Engaging Communities

Engaging Communities in Cultural Heritage

 

 

Date:
06, 07, 09, 10 October 2025

Location:
Online Training Program 

Application Deadline:
01 September 2025

 

…MORE INFO

 

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Vacancies for this workshop are limited, so please apply early.

Course Directors & Instructors

 

Dr Evangelos Kyriakidis
HERITΛGE Director

Dr Aris Anagnostopoulos
HERITΛGE Public Director

Dr Lena Stefanou
Archaeologist-Museologist
HERITΛGE Public Officer / Ghana Programs Manager
Visiting Lecturer for Museum Studies, (MA) Applied Critical Archaeology and Heritage, University of Bologna

Community engagement has become an integral part of the public programs of heritage institutions worldwide. Over time, diverse methodologies and best practices have emerged to effectively involve the wide array of communities and audiences served by these institutions. However, uncritically applying standardized “toolkits” for engagement may not be the most ethical way to honour cultural differences in this field.

During this 4-day workshop, we aim to develop a different approach to community engagement based on social (and art) research with community-led initiatives.

By adopting a research-led approach, we can foster collaborative design and actions that truly resonate with the unique cultural and social dynamics of each specific group or community, as well as their interactions with others. Drawing from our extensive experience in community engagement within the heritage sector, we will share numerous examples from our own work and other notable projects.

Throughout the workshop, participants will delve into the context of community engagement in the realm of heritage. We will explore methodologies grounded in ethnography and oral history, while also engaging in practical exercises to reinforce learning.

 

 

HERITΛGE provides scholarships to most participants in its training programmes. These scholarships can cover up to 90% of the cost of attendance, depending on the circumstances of the participants and the availability of funding. On average, participants contribute around 300 euros to attend one of our 3 to 6-day training workshops. Read more on Fees & Scholarships.

For details on the application procedures, see the official announcement of the workshop here.

On successfully completing the workshop students will be able to:

 

    • ● Understand community engagement as a process in time.
    • ● Understand community engagement as one of the key strategies of heritage management.
    • ● Be aware of key challenges when working/collaborating with local communities.
    • ● Acquire basic knowledge on how to create a community engagement project workflow.
    • ● Understand heritage values and how they work.
    • ● Learn how to understand different communities, their characteristics, needs and capacities.
    • ● Think about how to initiate engagement programs suited to the characteristics, needs and capacities of different communities.
    • ● Learn to discern between communities and audiences and understand audience segmentation.
    • ● Get introduced to ethnographic approaches to creating collaborative research-based community engagement programs.
    • ● Get introduced to the methods and techniques of oral history for the elicitation and documentation of tangible and intangible heritage.
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