EMYA 2023 CANDIDATES

GRAZ, AUSTRIA

GRAZ MUSEUM SCHLOSSBERG

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Located on the city’s former fortified hill, the Graz Museum Schlossberg aims to be an integral part of the city’s identity as a landmark and central destination for all its residents and visitors. Together with the Graz Museum Sackstraße, the two sites are a contemporary reflection on the cultural history, natural sciences and archaeology of Graz. The Schlossberg site presents an interdisciplinary and multi-perspective view of the history and significance of the Schlossberg –the site of the fortress– in four themed areas: ‘Garden of Wonders’, ‘View of Graz’, ‘Historical Trail’, and ‘Schlossberg Story’. The museum encourages all visitors to come and enjoy its courtyard and to visit the museum’s exhibition. To this end, the museum adopts an opening, welcoming and inclusive attitude, which is also expressed in the architectural design. All areas of the Graz Museum Schlossberg are accessible by design.

ANDENNE, BELGIUM

ANDENNE MUSEUM SPACE

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The Andenne Museum Space is dedicated to showcasing the two elements for which Andenne is renowned: ceramics and archaeological research at the nearby Scladina cave.

The museum opened in 2020 and is located in the centre of the city of Andenne in a space called ‘Le Phare’ (meaning ‘The Lighthouse’), a new cultural centre that also houses the public library and Tourist Office. The Scladina Cave prehistoric site is an exciting and significant find that is still yielding information and specimens. The archaeological galleries attempt to interactively make the science of archaeology publicly accessible.

The ceramics galleries tell the story of generations of local people’s working lives and the role of ceramics as an industry in the development of the city, including the demise of the industry, and ending with an area of the galleries devoted to contemporary ceramics.

DROGENBOS, BELGIUM

FELIXART MUSEUM

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The FeliXart Museum in Drogenbos aims at bridging different linguistic communities with a community museum. In 1996, the home of Flemish artist, Felix de Boeck (1898-1995), a hero of Flemish identity and one of the pioneers of Abstraction in Europe, was donated to the local government. His works were part of a movement re-thinking the world after World War I, creating cooperatives and promoting a back-to-nature veganism. Today, the museum is committed to removing boundaries between art, cultures and languages. The gallery focuses on art and art research with a comprehensive introduction to de Boeck’s works and philosophy and changing exhibitions profiling other European Abstract artists, drawing in wider audiences.

With de Boeck’s home, studio and land part of the museum complex, the museum aims to bring together local communities to collaborate in making use of the land and buildings: the produce, the wildlife, the farming. The museum is working hard to bring schoolchildren from across local linguistic divides to feed the resident cows and grow produce; while parents gather apples, bring in the hay, cook, preserve, repair, recycle, and create side by side.

SARAJEVO, BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA

OLYMPIC MUSEUM SARAJEVO

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The Olympic Museum Sarajevo is dedicated to the XIV Winter Olympics held in the capital city in 1984. The museum is housed in a historical building, which was shelled and heavily destroyed at the beginning of the war in 1992 and restored and reopened to the public in 2020.

The museum collections combine sport and art to tell the story of the Sarajevo Olympics through sports equipment, historical documents, photographs, video documentation, and medals. The Map of World Graphics – Art and Sport provides an artistic perspective on the games, gathering works by international artists such as Andy Warhol and Henry Moore, together with Bosnia and Herzegovina artists such as Mersad Berber and Boško Kućanski.

As the only Olympic Museum in the region, and the only sports museum in Bosnia and Herzegovina, it aims to reaffirm and present the sports heritage of the country and the Olympic spirit.

RIJEKA, CROATIA

CITY MUSEUM OF RIJEKA

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Located in what was the largest baroque business palace in the Habsburg Empire, the City Museum of Rijeka is dedicated to the history of the city from when it became a free port to this day, from 1719 to today. Its exhibition spaces cover the economic and social history of Rijeka in the European context, in close connection with Vienna and Antwerp as well as with Budapest and other European and overseas cities and ports – it details the advent of the first torpedo in the world, the Naval Academy, Rijeka as an emigration port, the history of the city theatre, the skyscrapers in Rijeka, music, rock in Rijeka, the history of large companies in Rijeka such as the Paper Factory and the Tobacco Factory.

As a former sugar refinery palace – a protected cultural property since 1970 – the museum also aims to place the story of sugar in the colonial trade of that time and enable public discussions about the role that the Company held for communication with Europe and the world.

