CULINN - Cultural Citizenship and Innovation

Museum Vestsjælland focuses on intercultural understanding and cultural heritage in a nationwide development project.

CULINN stands for 'Cultural Citizenship and Innovation', and the goal of the project has been to strengthen new citizens' belonging and experience of being citizens of their new country.

All the participating cultural intuitions in the CULINN project were to work on new ways of bringing civil society actors and newly arrived citizens together in joint projects. Through joint projects with new citizens, practical participation, the purpose was to increase insight into how people in Denmark make use of their democratic voice. The projects were also to contribute to an expanded network and knowledge of the local community. Read more about CULINN here.

During 2019, Museum Vestsjlælland's participation in CULINN resulted in the implementation of two different intercultural projects with local educational institutions in Slagelse and Kalundborg. Slagelse Museum and Kalundborg Museum came into play as intercultural meeting places, where different learning processes were developed. During the CULINN project, Museum Vestsjælland collaborated with Slagelse Language Center, Kalundborg Language Center and the pedagogical education at Absalon University College.

Slagelse: The intercultural café

The CULINN initiative at Slagelse Museum consisted of a three-legged partnership between Museum Vestsjælland, Slagelse Sprogcenter and Professionshøjskolen Absalon. The focal point of the partnership was co-creation and completion of two parallel learning courses. The learning process culminated in an "intercultural café" coordinated and run by language course participants from Slagelse Language Center and pedagogy students on the module "Interprofessional collaboration with integration, ethnicity and culture" from PH Absalon. At the café, both the pedagogy students and language course participants brought an object or a picture that means something to them and could say something about their home country.

Kalundborg

In Kalundborg, the museum worked with the entire DU1 education from Kalundborg Language Center. The students had a short or no school background, of which a number were traumatized refugees and the dyslexic team, which also included some ethnic Danish students. It is a group that has traditionally lacked qualified learning opportunities from the museum world due to an uncertainty about the approach to the pedagogical task when working with citizens with limited language skills.

The students participated in a series of museum majors, where they worked at the language center, at the museum and in the urban space with the words memories and memories. Work was done in a sensory and emotional space. The language course participants examined how objects, images, sounds, scents and physical spaces evoke feelings and memories from their own lives before and now, no matter where you come from in the world. The students' own experiences and life stories were a central element throughout the course, not least because they had to work together to create an exhibition of self-chosen and self-written memories and recollections.

Read the full report on Museum Vestsjælland's experiences from both initiatives here

Conclusion from the project's evaluation report from SKDK

The project partners believe that the museum can play an important role in the individual's life, where they can create a local identity and strengthen belonging for the newcomers. At the same time, the museum can provide security for different groups as it is a neutral place.

Interview data and other material show that the two initiatives intercultural café at Slagelse Museum and the exhibition at Kalundborg Museum, as successful examples of how the various partners have succeeded in creating cultural interaction between the pedagogy students and language students, as well as creating relationships and affiliations for the newcomers to Denmark via museum. In this way, one can see that museums can help strengthen intercultural dialogue and citizenship in society.

Main advice and learning points from Museum Vestsjælland:

If intercultural initiatives are to become part of a museum's DNA, the institution must create a balance between personal relationships and sustainable pedagogical partnership structures. The personal relationships are crucial for all long-term collaborations, but play a special role where extra security must be created in the learning space, as in work with newcomers. But one must be careful not to rest on the laurels. The successful partnership must have an equally strong foundation by virtue of sustainable pedagogical and didactic structures. And not least, the anchoring, support and visibility of the management at all institutions is also a must.

Read the article about the project in the publication BETWEEN INNOVATION & INTEGRATION When museums meet new citizens here .

You can also read various exciting posts about the project on CULINN's facebook page here.

CULINN

Photo: from the intercultural café at Slagelse Museum

Photo: DU1 students visiting Kalundborg Museum

Photo: Kalundborg vernissage musician

Photo: DU1 students visiting Kalundborg Museum

Photo: DU1 student visiting Kalundborg Museum

search

Note: Danish only