The workshop on community engagement took place in the afternoon of the second day of the HerMa HUB conference, on 6 December 2019. Twenty groups and initiatives form Athens and various areas in Greece met at the newly refurbished conference room of the Workers Centre of Elefsina. The workshop was organized and moderated by Dr Aris Anagnostopoulos and Dr Lena Stefanou.

The central themes of the workshop were the methods employed by such groups in approaching local communities or the public in general, the difficulties they meet in their actions, and the prospects they see for the future.

Among the activities and approaches recorded to engage communities and publics were educational programs, oral histories, urban games, the opening of inaccessible buildings and sites for public visits, theatre and role-play, cooperation with local authorities or ambassadors, the revival of old customs, cultural walks and tours, festivals, crafts workshops, collaborative design, and digital communication platforms.

The issues the initiatives raised were many and very challenging: primarily economic in nature (fundraising, the lack of strategic planning and the lack of returns for local societies), but also strategic (lack of adequate vision and realistic planning); also, questions of the presence or lack of cooperation locally, the difficulty of cooperating with local authorities, the lack of experience in dealing with social issues (e.g. inequalities) and difficult heritage; the gamut of issues also touched upon access in a community and the acceptance of heritage projects (values and attitudes, varying aesthetic preferences, suspicion towards outsiders, and “closed” communities) as well as the lack of communication on various levels (the reception of actions by the public, the transference of specialized knowledge, ideological disagreements and conflicts).

The workshop closed with a brainstorming session and open discussion on the prospects and needs for further development of community engagement initiatives. The points participants touched upon were the need for a clear setting of goals and planning strategically, the development and exchange of skills and the re-evaluation of collaborations, training in economic management (business plans, management plans, and budgets) and sustainability; They also expressed the need for further networking and synergies amongst groups and initiatives, interdisciplinary approaches, communication tools to approach communities and publics as well as to gauge and measure the impact of heritage actions on local communities.

Describe your organisation and the unique work that it is doing.  Who and what are affected by the work?  How does/will the work impact people’s lives? 

We launched Peripatos in 2015 with the aim of applying contemporary practices and innovative approaches in disseminating and managing cultural heritage. Over the years, Peripatos has evolved, renewed, and travelled far, embraced by people and filled with stories. Today, Peripatos is a sociocultural enterprise that imagines, designs and implements cultural projects that serve society and its progress. Our projects are of cultural nature and express the values ​​of the community that hosts them with respect to the place and its environment. At the same time, our services are customised so as to add value to the partnering institution today, as well as long term.

Parallel to Peripatos I am working as a Business Consultant for Museums, Libraries, Archives Solutions at Uni Systems ICT company, where I am contributing to the digital transformation of cultural institutions and to the development of new products and services.

Tell us about a project that has benefited from the training you received from us?  Why was the project important?  Was there anything unusual or surprising about the execution of this project?

In 2016, Peripatos was selected to participate in the Tandem Turkey programme, and I travelled to Turkey as its representative. Tandem Turkey is one of the many sub-programmes of Tandem for Culture initiative, which is a cultural collaboration programme that strengthens civil society in Europe and neighbouring regions. It brings together cultural professionals from different countries to work together and implement pilot projects with a big impact. I formed a partnership with Esra from the women’s cooperative Özgür Kadın Kolektifi from Batman city of Eastern Turkey and together we proposed and got funding to implement The Hasankeyf Workshop project.

The Hasankeyf Workshop (Hasankeyf Atölyeleri) is an initiative to socially empower women of Hasankeyf in eastern Turkey through art workshops to express themselves and communicate the cultural heritage of their beautiful, historic village. The importance of the project was twofold, to support the self-expression and personal development of the women of this local community, and to advocate for the cultural heritage of Hasankeyf: a place under threat because of the Ilisu hydroelectric dam that begun operations in 2018. For this project, a total of 185 settlements in the area evacuated, including Hasankeyf, as the whole place will flood, submerging the entire cultural heritage of the region and disrupting its social cohesion.

The training I received from the MA in Heritage Management helped me in a number of ways. Firstly I was able to assess the stakeholders’ dynamics and implement a project that would support women’s need for creative outlet and link this with the greater situation happening in Hasankeyf. Through my project management class I had the tools to organise and manage a complex project involving the funding bodies, two implementing organisations, visiting trainers and the local community. The courses I had in museum management and museum education were the base of my training in designing and delivering the outreach programme of the project (art workshops, cooperative exhibition, short documentary, etc.).

One challenge Peripatos faced during the execution of this project was the financial management of the funding, as during this time there was capital control in Greece limiting us transferring money in Turkey. With my colleague, fellow alumna of the masters programme and Peripato’s managing director, Evangelia Pelentridou, we had to implement risk management practices to move forward with the project’s timeline and implementation. 

