Activities

Explore the recent activities of our members, including new programs they have developed, workshops and conferences they have engaged in and new collaborative activities sites have conducted in their regions and across common themes.

Asian Sites of Conscience Regional Workshop – Dhaka, Bangladesh (July 2010)


The 2010 Asian Regional Sites of Conscience Workshop, held from July 17 – 18, brought together representatives from 12 sites in 9 countries for a dynamic two-day session in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The central themes for this year’s workshop included best practices for gathering and sharing historical memories, techniques for overcoming hurdles in establishing and growing new museums in Asian countries, and developing tools to facilitate program methodology exchange among regional members.
Over the course of the workshop, participants shared details of an impressive array of programs that reach hundreds of thousands of people across the region each year. Representatives from sites in Cambodia, South Korea, China, Pakistan, Nepal, India, the Philippines, Thailand and Bangladesh highlighted their most effective programs, including youth camps and human rights education programs, mobile museum programs, oral history projects, and arts integration programs. There was an extraordinary level of engagement among workshop participants, a direct reflection of the diversity of experience among the representatives: many were from long-established sites such as Bangladesh’s Liberation War Museum—the workshop host and regional coordinator— which has decades of experience from which to draw when sharing tactics and methodology and which also serves as a vital resource to emerging sites in the region; others represented newer initiatives such as Non-Violence International in southern Thailand and South Asian Research and Resource Center in Pakistan which capitalized on the unique opportunities during the workshop to gather feedback on and support for their programs in development. The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience is proud to support annual workshops for members in all of the Coalition’s regions.

Villa Grimaldi Activates the Power of Testimonies – Past and Present (Chile)

In September 1973, a violent coup d’état established a brutal military dictatorship in Chile which launched a campaign of repression that would last for 17 years. Thousands of citizens were detained, many “disappeared”, while others returned with horrifying stories of clandestine centers of detention and torture. With support from the Coalition’s Project Support Fund, Corporación Parque Por la Paz Villa Grimaldi will build on the power of such stories by launching a new program to activate and promote the impact of testimonies today and in the past. “Memory Education and Human Rights: the use of testimony for a critical ownership of the past and present” will invite high school students, teachers and survivors to explore the history of Villa Grimaldi. During their visit, participants will experience the power of testimonies and discover the significance these ‘living histories’ have had in revealing, rebuilding and preserving Villa Grimaldi’s history. Following a tour, a skills-training workshop will show participants how to make their own contributions to building historical memory. The workshop will discuss different techniques and media, such as films and photography, visitors can use to gather and share testimonies. As the program concludes, students are invited to reflect on social concerns today and then use their newly acquired skills to produce a testimony – a record that will capture how current events affect them, their country or community.


With “A Tale to Learn”, MUPI uses stories from the past to promote tolerance today (El Salvador)


As El Salvador tackles growing problems with gangs and youth violence, the Museo de la Palabra y la Imagen (MUPI)’s new program sheds lights on youth experiences from the past. With “A Tale to Learn”, MUPI connects the hardship and violence inflicted on younger generations during El Salvador’s Civil War with the realities youth face today. Founded after El Salvador’s Peace Accord, which ended the 12-year civil war in 1992, MUPI works to portray a complete history of El Salvador and creates opportunities to discuss and reflect on this history as well as contemporary issues. Supported by the Coalition’s Project Support Fund, “A Tale to Learn” will use stories from the past to deter youth from violence and to reinforce the need for peace and tolerance. As part of the program MUPI will publish a book and produce a traveling exhibit about the lives of young people during El Salvador’s civil war (1980-1992). The book and the exhibit use personal stories to illustrate the challenges and horrors faced by these “children of the war”. MUPI will train teachers and parents on how they can use these stories to spark reflection and open conversation on the realities that led to the war and the similarities with the intolerance, hostility and gang violence Salvadorans experience today.