KLIS, CROATIA

OLIVE MUSEUM KLIS

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Located in the Dalmatia region, in the heart of the Mediterranean basin, the Olive Museum Klis aims to share and preserve the tradition, culture and history of olive production in Dalmatia. Its exhibition spaces and educational programmes, covering the region’s historical development and archaeological heritage, types of olive trees and common Croatian varieties, and traditional vs. modern processing techniques, aim at fostering a greater understanding of the agricultural heritage and know-how of olive oil production among local communities and visitors alike – through hands-on experiences for all, including olive oil tasting and handmade traditional delicacies.

UHERSKY BROD, CZECHIA

MUSEUM OF JOHN AMOS COMENIUS

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The Museum of John Amos Comenius in Uherský Brod is dedicated to the life work of John Amos Comenius (1592-1670), a Czech philosopher and pedagogue whose studies contributed to the development of modern human-centred pedagogy. The museum aims to bring together national and international scholars on Comenius and serve as its main documentation centre and archive space, which includes collections of pedagogical materials and a library. Its new permanent exhibition, ‘On the Stage of the World: John Amos Comenius and His Times’, covers the life, work, legacy and contributions of John Amos Comenius to the arts and social sciences and helps connect the philosophical and pedagogical ideas with the general public.

The museum also has a role in safeguarding and promoting the local heritage of Uherský Brod and the Moravian Slovakia region. In doing so, it participates in and helps document local cultural programmes and events in an effort to support the creativity and wellbeing of its local residents and visitors.

COPENHAGEN, DENMARK

THE WORKERS MUSEUM

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Located in the centre of Copenhagen, Denmark, the Workers Museum is housed in the 19th century Workers’ Assembly Building, which was the first of its kind in Scandinavia and is the second oldest of such a hall remaining in the world. The museum connects history to the present day, combining the history of the symbolic building with the labour movement, to today’s societal needs supporting people in democratic participation and cultural equality. Its recently restored ‘Banquet Hall’ is at the heart of the visitor experience, with its colourful murals, noisy atmosphere, and banners and ceiling decoration, all acknowledging and celebrating workers’ rights.

Exhibition spaces recreate the living conditions and changes in society from the 19th to 21st centuries that serve as basis for guided tours and group discussions and links to the challenges of the working force of today.

TARTU, ESTONIA

UNIVERSITY OF TARTU MUSEUM

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The University of Tartu Museum is housed in the Tartu Cathedral, which integrates the Historic Ensemble of the University of Tartu – a listed European Heritage Label and one of the best-preserved examples of a university campus in the Age of Enlightenment. The museum is dedicated to safeguarding the academic heritage of the university as well as making the history of world science and art accessible, engaging and relevant today. It also aims to show its visitors and local communities the value and role of universities in science and to promote the development of critical thinking in society by collecting, preserving and exhibiting the foundations of history of science and the development of scientific thought in Estonia. Its active outreach and participatory focus is on engaging young people in science and knowledge-based thinking, through language workshops and a large selection of online courses, online and on-site learning materials and a media content.

DEAUVILLE, FRANCE

THE FRANCISCANS

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The Franciscans cultural centre in Deauville was an orphanage and school established in 1860, run by a religious order. In 2011, the municipality acquired the building and began a complete conversion to bring together the town’s existing cultural institutions and festivals, creating one venue for all. It is a fusion between a library, a museum and the performing arts, that conserved the iconic building.

The Centre aims to have people spend the day in the building, a well-used work and community space. The Library has 80,000 books/documents, the museum has 8,000, mostly paintings, etchings and drawings; photographs and sculptures. There is also a collection on performing arts and Deauville’s long history related to this. The Auditorium is a sound-proofed, entirely flexible, multi-use space, with retractable seats that makes a performance space, for dances, concerts, lectures. All collections are digitised and used through interactive technology in which visitors can curate their own collections/ exhibitions and conduct research. A series of colour-coded ‘universes’ are used to gather the collections under a particular theme, referred to as a ‘ribbon of knowledge’, a space where someone can read a book they have located with images/paintings/ephemera all around them.