At this point I would like to highlight the fact that I met my colleague and partner in Peripatos, Evangelia through the MA in Heritage Management and during our work in The Heritage Management Organization. Together we envisioned of what Peripatos is today. 

Has your organisation worked on any other projects that are innovative, globally significant and can be replicated in a local market?

Peripatos has designed and implemented a series of projects both in Greece and abroad. Our services are customised so as to add value to the partnering institution today as well as long term, taking into account the values ​​of the community that hosts them with respect to the place and its environment. Thus we are able to both replicate and scale up our projects in any type of context and place.

Just to name some of our implementations, we enjoyed the most:

• The MemoArt Project (2015-2016), a project that highlights intangible cultural heritage elements in Stuttgart through the Start – Create Cultural Change Scholarship Program and later in Corfu under the auspices of the Municipality of Corfu, was our first international implementation. 
• After that was The Hasankeyf Workshop (2016-2017) in Turkey. We returned to the Tandem Turkey project with the project Mardin Pasaji (2018-2019) in collaboration with Diadrasis NGO, a participatory socio-cultural action to raise awareness for the youth of the city of Mardin about the importance of their city’s architectural heritage and cultural identity. 
• In 2019, in Amsterdam and Verona we designed and implemented a series of creative personal expression workshops, utilising the emotional benefits of art under the CRISALIS programme, which aims at social inclusion and empowerment of 12 female survivors of trafficking. 
• Our collaborations with the Tegea Archaeological Museum (2017) and the Milos Mining Museum (2018-2019) have also been important projects. We designed a series of cultural activities, such as an escape room within the museums for adults, museum educational programme, backpacks for families and museums in Greek, English and French to be sent to schools in Greece and abroad, thus approaching audiences of various ages and interests of the local community of Arcadia and Milos. 
• In Athens, we have worked in a large number of schools in various areas through the Open Schools Program (2016 – 2019) of the Municipality of Athens, as implemented by the Stavros Niarchos Foundation, the Athens Partnership, and the Latsis Foundation. We have implemented training programmes and summer camps on a variety of topics, such as Archeology, Olympism, Nature’s Ecosystems and the LandArt art movement.

What are the global issues that your project addresses (e.g., fighting climate change, preserving heritage and culture, promoting local participation, )?

Peripatos seeks to promote and manage the sociocultural heritage, since a cultural element is not completely understood outside the social frame that shaped it and there is no group, community or society lacking cultural creation and creativity. Nature is always present, completing the triptych that forms our work. In our work, we advocate access to cultural matters, gender issues, and inclusion; using cooperative, participatory methods, recycling and sustainability with responsible use of materials in our programmes.

Our goal in organizing HerMaHUB 2019 was to locate groups and initiatives from all over Greece that work with local communities in heritage, and invite them to meet and network. The conference as a whole was dedicated to community engagement. It had a theoretical aspect, with presentations and discussions with academics from around the world. But it was also strongly oriented into building a network of grassroots and local heritage initiatives. The second day of the conference opened with a big public event that we called agora, where all groups presented their work, taking a first step in forging collaborations and networks.  In the afternoon, we held a workshop with representatives from all groups, aimed to establish their needs and capacities and plan for future action. This was the first time that such initiatives came together in public, and it resulted in many new synergies and plans for future collaborations.

The participation and engagement of local cultural associations from Elefsina was a big challenge for us, which we met through the workshop on planning cultural routes. The workshop was initiated during the conference, where every cultural association brought a significant object and told a story relating it to the history of the locality it represents. In total, there were six meetings with cultural associations from Elefsina, from November 2019 to January 2020, where participants collectively worked on researching, collecting, curating and presenting objects, oral histories, and audiovisual material related to their heritage. The foundations of a heritage route in Elefsina designed from below are now set.

Describe your organization and the unique work that it is doing.  Who and what are affected by the work?  How does/will the work impact people’s lives?

Since I attended the training in HMO, in 2016, I have changed three jobs and worked on several projects. I would say that each of them had a unique mission and impacted both the society as a whole and people’s lives. I worked in the field of culture for 10 years, in the Hellenic Foundation for Culture, and in the Ethnographic Museum in Belgrade. Both institutions were dedicated to the spread of culture and heritage, to educate people and show them to which extent cultural patterns are interwoven with every aspect of our lives.

In February 2019, I joined the team of Open Society Foundation-Serbia, which is a non-government, non-political and non-profit organization that develops and supports systemic developmental policies, programmes and activities aimed at the advancement of democratic cultures. This includes openness, affirmation of differences, and full respect of human rights. With simple words, the aim of OSFS is to make people’s lives better, by empowering and encouraging citizens through different programmes and activities, to produce change on the levels of society. 

