More information
Description
Initiated in 2016, the Famagusta New Museum (FNM) is an active platform, which through its various programmes and activities seeks to propose an alternative restart of the ghost city of Varosha, a re-enactment and an activation in the social, cultural and political fields. Under the motto “I Understand and Forgive the Past, I Love and Generate the Future'''', FNM readdresses the traditional role of museums in contemporary societies and aims at a potential awakening of citizens by enabling public discourse and generating artistic, environmental and social participatory actions and interactions amongst the communities of Cyprus. FNM’s central priority is the active involvement of the two main communities of the island –the Greek Cypriots and the Turkish Cypriots– in four main activities that involve both the public space and the personal stories of people. FNM proposes a rediscovery of Cypriots’ common past through: –a digital repository of personal histories, places and objects –a series of GPS assisted guided tours in Famagusta connecting the past to the present –a festive journey to the common heritage of Cypriots through food, music and words –and a re-envisioning of the recent history of the island for youngsters at a summer camp in Kormakitis or Rizokarpaso.
Summary of project results
Famagusta New Museum: “I Understand and Forgive the Past, I Love and Generate the Future” Project, managed to achieve all of its main goals and the number of people that it has reached is beyond its expectations. The project aimed at improving its staffs’ capacity whilst also engaging with the public via creative workshops and activities and also to set a foundation that the project can continue to work on its ambitions even after the implementation of this funded project is over. Starting with the launch event in October 2022, FNM team dedicated themselves in working on the creation of a website (which now functions as a trilingual site), running workshops for local and international participants to also build the capacity of the local community but also to promote the project internationally, bring young people from both sides of the island together with an engaging summer camp, conducting research on the creation of a digital archive and setting the archive/digital museum up, setting the Lost & Found platform in EN with the launch of the website but upgrading it with GR & TR offerings and promoting it to reach as many people as possible. The highlight of the project, undoubtedly, was the day festival that took place in Famagusta in April. The festival consisted of a full day of events and activities at three different venues in old town Famagusta and also included other parts of the city also by its walking tours of sound maps.
During the implementation process of the project the implementation team, realised that is important to find new ways in order to engage with young people and also to aim to have more registrations than the actual number that is needed. For example, the day before the camp in Kormakitis, 3-4 people had dropped out for personal reasons therefore this reduced the number of participants. There were still enough participants to create three groups and to ensure that the planned activities would take place but this was a learning curve that taught us to be more mindful regarding the number of participants for activities like this. We have also encountered this with the festival. Originally we arranged a bus to bring mainly young people from Nicosia to Famagusta on the festival day. We have reached out to several youth organisations and they helped us out by dissemination of the info. However, since we only had 5 registrations two days before the event (some names were also cancelled, the number was more than 5), in order not to waste the budget, we cancelled the service and informed the ones who had registered for the bus and provided them with a car share option.
The project of course had a few main ‘risks’. Most projects rely on active participation of the public but especially this project was really focused on energising the public and increasing their active participation and to reach new people to show them a different side of Famagusta. The concept of a museum without walls is already a complex topic to explain to most people. However, as the activities of the project kept unfolding, it made it easier for people to understand what it really means and that we can see art and culture around us without visiting traditional museums. Another risk was the sensitivity around the topic and the city of Famagusta. Because of its unique position, the state of the city cannot be compared to any other place in Cyprus and this brings extra sensitivities around it. We tried our best to mitigate any issues that might have risen by really using a neutral and inclusive language and also showcasing our awareness that it''s a sad situation but we can still celebrate the city. Therefore, we do believe that it really made an impact on people and inspired many to take similar actions.