TBILISI, GEORGIA

ILIA CHAVCHAVADZE LITERARY MEMORIAL MUSEUM. MUSEUM OF THE TBILISI MUSEUMS UNION

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As one of eleven structural units of the Union of Tbilisi Municipal Museums, the Ilia Chavchavadze Literary-Memorial Museum is named after one of the most prominent public figures of the second half of 19th century in Georgia, Ilia Chavchavadze, who devoted himself to develop the Georgian public, political and economic life. At the beginning of the 19th century, Georgia underwent a period of Russian expansion which led to loss of statehood, abolition of church autocephaly and a deep socio-economic crisis. Ilia Chavchavadze managed to maintain the statehood of the country, while strengthening European commitments, values and the importance of public thinking. The museum is thus dedicated at preserving the historical significance and memory of Georgia’s social, political and cultural life during the 19th century – and Ilia Chavchavadze’s contribution to the country’s European aspirations. Chavchavadze transformed the house he lived in into a gathering place for a progressively minded community and a centre of ongoing important processes of the country. It is in this spirit that the Ilia Chavchavadze Literary Memorial Museum shaped its mission: to enable visitors to reflect on the historical struggles and to be a welcoming and empowering place for contemporary Georgian society.

VANI, GEORGIA

OTAR LORDKIPANIDZE VANI ARCHAEOLOGICAL MUSEUM OF GEORGIAN NATIONAL MUSEUM

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Part of the Georgian National Museum, the Otar Lordkipanidze Vani Archaeological Museum aims to shape new perspectives and understandings of the city-site of Vani, an archaeological site and religious centre linked to the mythical Golden Fleece. Its newly refurbished temple-like museum building reopened in 2020 with updated permanent exhibitions that cover the eight centuries of the political and administrative centre of Colchis, the land of the Golden Fleece and one of the outstanding temple cities of the Hellenistic world. In addition to its permanent and temporary exhibitions, the site-museum offers a broad range of educational programmes and serves as a research laboratory. As the largest and only multifunctional public space in the region, it is also a place for regional and international scientific meetings. Given the significance of its collections as a segment of European heritage, the Vani Museum aims to contribute to raising awareness on broader issues on society, culture and education. As a regional cultural and educational centre, it also seeks greater engagement with local young people and disadvantaged community groups.

NÜRNBERG, GERMANY

DEUTSCHES MUSEUM NÜRNBERG

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The Deutsches Museum Nürnberg – the Museum of the Future – is the newest branch of the Deutsches Museums whose aim is to offer a renewed, open and future-focused approach to key issues about our shared technological future. It is dedicated to bringing citizens together in efforts to encourage a collective action about how each one of us has a voice in deciding which direction technology should take us as a society in the decades to come. The museum takes an approach which is inflected by the ethical and participatory principles of putting technological advances into public debate. Visitors are taken through five thematic areas in an open-ended narrative model designed to familiarize them with some of today’s, and tomorrow’s, pressing issues about science and technology – from organ printing to the ethics of DNA sequencing, and onto customized prosthetics or the ethics of human-made space debris.

Instead of providing answers, the museum operates under the premise that citizens should collectively be able to decide how these technologies and scientific advances should be used, and to what end. To that end, the museum hosts a variety of public debates and runs a series of active tinkering and science and technology labs.

BERLIN, GERMANY

DOCUMENTATION CENTRE FOR DISPLACEMENT, EXPULSION AND RECONCILIATION

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The Documentation Centre for Displacement, Expulsion, Reconciliation in Berlin aims to address the political, ethnic and religious motivations behind forced migrations from the 20th century to the present day. As a place of remembrance on displacement, expulsion and forced migration in Europe and Germany, its exhibitions enable visitors to understand the causes of forced migrations in the contexts of war and armed conflict – and how violations of human rights such as displacements and expulsions affect millions of civilians. Using nationalism – as a concept of ethnical homogeneity – and discrimination against minorities as core themes, the exhibitions focus on the ~14 million Germans who were displaced or expelled in the context of World War II and Nazi policies in order to address the historical causality between Nazism, war crimes, and the experiences of German civilians during and after the war. A place of learning dedicated to confronting the past and making it relevant for today, the Centre also includes a library, a research centre and a testimony archive.