Tell us about a project that has benefited from the training you received from us?  Why was the project important?  Was there anything unusual or surprising about the execution of this project?

When I received the training, I had worked for 8 years in the Hellenic foundation for culture as a PR, but have never attended a practical training that was directly related to my professional duties. Bearing that in mind, the workshop was very useful back then, but also later, in my following jobs. Also, I believe that, after attending the workshop, I became able based on the principles that we learnt, to make an initial, long – term, step-by-step communication plan for the institutions that I worked for and define the directions and principles that would guide them in the future. The training did not influence one project, but it helped me to have new insights in the field of communication and to think about the convenient strategy for every project. Also, it aroused my interest in communications in general, so I attended a few other communication trainings. I would say that I implemented the most of what I learnt at HMO training, while working as a Deputy Director of the International Ethnologic Film Festival. It is a Festival with a long tradition, very important at national level, but, in the same time, with small visibility and not many visitors. I wanted to hire a marketing agency to help me, but after one meeting with PR  experts I understood that they could not perceive the core of the ethnology and its related subjects that the Festival is covering, and consequently, what is important to emphasize concerning the Festival. Finally, the Director and I did the communication and audience development strategy and succeeded to raise the visibility of the Festival (fortunately, that tendency is continuing). There was nothing much surprising in the projects/Festival itself, but what surprised me, personally, is how much two brains that “think alike” could do together.

Has your organisation worked on any other projects that are innovative, globally significant and can be replicated in a local market?

What came first to my mind when I read this question is the play “Brothers and sister” (Greek: ”The dead brother song”) that was directed by Sotiris Hadzakis. When I was working in the Hellenic foundation for culture, we organised , in cooperation with Onassis Foundation, the tour of the play and it was performed in May 2009 in Belgrade Drama Theater. 

“The dead brother song” play is founded on common oral heritage in Balkans. It is a song with no known author, not even a mythical one. The text is based on motives of the homonymous folk song about mother who had nine sons and one daughter. Variations exist in all Balkan countries, Albania, Greece, Bulgaria, Romania and Serbia, where the natural borders did not exist and the geographical ones changed often due to wars and clashes, so the cultures were mixing and influencing one another for centuries.  It is stemming from the collective conscience of Balkan people, revealing their mixed cultural identities, common roots and myths that surpass their differences.

The actors were from all 5 Balkans countries. The particularity of the play was that every actor spoke in his own language, but through non-verbal language, face expressions, gestures, movements, costumes, dance, the lack of words became meaningless and the shift from one language to another was barely perceived. That was an (intercultural) dialog between actors and audience, not based on words but built on a broader view of life that can be found in oral literature of Balkans.  

This play wanted to show that the silent language of Art is undivided, common for all and has the strength to erase language, historical or geographical borders. The play was innovative for Serbian “art market”, and surprisingly for “difficult”audience in Belgrade, it received standing ovation. It was played also in Athens, Tirana, Sofia and Bucharest where it was warmly received, as well.

What are the global issues that your project addresses (e.g., fighting climate change, preserving heritage and culture, promoting local participation)?

The project that I am currently working on in the Open Society Foundation, Serbia, where I am currently employed, is two-year intervention called “Regional Creative Hubs: Tapping Into the Power of Arts and Culture to Embolden Citizen Action Against Corruption”. The goal of the project is to empower artists, advocates and journalists to be more effective in their efforts to influence people’s engagement on corruption issues and to create opportunities for meaningful synergies across themes and geographies.

The selected applicants were trained, in October 2019, in a 5-day workshop held in Sarajevo (Bosnia and Herzegovina) in the Artistic Activism methodology, using a range of contemporary and historical examples of organizing and activism from around the world, studying the various ways cultural creativity has been employed for raising awareness, building organizations, influencing legislatures, and drafting policy. Additionally, participants learned to apply these ideas through a range of practical exercises designed to unlock their imagination, through new strategies and tactics.

In the next project phase, the participants will be eligible to receive small grants for creative actions and projects and will join a network of artists, activists and journalists from different countries, hopefully collaborate and access information and support from the network. 

In April 2018, Sotheby’s listed a bronze horse, in the Corinthian style and unmistakably from Greece, for auction. The Greek ministry of culture became suspicious of its origins after finding out it was purchased from Robin Symes, a notorious art dealer who was a key player in an international criminal antiquities looting network. The Ministry requested the lot be withdrawn for sale until its background could be researched thoroughly.

In an unusual response, Sotheby’s and the horse’s owners, the Barnetts, sued the country, requesting permission to sell the horse and seeking reimbursement for court costs and attorneys’ fees. If successful, the case could have put the onus on source countries to prove that items have left their borders illegally.

Dr Evangelos Kyriakidis, director of the Heritage Management Organization, says: “Currently the onus of proof lies with auction houses who need to ensure the items they sell do not violate any legislation. This ruling strengthens this requirement and makes it unlikely to be challenged again any time soon.