Museo de la Memoria’s new workshops invite students to “Look at the Present from our Memory” (Uruguay)


Located in the former country house of brutal late 19th-century Uruguayan dictator General Maximo Santos, Museo de la Memoria (MUME) taps the power of place to raise awareness of Uruguay’s history of State Terrorism (1973-1985) and the courageous resistance against it. MUME combines historical research with artistic, educational and cultural initiatives and has developed “Look at the Present from our Memory”, a groundbreaking new set of workshops designed to engage broad and diverse audiences around personal and collective memory. Supported by the International Coalition’s Project Support Fund, the program will invite students from all ages and backgrounds to address the questions raised by the site and the museum’s permanent exhibit which portrays Uruguay’s social and political history from 1960-1985. Using a variety of media, from clay to stickers, paper and nails, each workshop invites participants to reflect on Uruguay’s history of struggle while making connections to contemporary issues such as torture, imprisonment and poverty. All the workshops use visual art, written text or spoken word to create a space for free expression, collaboration and dialogue. In the visual arts workshop, for example, visitors work with clay to express their impressions from the site tour and use the pieces they create as a launching point for dialogue about human rights violations, past and present.


Historical Museum of the City of Krakow commemorates, educates and activates with the Gestapo Victims Remembrance Day (Poland)


The Historical Museum of the City of Krakow, one of Krakow’s main cultural institutions devoted to remembering life in Krakow under the Nazi occupation, is hosting the Gestapo Victims Remembrance Day on September 10-11. Since 2007, this annual event has commemorated Krakow’s victims of the secret police in Nazi Germany, the Gestapo. The Historical Museum of the City of Krakow is the institutional umbrella of three historic sites that aim to tell a complete and integrated story of Krakow during World War II: The Eagle Pharmacy, the meeting point for the Jewish intelligentsia during the occupation; the Silesian House on Pomorska Street which served as a Gestapo headquarters and torture center; and the recently opened Schindler’s Factory Museum, where Oskar Schindler saved more than a thousand Jewish people from deportation. The Gestapo Victims Remembrance Day takes place at the Silesian House, where all generations are invited to discuss the history of Krakow and the questions that history raises about intolerance and racism today. Exhibitions and re-enactments demonstrate the challenges of life in Krakow more than 60 years ago; role-playing games invite youth to “follow the steps” of their counterparts during the Nazi occupation; and discussion panels, workshops and a movie-marathon draw parallels between past and present human rights violations. With Gestapo Victims Remembrance Day, the Historical Museum of the City of Krakow aims not only to commemorate the past, but also to preserve Krakow’s collective memory and use its history to open discussion and inspire participants to create a different future, one of peace and tolerance.


Kenyans explore memorialization as a mechanism for peace-building (Kenya))


In 2007-08, post-election violence in Kenya claimed the lives of more than 1,000 people and exacerbated decades-old divisions and political struggles in Kenyan society. While the peaceful adoption of a new constitution last month promises positive change, issues of violence and injustice from the country’s past linger close to the surface, threatening a new eruption of conflict if left unaddressed. The International Coalition has partnered with PeaceNet Kenya and the Kenyan Human Rights Commission to explore how memorialization can help address these tensions and contribute to healing and reconciliation. In a recent workshop, 22 civil society organizations including the Kenya National Archives, the International Center for Transitional Justice and the National Museum of Kenya discussed the challenges and successes of memorialization efforts. They identified opportunities for sites in Kenya that remember the displacement, violence and abuse endured by thousands to be spaces for new public engagement in today’s efforts for peace and stability. The workshop coincided with the verdict in a significant torture case: Kenya’s High Court granted compensation for human rights violations against 21 victims of torture at the Nyaya House Torture Chamber during the 1980’s and 1990’s. Survivors gathered at this icon of Kenya’s violent past to celebrate receiving the justice they had sought for so long. The 21 victims petitioned the government to preserve this and other sites to help Kenyans build a peaceful future where such abuses remain a thing of the past.


“Where are the Children?” to portray Indian Boarding and Residential Schools’ Histories in Canada and the U.S.