The Famagusta New Museum: "I Understand and Forgive the Past, I Love and Generate the Future" project, funded by the EEA & Norway Grants, successfully engaged the public through various cultural and educational initiatives. The project focused on building capacity within its team while fostering community participation. Key activities included the creation of a trilingual website, interactive workshops for local and international participants, and a summer camp bringing young people from different communities together. A major achievement was the establishment of a digital archive and the Lost & Found Platform, which allows individuals to share memories and historical objects, promoting reconciliation. The project culminated in a vibrant day festival in Famagusta, featuring exhibitions, panel discussions, walking tours with sound maps, and artistic performances. Despite challenges such as participant dropouts, the project adapted and exceeded expectations in engagement and outreach. Through its innovative approach—such as using sound maps to document oral histories—the initiative strengthened intercommunal dialogue and provided a sustainable platform for future cultural exchange.
Famagusta New Museum: “I Understand and Forgive the Past, I Love and Generate the Future” Project, through its wide array of activities, successfully increased citizens'' awareness of the role of civil society and offered a fresh perspective on Famagusta. This, in turn, led to greater public engagement, with many individuals voluntarily contributing to the project''s implementation
Through the workshops of the summer camp, the participants also had the opportunity to discuss civic and human rights in a safe space. The workshops run by AHDR, walking tour and tasks set by Antigoni Michael and Nurtane Karagil’s workshop on ‘space’ provided the participants the opportunity to look at things differently and also the chance to experience this in the resilient village of Kormakitis where the native Maronite Cypriot community has never left despite all the difficulties. By enabling the participants to engage with the natives of the village, they also became the participants of the camp. They learnt from our participants why they were there for and showed them that the young generation is the hope for a united future.
By involving local NGOs such as AHDR, MASDER, Kormakitis Centre for Cooperation to name a few and also international cultural centres from the Mediterranean region, the project ensured that seeds were planted throughout the implementation of the projects so that they can continue growing even after this and nurture these relationships further.
New approaches that were developed to increase intercommunal engagement include the usage of the sound maps, creation of the digital archive and giving people the opportunity to take part in the archive and also the Lost & Found Platform, an initiative that has never been done before. The project did use conventional methods also to increase intercommunal dialogue such as organising a camp and a festival but they were also done differently than before to provide something new. The reaction to the launch of the Lost & Found Platform has been tremendous since it was launched in three languages. This shows us that even after 50 years of division, people still might have objects, photographs to share with one another and that also are willing to do so.
When it comes to hitting the targets, of course there are some areas that could have been better but also there are some areas that did better than expected. In terms of capacity building of the others, the project did run three stand alone workshops (apart from the workshops that were part of the camp and the festival) and approximately 25-30 people outside the project team had the opportunity to improve themselves in areas such as sound maps creations and project development and the concept of creating a museum without walls. The project team had to gain more experience in order to be able to help others develop themselves and thanks to the experience gained with this funding they are in a position to do this now and they will continue to do so and this is one of the sustainability aspects of the project that the team was hoping to achieve. Other than the workshops, by engaging young people in different ways, the project team believes that the capacity building aspect was achieved. For instance, the project team put together a team of young volunteers who live in Famagusta to help with the organisation of the festival. They attended meetings and they were shown how to organise a festival from the beginning stages to the end. In terms of engagement of the public, the festival was the highlight of the project. Throughout the day hundreds of people have visited the different festival venues and took part in the activities of the festival. For an event that took place in Famagusta, this definitely was a nice surprise for everyone. Moreover, the diversity of the attendees was also visible. It consisted of Famagustians from different generations, politicians, artists, people from other cities and foreign visitors.
In regards to reduce social and economic disparities and strengthen bilateral relations, it would be too ambitious for any single project to think that the social and economic disparities were reduced but due to the egalitarian nature of the project and for all the activities being free of charge thanks to the funding that was received, the participants of the activities of the projects did have different background and economic means but due to their interest in Famagusta and the interesting activities, they all came together. However, it can be said that the project did contribute to strengthening the intercommunal relations between the communities. As a project team, we do not like the use of ‘bilateral’ and ‘bicommunal’ because Cyprus was never shared by two communities but many and with the Famagusta New Museum Project, we brought people from different communities together from both sides of the island.