“There is, however, one aspect that may soon prove quite important. The appeals court decided that mobile items of heritage (like their immobile counterparts) are part of the sovereignty of source countries and therefore are not subject to the same rules as all other business transactions.”

You can read more background on the case here.

A new exciting collaboration has just started for us; “TEACH FOR FUTURE”, an Erasmus+ initiative that aims on the educational transformation of adults in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece through Innovation, Technology and Entrepreneurship.

Dr Emmanouel Garoufallou, Assistant Professor at the Department of Library Science, Archives and Information Systems, School of Social Sciences at the International Hellenic University and Project Manager of “TEACH FOR FUTURE”, shares with us a few words about the project. 

Teach for the Future: what is this project about and when did it start?

“TEACH FOR FUTURE” is a strategic project on the educational transformation of adults in Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Starting with November 2019, the National Association of Public Librarians and Libraries of Romania – ANBPR and its partners Global Libraries Bulgaria Foundation, Bulgaria, and the Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE) have started to implement the project.

Who are the partners of this project?

The project is funded under the European Union Erasmus+ program, Key Action 2, Strategic Partnerships, and foresees activities in the partner countries – Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. The initiator of the project, ANBPR, has the status of consortium leader, having as partners Global Libraries Bulgaria Foundation, Bulgaria, and the Heritage Management Organization (HERITΛGE), Greece, as well as associated partners from all three countries involved: National Library of Romania, Metropolitan Library of Bucharest, County Library “Octavian Goga” Cluj, “Panait Istrati” County Library Brăila, “Kájoni János” County Library Harghita, Bulgarian Library and Information Association (Bulgaria), Learning for Life (Greece) and the American Farm School in Thessaloniki (Greece).

What purpose does it serve?

Through “TEACH FOR FUTURE” Erasmus+ initiative, the consortium of partners aims to contribute to improving and extending the offer of high quality learning opportunities on innovative educational topics, with potential for economic growth, acquiring and recognizing new skills, knowledge and behaviors in line with the demands of the labor market by adults with a low level of training, so that they better respond to the demands of the current working environment, governed by technology, interdisciplinarity and transnational cooperation.

Who is this programme for?

The project represents an educational intervention dedicated to adults, which aims to create a transnational and multisectoral network through which a number of facilitators from Romania, Bulgaria and Greece, multipliers of skills training in the fields of IT, Management of Innovation & Network Collaboration and Entrepreneurship & Leadership, will transfer specialized knowledge from these thematic areas to heterogeneous communities of adult learners from the three countries, but also from the region.

How has the pandemic of Covid19 affected the programme?

Despite the unfavorable context determined by the COVID-19 crisis, the TEACH FOR FUTURE team ensured the project operational continuity, focusing in particular on the activities that did not involve face-to-face participation, but only remote consulting and technological modern means.

What actions have been taken so far?

Three Centers of Excellence have been created, one in each partner country, starting with January 2020. ANBPR Romania, Global Libraries Bulgaria Foundation in Bulgaria and Initiatives for Heritage Conservation in Greece, as members of the consortium, have agreed to establish three Centers of Excellence in Bucharest (Romania), Sofia (Bulgaria) and Thessaloniki (Greece), with the purchase of 3D Printing equipments for the use of these centers. At the same time, in early March 2020, the partners have started to set up a transnational and multisectoral network consisting of 10 facilitators with mixed competences, which will subsequently become training multipliers for 210 adults from partner countries. These trainers will transfer specialized know-how to heterogeneous communities of adult learners through local sessions and mentoring campuses hosted in each of the three countries.

In February 2020, ANBPR Romania, with the involvement of partners from Greece and Bulgaria, started developing an innovative educational tool, in order to standardize the digital education of adults. Designed to facilitate to the trainers the use of various ICT teaching methods and techniques, this Methodology will address four educational topics – 3D modeling and printing, image editing, digital marketing and online collaboration tools – aimed at stimulating learning and facilitating the assimilation and consolidation of this knowledge by adult learners.

Also, HERITΛGE, assisted by the Romanian and Bulgarian partners, started developing a training curriculum for adult learners in the field of Management of Innovation & Network Collaboration, following the adults’ understanding of the management of innovation principles and its intersections with other management areas.

Comment from our director:

The ‘Teach for the Future’ is particularly important for our organization as it improves our capacity in two key sectors that we are interested in for the sake of the Heritage Management Organization: Distance learning and Entrepreneurship. The latter, when combined with heritage management, can turn heritage into a powerful and sustainable resource for economic development. Through this program, HERITΛGE will be able to deliver higher quality education in this field to heritage managers. We thank Manolis for his continued engagement and his attention to detail.