH project has built this portal to share information about the CH sector, to sustain results, not just of REACH, but also of other live and prior projects, for the benefit of the sector and the wider population. With the portal now in place, its content is expected to grow organically; it will be an important strand in building a community of common interest.

Final results

The development of the REACH proposal for a resilient European CH, will draw upon tested participatory models. It will chiefly be aimed at the EC, national bodies, and regional agencies. The proposal should provide a contribution to a new European agenda on participatory approaches to CH and social innovation. It will also contribute to the REACH participatory toolkit.

During the symposium, a new coordination structure for CH research stakeholders was proposed, and the agreement of delegates was sought on formalising it. The manifesto called for a permanent and sustainable governance structure for CH research, which would facilitate dialogue, discourse, and co-creation, and which would endure beyond the lifetime of any individual, funded project. The REACH social platform will continue to coordinate this discussion, both to benefit the CH sector and as one of the sustainable results of the project.

Open-heritage.eu is the website dedicated to link resources; both produced by the REACH project and gathered through its networking activities. It is intended to support the sustainability of the results of the project after the end of the EC funding period. As good practice cases, pertinent documents and other resources are gathered by REACH and Associate partners, the broader range of contributions will enhance the social platform and lead it to becoming a valuable resource for CH stakeholders and the wider public.

The REACH academic partners are working on a number of scientific articles and publications, based upon the project’s work and include contributions from the Associate network. The results will be used within a wider academic community.

The four participatory pilots will produce outputs to reflect activities within their stakeholder communities.
• The Small Towns’ Heritage pilot’s book will include chapters from European Associate partners, outlining their perceptions of their own cultural heritage.
• The Minority Heritage pilot is collecting stories and chapters from Associate partners to create a book/manual that reflects Hungarian Roma culture.
• The Rural Heritage pilot’s data on how local lives have changed within irrigator communities and (re-)use of landscapes will support political lobbying.
• The Institutional Heritage pilot’s participatory guidelines will support small voluntary and older traditional museums’ in shaping activities.

Website & more info

More info: http://www.reach-culture.eu.