In the late 19th century, thousands of Native American and First Nation children across the U.S and Canada were forcibly sent far from their homes to live in boarding and residential schools specifically designed to assimilate them. The residential school experiences are very diverse embodying cultural loss and victimization for some and cultural persistence and opportunity for others. Over the last few months Canada’s Truth and Reconciliation Commission has traveled the country to collect and document residential schools experiences. But while Canada is taking significant steps to confront this past, the boarding school history in the United Sates remains invisible to many. The International Coalition’s Indian Boarding and Residential Schools Project, Ottawa-based Legacy of Hope Foundation (LHF) and former boarding schools are joining forces to shed light on the experiences on both sides of the border. Together they are designing a traveling version of Where are the Children?, LHF’s popular photo exhibition that portrays the story of the thousands of Native children in Canada forcibly sent to residential schools from the 1870s until 1996, when the last school closed. Traveling to boarding school sites across the U.S. and Canada, the exhibit will invite community members to share stories and images from their own experiences.

Navigating Difference Receives AAM’s 2011 Museums and Community Collaborations Abroad Award


The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, Mu.MA/Galata Museo del Mare (Italy), Le Bois du Cazier (Belgium), and Ellis Island Immigration Museum have been awarded the 2011 Museums & Community Collaborations Abroad (MCCA) award for Navigating Difference, a new initiative to open transatlantic dialogues on immigration. The U.S. Department of State and the American Association of Museums designed MCCA to foster museum-based international exchanges that strengthen connections between museums and their communities and develop a broader knowledge and understanding between communities in the U.S. and abroad. They selected Navigating Difference for the innovative ways it uses history to open dialogue on immigration within and across their communities.
Today, as the debate around immigration and xenophobia grows in both Europe and the U.S., so does the need for dialogue where all voices can be heard. Le Bois du Cazier, Mu.MA/Galata Museo del Mare and Ellis Island Immigration Museum use their unique histories of immigration and emigration to bring together diverse experiences and perspectives in open conversation.

With Navigating Difference, these sites are opening a new conversation, across borders and the ocean. A new interactive installation at all three sites will simultaneously invite visitors to answer a common question such as “Does immigration benefit my community?”. And while they share their own opinions and experiences, visitors will see responses from within their communities and from the other sites in other countries, gaining a measure of how different communities are engaging with similar complexities in the em/immigration journey.

Through MCCA’s support, the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, Mu.MA/Galata Museo del Mare, Le Bois du Cazier, and Ellis Island Immigration Museum will foster new transatlantic dialogue and learning and enable communities in Europe and the United States to ‘navigate differences’ around immigration.

Football Fever: District Six Museum’s New Exhibit Highlights how “Football Unites”


With World Cup fever still in the air, football in South Africa has never been a hotter topic. A new exhibition at Cape Town’s District Six Museum seizes on “football fever” to explore the history of the footballing relationship between South Africa and the United Kingdom. Offside: Kick Ignorance Out! Football Unites, Racism Divides seeks to provoke dialogue on racism’s past and continued role in one of the world’s favorite games.
In football, ‘offside’ refers to the player’s position on the field; the exhibit Offside portrays the position of South African players within the sporting community – off and on the field. Through windows into the lives of renowned South African football players who experienced and dealt with prejudices of one kind or another, visitors are invited to reflect on the challenges these players dealt with and how racism shaped the game. Offside will run in parallel with Fields of Play: football memories and forced removals. This exhibition draws on the memories and stories of football administrators, players, referees and spectators to share the history of struggle, competition, discipline and achievement of Cape Town’s sporting communities. Both Offside and Fields of Play were shaped by community dialogues and with the two exhibits, the District Six Museum aims to inspire people to talk openly about what happens on and off the field.

West African Workshop Explores How Remembering Conflict Can Inspire Reconciliation


How can remembering conflict inspire reconciliation? At the first regional workshop in West Africa, the International Coalition and Center for Good Governance (CGG) brought together participants from Sierra Leone, Liberia, Senegal, Kenya and Uganda to share how their memorialization efforts build public engagement in Truth and Reconciliation processes in post-conflict societies. With support from the International Coalition’s Project Support Fund, CGG recently launched a series of public dialogues at Sierra Leone’s Special Court to explore a new vision for this site as the Court’s activities come to a close. As part of the regional workshop, participants observed and analyzed CGG’s dialogue program at the Special Court, identifying opportunities and challenges memory work faces in Sierra Leone. As another example of memory and reconciliation work, Liberia’s Civic Initiative, shared its recent project, “WITNESS – REMEMBER – CREATE”, where Liberians created life-size “body maps” to illustrate their painful memories and spoke openly about this history across diverse perspectives. As workshop participants presented their various memorialization efforts in the region, they identified common strategies for how to activate places of memory as centers for dialogue and reconciliation in post-conflict democracies. These strategies will be detailed in a collaborative “tool-kit” on post-conflict memorialization to share learnings across the region.