MUNICH, GERMANY

SUDETEN GERMAN MUSEUM

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The Sudeten German Museum is the first major museum dedicated to the history and culture of the Sudeten Germans, a group of ethnic Germans that lived in Nazi occupied Bohemia and Moravia, today the Czech Republic, and expelled from the newly liberated Czechoslovakia at the end of World War II. The museum houses the permanent exhibition that explores the history and culture of Sudeten Germans from the 12th century to today. Its new state-of-the art building was constructed adjacent to the Sudeten House, a cultural centre connected to the museum by a shared passageway which houses different organizations dedicated to Sudeten German culture. Carven on the entrance façade of the building, visitors will read ‘Nothing more, but nothing less than an adventure called home’. A central tenet to this museum is that it aims at being a meeting place that encourages public dialogue on cultural differences, human rights, peace, and the coexistence of different communities.

RIGA, LATVIA

RIGA STRADIŅŠ UNIVERSITY ANATOMY MUSEUM

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The Riga Stradiņš University (RSU) Anatomy Museum aims to be a place for reflection on the diversity of human bodies where visitors can also experience what is usually only seen by surgeons or anatomists –skeletons, embryos, bones, body parts and organs. Built around Latvia’s first teaching anatomy collection created in the 1920s–1930s, the museum concept brings together its historical artefacts and modern anatomical 3D illustrations and contemporary artists interventions to create a delicate and elegant exhibition on the history of research on the human body. Opened to the public in 2021 in the medical university area of Riga’s park district, the museum’s exhibition spaces challenge our perceptions and changing attitudes towards the human body. In efforts to develop the full potential of the exhibited anatomical 3D illustrations, objects are contextualised using multimedia layers created in cooperation with anatomists and designers. The museum combines science and art, anatomy and creativity, bringing together a diversity of audiences – including families and younger visitors– who are interested in medicine and art.

ROTTERDAM, THE NETHERLANDS

DEPOT BOIJMANS VAN BEUNINGEN

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Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen is one of Rotterdam’s newly-created landmarks whose purpose is to make art storage publicly accessible. As the largest art institution in Rotterdam, with its monumental glass walls and open interior spaces, it aims to foster openness, accessibility and transparency. Depot offers a new approach and experience to art collections, conservation, and the idea of an open city storage – it is an attempt to challenge what an art museum is, and who it is for.

With city collections steadily growing since 1849 to comprise more than 151,000 objects today – of which nearly 88,000 are prints and drawings – Depot has aimed at making collections fully public through open storages, galleries and targeted communication strategies, with particular attention afforded to the visitors’ experience of the work carried out behind-the-scenes: conservation labs, research projects, loan processes and classification. Visitors can book tours to the Depot’s different storage areas and with the help of their guide experience new ways to approach and understand artworks – see artworks from the new angles, perspectives and contexts. The use of various multimedia layers and a specially designed app help visitors to contextualize the artworks on display and ask questions. Depot is also committed to diversity and inclusion with dedicated educational activities and outreach programmes, together with a commitment to diversity among its staff.

ZABRZE, POLAND

QUEEN LOUISE ADIT COMPLEX. COAL MINING MUSEUM

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The Coal Mining Museum in Zabrze is dedicated to safeguarding the history and industrial heritage of the Silesian region. In 2021, the museum completed a decade-long revitalization of the Queen Louise Adit mining complex, the first Prussian state coal mine in Upper Silesia and was opened in 1791. The now publicly-accessible underground tunnels and hydrotechnical inroad were adapted for cultural, educational and tourism purposes. Above ground, more that 10 buildings were restored to house exhibitions and spaces for education and community outreach programmes and events.

The museum is also engaged in collecting and research on miner’s heritage and oral history. It works closely with ex-miners who are also involved as tour guides. They are also actively engaged as conservators who control the condition of the mines and manage the buildings; they play in the museum brass band and are the most important network of volunteers for museum.

LISBON, PORTUGAL

CASA FERNANDO PESSOA

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Fernando Pessoa, though little known during his lifetime (1888-1935), has since then come to be recognised as the leading modernist in Portuguese literature, an equivalent to James Joyce and Italo Svevo. Pessoa wrote poetry and prose using multiple personas – what he called heteronyms. These are much more than pseudonyms, as many had extended fictional biographies and interacted with each other in a world created by Pessoa. The Lisbon City Council owns the museum, though it is not part of the City Museums group. It is located in the apartment where he lived for 15 years of his life, and offers 282 m2 of interpretive displays over three floors, a bookshop, a poetry library, an event space and visitor facilities.

