Learning Exchanges

The Coalition organizes a variety of opportunities for exchange among established and emerging Sites of Conscience, human rights and social welfare partners, scholars of memory, historic preservationists, peace educators, and others. Learning exchanges are designed to produce specific program tools and strategies for Sites of Conscience, as well as to explore the theoretical implications of this new approach to museums.

Staff Exchanges

Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole and Constitution Hill
South Africa
February 2008
From February 18 to 21, 2008 staff of the Peace School Foundation of Monte Sole visited Constitution Hill to develop dialogue programs that inspire active citizenship and popular participation in supporting human rights-based Constitutions. The exchange included site visits to several South African museums remembering apartheid struggles; observation of dialogue programs; and seminars and workshops with specialists in the fields of memory, heritage and human rights. Site leaders worked to design new programs that addressed key issues such as:

The exchange provided a platform for both Constitution Hill and Monte Sole to gain a more in-depth understanding of pedagogical methodologies for Sites of Conscience to increase public dialogue and engagement.

Memoria Abierta and Various Museums
Buenos Aires, Argentina
June 2007
Coalition Members met with First Lady and Presidential hopeful Cristina Fernandez de Kirchner, and other government, museum, and human rights officials to advocate for the preservation of the ESMA, the infamous Navy Mechanics School in Buenos Aires where thousands of people were detained, tortured, and killed during the military dictatorship. Plans to open the ESMA as a permanent, public space for memory and human rights had been stalled. The Coalition’s visit attracted significant media attention and helped renew momentum and revive public debate over the ESMA as the country approaches its presidential elections. Coalition members also held workshops with stakeholders and designers of the site to share their experience and strategies they have used to open sites of difficult history for public dialogue.

Lower East Side Tenement Museum and Various Museums
Various Locations, US
November 2006
Staff from the Lower East Side Tenement Museum conducted a survey and evaluation of public dialogue programs on social justice issues at museums across the United States that informed the revision of the Museum’s “Kitchen Conversations” public dialogue program on immigration issues in the United States today.

Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi and Memoria Abierta
Buenos Aires, Argentina
April 2006
Although thousands of people were detained in the Villa Grimaldi facility, no one has yet conducted oral interviews of survivors. Using its extensive experience conducting oral history interviews, recording testimony, and making it accessible to the public, Memoria Abierta staff trained Parque por la Paz staff in how to conduct and archive the very first oral histories from the Villa Grimaldi site.

The Workhouse and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum
New York City, US
January 2005
The Property Manager and Director of Education from the Workhouse in England spent a week at the Lower East Side Tenement Museum collaborating with Tenement Museum staff on a variety of strategies for using their respective sites to foster public dialogue on social welfare. The team collaborated to produce a set of principles and practices specific to each site, as well as an exhibit planning guide for any site designing a community collaborative process to address social welfare issues.

Liberation War Museum, National Park Service, and Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Various Locations, US
January and November 2005
The Liberation War Museum (LMW) is planning to redesign its core exhibit and develop professional collections management policies and practices for unconventional types of objects and materials in its collections. Liberation War Museum Trustee Mofidul Hoque met with exhibit designers and planners, who reviewed the floor plans, narrative, and artifacts of LWM’s current exhibit and worked with Hoque to develop the principles and framework for a new design. In turn, the LWM conducted a workshop with Lower East Side Tenement Museum and National Park Service museum services staff on principles and approaches to interpreting the past to promote human rights in the present, an idea that has not taken hold in the National Park Service, despite the hundreds of sites they manage that raise critical human rights issues.

District Six Museum and Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site
Atlanta, GA, US; and Cape Town, South Africa
August 2005 (MLK staff to District Six Museum)
November – December 2004 (District Six Museum staff to MLK)
In late 2004, District Six Museum staff visited The Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historical Site (MLK) and worked with staff to develop a sustainable plan for managing their institutional growth. In August 2005, staff from the Martin Luther King, Jr. National Historic Site spent a week at the District Six Museum. At the District Six Museum, the MLK jr. Site drew on District Six’s experience to design a community process they can use in future exhibits.

Memoria Abierta, District Six Museum, National Park Service, and Lower East Side Tenement Museum
Buenos Aires, Argentina
December 2004
Memoria Abierta hosted the District Six Museum, the National Park Service Northeast regional office, and the Lower East Side Tenement Museum to share experiences and perspectives relevant to building the new Museum of Memory at the Navy Mechanics School (ESMA) in Buenos Aires.

Conferences and Forums

2007 Sites of Conscience Workshop
Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Santiago, Chile
June 23 - 24, 2007
The Coalition convened the leaders of Sites of Conscience from around the world, representing diverse issues and cultural contexts, for an intensive workshop to define evaluation for Sites of Conscience. The workshop was designed to identify the specific kinds of impact Sites of Conscience aim to make; and develop tools for assessing that impact that are manageable for small institutions to implement. Participants left with a set of terms defining what constitutes a successful Site of Conscience program; three new evaluation models; and a preliminary set of tools they can use to increase the impact of their civic engagement programs.