ICOM–U.S. Celebrates Sites of Conscience Impact on Human Rights and Civic Engagement

The International Council of Museums–U.S. (ICOM-U.S.) awarded its 2010 International Service Citation to the International Coalition of Sites of Conscience, recognizing the impact of Sites of Conscience in the museum field, and the Coalition’s leadership in museum-based international relations.
Presenting the award to several Coalition members at the American Association of Museums’ annual conference, Nina Archabal, Chair of ICOM-US, stated, “Acting in the service of human rights and civic engagement worldwide, the Coalition embodies the best values of AAM’s Museums and Communities initiative and the commitment and vision to worldwide collaboration that the citation is intended to honor.”


The International Service Citation is only presented in years when ICOM-U.S. identifies a person, museum or other organization whose work has promoted international relations and has had significant impact in the museum field. This year is only the sixth time the award has been presented. The Coalition is deeply honored to receive this award celebrating the Sites of Conscience approach of opening historic sites as new spaces for civic engagement on today’s pressing questions.

Border Stories Exhibit Invites Exploration of Complexities of Immigration (USA)

El Paso (Texas) is the largest urban community on the U.S.-Mexico border and a living testament to the complexities of immigration history and the uniqueness of border cities and border culture in the United States. The University of Texas El Paso (UTEP) is putting a human face to these complexities with a new exhibit titled Building a City and a Nation: Immigration Stories from El Paso Texas/Construyendo una ciudad y una nación: Historias de inmigración en El Paso, Tejas. Over the last 33 years, UTEP has built an extensive border-related oral history collection and organizes dialogue programs on border issues with community members and elected officials. UTEP has been working on the development of the Paso al Norte Immigration History Museum, and hopes that Building a City and a Nation will inspire many more exhibits that could result in the permanent museum.

Photo: Casasola Studio photographs, PH041. University of Texas at El Paso Library, Special Collections Department

Photo: Casasola Studio photographs, PH041. University of Texas at El Paso Library, Special Collections Department


Supported by the International Coalition’s Project Support Fund, the exhibit will use portraits, images, personal accounts and historical information to shed light on the thousands who crossed the border during the 1930s and 1940s, when rising hostility towards Mexican immigrants led to massive repatriation and deportation campaigns. Building a City and a Nation will share the individual stories of different immigrants, exiles and their descendants to reflect the variety of immigration experiences in El Paso. The exhibit will also reveal how past experiences of migrants and exiles connect to pressing contemporary issues—from cultural assimilation and immigration policies to the daunting physical act of crossing the border.

Photo: Casasola Studio photographs, PH041. University of Texas at El Paso Library, Special Collections Department


As part of the exhibit, bulletin boards and graffiti walls will invite visitors to comment and share their own stories, while open-ended questions will probe them to explore how the past informs present-day perceptions and policies. To further discuss some of these questions, UTEP will invite targeted audiences, from students to community leaders and border patrol staff, to brown bag lunch-time conversations, where they will get chance to discuss their thoughts on the exhibit as well their own experience with current immigration issues.

