The first training on Community Curating took place at the Museum of Humor and Satire, in Bulgaria, on June 1, 2023

05-06-2023 11:20

The first training on Community Curating took place at the Museum of Humor and Satire, in Bulgaria, on June 1, 2023.

The event was organized as part of the project BGCULTURE-1.001-0039-C01 "The Address of Satire - Creating an Exhibition from the Museum's Fund of Humor and Satire - Gabrovo and an accompanying program on the role and boundaries of satire and its exhibition in the renovated spaces of the Museum," funded under Program RA14 "Cultural Entrepreneurship, Heritage, and Cooperation," co-financed by the Financial Mechanism of the European Economic Area 2014-2021.

The seminar was led by Rhys Evans and Johan Barstad, professors at the Hogskulen for Grøn Utvikling Stiftelse, the Norwegian University for Green Development, a partner of the Museum for this project. The seminar marks the beginning of a series of trainings named "See One, Do One, Teach One," prepared based on the methodology of the Norwegian University. The focus of the training is to acquire skills for conducting the process of Community Curating. Thirty participants took part in the training, including representatives from REMO "Etar," the Natural Science Museum "Cherni Osam," HG "Hristo Tsokev," RIM Gabrovo, Interactive Museum of Industry - Gabrovo, Youth Center - Gabrovo, external designers, curators, as well as some members of the Museum of Humor and Satire team. Community Curating is a process supported by professional museum and gallery teams in which specific communities mobilize, participate, and empower themselves to present their understandings of societal development through art and cultural heritage. The training program included both theoretical and practical parts, covering the following main topics:

• What is/are community/ies?
• Asset-Based Community Development (ABCD) - a model for community development
• Introduction to Participatory Action Research (PAR) - empowering participation
• Community mapping
• The Dugnad method - how to make a community meeting successful

Working with communities is of great importance for every cultural institution. The rich experience of the Norwegian partners will provide a solid foundation for transforming museum visitors from recipients of museum narratives into creators of diverse and inspired museum stories based on the community's experience.