The collection comprises Pessoa’s library, some original manuscripts and memorabilia and is interpreted using a range of methods, including abstracted reconstructions of his rooms and art installations. Visitors are greeted on each floor by staff who offer a way into the displays, by selecting highlights which may help make this complex author more accessible.

LAGOS, PORTUGAL

MUSEUM OF LAGOS | DR. JOSÉ FORMOSINHO

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The Municipal Museum of Lagos, in the Western Algarve, was founded in 1932 by Dr. Joseph Formosinho (1888-1960) who formed the collection and whose work was continued by his son. The exhibition reflects the ancient and varied history of the area, and covers archaeology from the Neolithic, Roman and Islamic periods, Sacred Art, the History of Lagos, especially during the Age of Discoveries, Algarve Ethnography, Paintings, Numismatics, Colonial Ethnography, and Mineralogy.

Working from a national and international perspective as well as the regional point of view of the Western Algarve, the museum aims to contribute ‘to the construction and transmission of collective memory and identity, to support the integrated and sustained local development of society, the celebration of its people and the creation of new audiences’. The museum incorporates and provides access to the Church of San Antonio, which has one of the finest Baroque interiors in the Algarve. First built in 1707, it was re-built after the Great Earthquake of 1755, the ‘Gold Church’, as it is known, has been fully restored.

BARCELONA, SPAIN

CASA BATLLÓ

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The iconic Casa Batlló in the centre of Barcelona was designed by Antoni Gaudi between 1906-1904. It is a work of art in itself, and in 2005, was recognised by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site. The building’s façade was restored for the first time in 2001, with a further, more meticulous restoration in 2019, drawing upon professional expertise in the five materials used by Gaudi: stone, iron, ceramics, glass and wood. The latest chapter of the building’s restoration focused on interior structural renovations and technological enhancement, with extensive restoration of the ‘piano nobile’ (including the pink plasterwork, tiles and stained glass and the addition of a skywalk on the roof). The next phase shifted to what the museum calls ‘interventions’, pointing out that ‘innovation was always part of the building’s DNA.’ With the use of digital technologies in ‘emotional storytelling’, and two new immersive rooms the museum aims to offer new form of cultural experience to visitors, merging artisan knowledge with augmented reality, virtual reality and audio-visual installations for a sensory experience that aims to open up the realm of Gaudi’s extraordinary creativity.

HERNANI, SPAIN

CHILLIDA LEKU

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Chillida Leku is an open-air museum in the Basque countryside in Spain. It is dedicated to the life, work and memory of leading 20th century Basque (and internationally celebrated) sculptor, Eduardo Chillida, whose monumental works, ‘rooted in territory’, are here on prominent display within the landscape. The site, including a large traditional Basque farmhouse, was bought by Chillida in the early 1980s and opened as a museum in 2000, for the study, enjoyment and dissemination of Chillida’s work. It underwent a major redevelopment in 2020. There are 40 monumental works by Chillida situated around the site. Inside the buildings there are on display 100 of his smaller scale sculptures. The original Basque farmhouse is now an exhibition space.

Chillida’s aim was to create the site as a ‘meeting place’, bringing people together. The museum does not only concentrate on Chillida’s work, but on his strongly-held values and preoccupations (known through his extensive writing) on human rights, social issues, music and philosophy. The new development has paved the way for the current programme of temporary exhibitions of leading international sculptural artists. The focus is also on programmes and events with an active public and education programme, drawing attention to dialogue and tolerance.

VALENCIA, SPAIN

L'ETNO, VALENCIAN MUSEUM OF ETHNOLOGY

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In the 19th century, the migration of rural workers to the cities created a new level of poverty – that of factory workers. In 1840, the old 16th century convent that existed in Valencia became the Casa de Beneficienca (Charity House) supported by the local government and the order of the Daughters of St. Vincent de Paul. Its objective was to shelter orphaned, homeless children, or children of poor parents who could not support them. In 1982, the orphanage having been abandoned and in disrepair, and the Museum of Ethnology was created in the building. The museum began to work actively on collecting the cultural history of the region, and in 2000, launched an ambitious redisplay of all its galleries, based on its long-standing collaboration with local councils in the recovery and dissemination of Valencian ethnological heritage.

The new permanent galleries address Valencia’s cultural ecosystems: cities, farmlands, wetlands, drylands and mountains. This is a museum that is now not simply about Valencia but has been created with and for the people of Valencia to address the complexities of the social, political, religious, economic realities of those stories, gently dispelling myths through dramatic displays and engaging programmes.