In Chicago, Cambodian Genocide Exhibit Catalyzes Discussion on Contemporary Immigration (USA)

In Phnom Pehn, former Khmer Rouge leaders are being tried for their part in the Cambodian genocide, stirring new debate about the regime’s legacies. As Cambodia struggles with its history, some communities in the U.S. – which has received thousands of fleeing Cambodians – are learning about the genocide for the first time. To raise awareness and connect the history of Cambodia’s genocide with contemporary questions of re-settlement and deportation, the Cambodian American Heritage Museum (CAHM) is developing a traveling version of the Witnessing the Cambodian Killing Fields exhibit along with an innovative dialogue program and a revamped curriculum.
Opened in 2004, CAHM celebrates Cambodian communities and culture in the United States though exhibits that explore the history of Cambodia, the Killing Fields genocide, and the journeys and stories of Cambodian-Americans. Supported by the International Coalition’s Project Support Fund, CAHM will expand these efforts by bringing Witnessing the Cambodian Killing Fields to museums, community centers and schools across the U.S. The exhibit will examine the historical and political context that led to the rise and fall of the Khmer Rouge and share the impact of the regime though personal stories, photos and artifacts of survivors. After a tour of the exhibit, visitors will engage in dialogue about the challenges of Cambodian resettlement in the U.S. and the threat of deportation many face today. Through these conversations CAHM invites participants to connect the history of the Khmer Rouge to broader contemporary issues like the United States’ deportation policies and refugee rights today. In addition, CAHM is designing a new curriculum to facilitate genocide education beyond the museum visit. The curriculum will draw from many elements of the exhibition to help school teachers and students discuss the global impact of the genocide, its causes, and legacies.

National Dialogues on Justice, Impunity and Accountability to Launch at Special Court (Sierra Leone)

Sierra Leone’s Special Court, set up jointly by the Government of Sierra Leone and the United Nations and tasked with the investigation of war crimes committed during the 1996 civil war, is scheduled to close by the end of the year. But unresolved questions around justice and impunity, healing and reconciliation still linger. Amid this transition, Campaign for Good Governance (CGG), one of the oldest non-governmental organizations in Sierra Leone, is launching a national public dialogue among all sectors of society on the meaning of justice, impunity and accountability, on the site of the Special Court – considered an icon of the country’s transition from war.
Established in 1996, CGG works towards a more informed civil society and democratic state by encouraging citizen participation in governance through advocacy and capacity building. With support from the International Coalition’s Project Support Fund, CGG is launching a series of public dialogue programs at the Special Court to provoke reflection and generate discussion on the role of this site and its contemporary implications. The first dialogue program will bring together a variety of stakeholders to discuss the country’s unresolved issues of justice and impunity. In a parallel dialogue forum, community members will address the accomplishments and legacy of the Special Court. Finally, dialogues with students and youth groups will invite today’s generation to learn about the Court in the boarder context of justice and human rights. Each of the public dialogues will also explore what the Special Court can mean for reconciliation in Sierra Leone as the trials come to an end. For example, could the site be memorialized and continue to contribute to healing and social justice in a different way? Building from these national dialogues among various groups, CGG will aim to draw out a new vision for the Special Court as the country moves forward.

“We Can’t Change Our Neighbors” Aims to Build Inter-religious Tolerance

More then 2000 students and 100 teachers have joined the Jamalpur Gandhi Ashram & Freedom Struggle Museum’s efforts to promote inter-religious harmony and tolerance through a new dialogue program called “We Can’t Change Our Neighbors”. The Ashram remembers the history of Bangladesh’s independence movement and the country’s human rights struggles as an avenue to discuss peace and non-violence today. Their new program recognizes the diversity of religions and ethnicities in Bangladesh, which historically, and more recently, have been a source of tension and conflict, and aims to address misunderstanding and intolerance among different religious communities and ethnic groups, through dialogue.
“We can’t change our neighbors”, organized at high schools and colleges across the region, invited students to participate in variety of ways: some schools organized panel discussions on rising fanaticism and fundamentalism; at other schools poster and photo exhibitions provided a backdrop to discussions between students, teachers and management staff about different ways to strengthen tolerance in Bangladesh’s multi-religious society. The posters and photos presented the history of the Liberation War and expressed different views on and experiences with Bangladesh’s religious and ethnic diversity. Students also participated in quizzes and essay competitions where they addressed questions such as “How can I promote religious harmony and tolerance in our society?”.

The Ashram has hosted the program with six schools in the region over the last month; with students and teachers demanding more of these programs, the Ashram is hoping to expand its programming to other schools in the region.