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Description
Current trends in museology are leading to a reorientation of attention from collection-making activities to the visitor and their experience. This is also a turn towards strengthening the position of museum education - i.e. deliberate and purposeful communication with the visitor. In the Czech Republic, we face the absence of an educational strategy in museum exhibitions, but also the lack of central conceptual and financial support for museum education.
The aim of the project is therefore to strengthen the field and to stimulate the development and innovation of museum education practices in the Czech environment through interdisciplinary cooperation. The intention of the platform is to bring together contemporary Czech artists and creative makers and offer them opportunities to work in the field of museum education in Czech and foreign museums and exhibition projects. Members of the platform are both individuals and cultural entities from museums and exhibition organisers. We plan to expand their number through the proposed project and advocate for their empowerment.
The key activities are based on the main needs for the sector development. We will focus on mapping, data collection and evaluation in the Czech environment and in the European context, organization of workshops, training sessions and the Industry Programme for Museum Education in order to professionalize the staff in the field. We will offer a new working perspective in the field of museum education to contemporary artists and creators, whom we will connect with museum representatives, as well as students of art, pedagogy and museum studies. We will also raise the visibility of the important role of museum education towards the professional and public and formulate the necessary steps for its development, including efforts to change the setting of legislative support in the field of museums, which has not yet taken into account the shift in emphasis on the visitor, his experience and knowledge.
Summary of project results
The project brought together institutions outside the established conditions in the museum field and enabled them to develop innovative approaches together. The events strengthened the ties especially among museum educators who lacked opportunities to enrich each other''s practice. A stable membership base was created and the necessary impact on the professional public was achieved, also by solving the complication with international presentation by accepting participation in the Hands on! conference.
The established platform enabled networking of institutions where the joint sharing of experience and generating of new collaborations would not have occurred under traditional system conditions. The workshops served primarily to get to know thoroughly the practice of specific institutions, to discuss jointly chosen topics, to support new innovative projects and serve as an open inspirational field for museum educators. The annual activities of the network culminated in the conference Current Trends in Museum Presentation and Education (Mělník/October 2023), during which we organised an Industry programme with international participation. The project included research and analysis of data on trends in museum innovation - articles were published on the online platform Inováze. All activities allowed sharing new creative approaches that can shift and enrich the ideas about the contemporary role of the museum and develop the potential of the underestimated position of the museum educator.
The purpose of the project fulfilled the creation of the MuseUM JINAK network with 7 member institutions, whose activities covered 3 thematic workshops and an international Industry programme. The network''s web enabled access to a database for creative cooperation and research studies. With an impact on 329 museum professionals, the project provided the impetus for an immediate exchange of experiences and reflection on current obstacles and opportunities for the development of museum practice.
The project helped to reinforce the awareness that the museum has the potential to communicate with current social needs, and that rethinking its role in informal education is one of the keys to ensuring sustainability and lively communication with the public/young generation. By sharing incentives, the network expands the possibilities of cooperation in the field, thus promoting a more flexible solution to the situation of museums, in which our system is lagging behind compared to abroad.