PAYERNE, SWITZERLAND

ABBEY CHURCH OF PAYERNE

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The site of the Abbey of Payerne is both a historical and cultural site and a museum. The building itself is the most important object on display – a magnificent and fully restored Abbey whose aim is to enable an emotional experience of the past. As the largest Romanesque church in Switzerland, it offers its visitors the opportunity to discover its roots in the Cluniac network, which developed in the Middle Ages from Cluny in France and onto several European countries.

With pedagogy and humour, its audio tours reveal the complex history of the thousand-year-old building. Painted and sculpted decorations are presented, as are the different stages of construction of the church. Visitors can also listen to (actor re-enactments of) gossips from the queen, get information about crimes, listen to medieval partitures, and learn from the workers of the abbey and the monks who lived there.

ZÜRICH, SWITZERLAND

KUNSTHAUS ZÜRICH

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In 2021, Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland largest museum, unveiled an entirely new wing, which doubles the museum’s space (total of 17.000 m2, of which 11,520 m2 for exhibitions) and adds four new public areas: a new entrance hall (in addition to the previous one across the street), art from the 1960s and beyond, temporary exhibitions, and the Emil Bührle Collection. These new areas are coupled with a new underground passage way that connects to the old historical building across the street (built in 1910). The new monumental project makes the Kunsthaus both Switzerland’s largest art museum and Zurich’s second largest public building after its central train station. The new Chipperfield wing was built with the aim to be a public place for local residents and visitors of the city. It was also designed to house the Emil Bührle Collection which has been at the heart of the museum’s new provenance project, the institution now being openly committed to engaging in topics of provenance and contested heritage in the art world.

LE CHENIT, SWITZERLAND

ATELIER AUDEMARS PIGUET MUSEUM

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Located in the Vallée de Joux in the Jura mountains, Atelier Audemars Piguet Museum is dedicated to sharing the heritage of watch-making in the region, including its artisans and masters who have created some of the world’s most complex mechanical watches. Visitors get to experience the intricateness involved in the making of Audermans Piguet watches – and learn a great deal in the process about the history and tradition of watch-making through the different state-of-the-art workshop and Audermans Piguet company exhibition spaces. Through a guided tour offered by expert artisans, the museum aims to offer its visitors a meaningful experience and conversations with the company’s masters.

LAUSANNE, SWITZERLAND

CANTONAL FINE ARTS MUSEUM

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The Cantonal Fine Arts Museum was inaugurated in 2019 as part of a new art district that also includes two other museums – the Museum of Design and Contemporary Applied Art and the Élysée Museum of Photography. All three museums are managed by the Plateforme10 foundation, whose mission is to promote the development and activities of the city’s new art district which is meant as a new public space that connects the Lausanne train station with the city. Through its world-class art collection, which includes both renowned international artists and local artists from the Vaud region, along with an active education and community outreach programme, the MCBA aims to bring together the diverse community of Lausanne to become an effective agent in social inclusion through art.

SONOGNO, SWITZERLAND

MUSEUM OF VERZASCA VALLEY

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The Museum of Verzasca Valley, opened in 1974, is a public anthropological history museum located at an elevation of 918 m.a.s.l. in Sonogno, the very last village of the picturesque valley Verzasca, in the south of Switzerland. The museum’s two buildings, the historical house Casa Genardini, originating from the 18th century, and the adjoining modern building Antichi Gesti, built in 2017, preserve and tell about the material and immaterial heritage of the valley.
The new permanent exhibition, on display at Casa Genardini since 2021, takes visitors on a journey through the past struggles and poverty of the valley’s residents and the seasonal emigration of chimney sweeps children in the middle of the 19th century, to the issue of child labour today.

In its efforts to go beyond the local context to raise awareness about the ill effects of hazardous child labour in different contexts around the world, the museum prompts visitors’ reflections on how their behaviour and actions can contribute to the battle against the economic exploitation of children.

ST. GALLEN, SWITZERLAND

EXHIBITION SPACE OF THE ST GALL ABBEY ARCHIVES

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In 2019, the St Gall Abbey Archives inaugurated a new exhibition centre as part of the UNESCO World Heritage site Abbey of St Gall. The exhibition space is located directly above the Abbey Archives, in the armoury wing of the Abbey Precinct. The Abbey Archives are of significant importance both to Swiss national heritage and as a registered UNESCO Memory of the World. Its collection of the legal and administrative records of the former Abbey of St Gall from the 8th century to its secularization in 1805 is the most complete deposit of private legal documents from the Middle Ages and one of the most significant monastic archival holdings in Europe. The new exhibition centre was created to provide public access of its archive collections to the general public and raise awareness of the need to protect written traditions as a means to safeguard knowledge of the past and its transmission. As illustrated by the core message behind the main exhibition, ‘The Miracle of Transmission – The Plan of St Gall and Europe in the Early Middle Ages’, a loss of archives can lead to a loss of memory, in so far as a loss of documentary proof leads to a loss of ownership, of family lineage, and therefore, of memory.

BURGRAIN, SWITZERLAND

THE SWISS MUSEUM OF AGRICULTURE

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In 2021, the Swiss Museum of Agriculture Burgrain unveiled an new eco-friendly building to house its permanent exhibition, workshops spaces, café and shop, and a hall for conferences and events. Aimed at being a holistic project about sustainability, its mission is to be the starting point of a collective discussion about climate, resources, changing behaviours and planning a future together.

The new building is part of a larger farmland complex that includes a pedagogical garden, an old an organic farm and store, and an old refurbished shed that houses the museum’s old agriculture machinery. Through its new exhibition, ‘Who is Agriculture?’, together with its pedagogical programming that offers plenty of fun and hands-on learning activities for children and adults about environmental awareness and agriculture, the new museum project provides historical and contemporary perspectives on agricultural practices through an integrated model of local sustainability that places the museum as a centralized connective component between local communities and local farmers and producers.

The museum’s overall goal is to engage local communities to make them aware of where food comes from, what resources are used in growing it, and how much we waste.

ISTANBUL, TÜRKIYE

23,5 HRANT DINK SITE OF MEMORY

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Hrant Dink (1954-2007) was an Armenian-Turkish journalist and human rights campaigner who was assassinated in 2007 in front of the apartment which served as offices for the newspaper he founded (Agos), and which is now a museum dedicated to his memory. The museum is managed as a division of the Hrant Dink Foundation which runs many programmes promoting civic society.

The name 23.5 comes from a famous article he wrote which noted the dissonant heritage of 23 and 24 April. 23 April is a public holiday in Turkey –National Sovereignty Day– which commemorates the founding of the Grand National Assembly in 1920. 24 April 1915 was the day when Armenian professionals and intellectuals were rounded up, marking the beginning of the ‘historical Armenian tragedy’.

The museum aims to shed light on the past while also acting for the future, fostering empathy, mutual understanding and democratization and contributing to social transformation through visitor and education programs. While rooted in the experiences of one man and one ethnic group, it makes the case for the rights of all Turks, indeed of all humanity.

ANKARA, TÜRKIYE

POLICE MUSEUM

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The Turkish Police Museum is managed by the Museum Division of the Social Services and Health Department of the Turkish National Police under the Ministry of the Interior. Though there was a police museum in the Ottoman period, there was a long gap until this new museum opened in April 2021, in a group of buildings which contains services related to policing, including a hotel and training facilities. The permanent exhibition is primarily chronological, showing developments in weapons, vehicles, forensics, medals and training, with thematic displays about the modern period on subjects such as detective novels, police dogs, helicopters, medals, and the first woman police officer (1953). The museum culminates in a large audio-visual display on the attempted coup of July 2017. The museum has active conference and education facilities, and performs a special function for officers wounded or killed in service and their families.

LEEDS, UNITED KINGDOM

THACKRAY MUSEUM OF MEDICINE

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In 2021, the Thackray Museum of Medicine reopened after a major refurbishment. Its newly revised museum concept aims to provide the local community with a place of dialogue about healthcare and medicine. More than being a learning source about past healthcare practices and medical heritage, the Thackray wants to be a transformative element in Leeds that brings together people from different backgrounds and encourages its communities to think about healthcare practices and medicine, past and present, and how everyone can play a role in shaping a healthy future.

The museum is located inside St James’s University Hospital, where it maintains several strategic partnerships with various research centres and care units. It is also located next to the Harehills area of Leeds, one of UK’s most deprived areas for employment, education and housing. This is a challenge for the museum and its active outreach programmes in its aim to encourage participation from and representation of members of Leeds’s underprivileged communities.