Global Conference on Memorialization and Democracy: State Policy and Civic Action
Corporación Parque por la Paz Villa Grimaldi, Santiago, Chile
June 20 – 22, 2007
The Coalition, with the International Center for Transitional Justice (ICTJ) and the Latin American Faculty of Social Science-Chile (FLACSO-Chile), hosted a major international conference to develop a policy framework for supporting Sites of Conscience as key tools for building lasting cultures of human rights. The conference brought together an unprecedented combination of policy-makers and practitioners in human rights, democracy-building, historic preservation, education, tourism, urban planning, and other fields to develop recommendations for national and international frameworks to support Sites of Conscience.
Read: Program, Participants List

2006 Sites of Conscience Workshop
Gulag Museum at Perm-36, Perm, Russia
June 25 - July 3, 2006
Historic Sites of Conscience from Russia and around the world gathered in Perm, home of the Gulag Museum at Perm-36, to develop new ways to foster civic engagement in the most pressing human rights issues facing their diverse societies. The 2006 Summit came at a crucial time for the Gulag Museum and the development of a new museum practice in Russia, where the memory of totalitarianism is rapidly disappearing and democratic freedoms are under threat.

Putting the Human Back in Human Rights Forum
Open Society Institute, New York, NY, US
April 11, 2006
The Coalition, Open Society Institute (OSI), and Ford Foundation hosted a forum to examine how Sites of Conscience are being used to inspire and support broad citizen engagement in human rights issues. Moderated by OSI President Aryeh Neier, panelists included human rights leaders Ken Roth, Executive Director of Human Rights Watch; Juan Mendez, Executive Director of the International Center for Transitional Justice, and Patricia Tappatá de Valdez, Director of Memoria Abierta.
http://www.soros.org/resources/events/human_20060411

Who Owns the Past? Heritage Rights and Responsibilities in a Multicultural World
Ename Center for Public Archaeology and Heritage Preservation, Ghent, Belgium
March 22 - 25, 2006
As part of their continuing program of public discussion and reflection on the role of heritage in modern society, the Department of Culture of the Province of East-Flanders and the Ename Center for Public Archaeology organized a three-day event to examine questions relating to public rights and responsibilities in the preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage, with a view toward highlighting new approaches, methodologies, and technologies to aid in this task. The Coalition Secretariat, and Members from Monte Sole Peace School and The Workhouse demonstrated how museums and historic sites can open new conversations about contemporary issues and inspire communities worldwide to become actively involved on issues of democracy building and social justice, as well as explore why historical sites and perspectives are important for policy makers and government leaders today.
http://enamecenter.org/content/category/13/44/71/lang,en/

Using the Past to Shape the Future: Addressing Civic Issues at Historic Sites, Museums, and Cultural Centers
Jane Addams Hull-House Museum, University of Illinois at Chicago, IL, US
November 18 – 19, 2005
The Coalition partnered with the Jane Addams Hull-House Museum to design a national conference exploring how museums, historic sites, and historical societies can serve as new town halls, centers for dialogue on pressing social issues. The conference featured presentations from historic sites around the world on successful strategies for promoting dialogue on difficult topics, and included interactive workshops modelling a variety of dialogue techniques, and brainstorming sessions among participants about how historic sites can collaborate with their communities and inspire civic engagement among youth.
http://www.uic.edu/jaddams/hull/2004conference/

2005 Sites of Conscience Workshop
District Six Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
May 25 - June 3, 2005
The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience took critical new steps to expand its reach; deepen its practice; and develop a new structure for growth.

Hands on District Six: Landscapes of Postcolonial Memorialization
District Six Museum, Cape Town, South Africa
May 25 - 28, 2005
“Hands on District Six” brought together more than 200 international leaders and local residents to explore the role of Sites of Conscience in the new South Africa. Bringing international perspectives to bear on local issues, District Six was used as a case study to raise global questions. The conference reflected on District Six Museum’s growth as an institution and its role in the return of ex-residents to the barren landscape of the District Six neighborhood. Using this example, the conference also addressed how emerging practices of memorialization and heritage and engagements with living memory can help to build a humane and democratic public culture in South Africa. During the conference, a call to action was made to establish a network of forced removal sites in South Africa and to start a larger initiative on the African continent.
http://www.districtsix.co.za/backgroundinfo.htm

Reflections of Community
Association of Midwest Museums and the Michigan Museums Association, Grand Rapids, MI, US
October 20 – 22, 2004
The Coalition delivered the keynote address to more than 500 museum professionals from the Great Lakes Region of the United States at the Joint Annual Conference of the Association of Midwest Museums and the Michigan Museums Association, and conducted a workshop on making museums centers for civic dialogue.

New Tactics in Human Rights International Symposium
New Tactics in Human Rights, Ankara, Turkey
September 29 - October 4, 2004
Human rights workers from around the world gathered in Ankara to share innovative tactics to promote human rights and democracy. Coalition Members from Bangladesh, South Africa, and the United States trained leaders from Bosnia-Herzegovina, Kenya, the Philippines, Turkey and other regions on how they could use sites of memory to develop lasting cultures of human rights.
www.newtactics.org/WorldSymposium/

2004 Sites of Conscience Workshop
Terezín Memorial, Terezín, Czech Republic
July 13 - 18, 2004
Members of the Coalition came together at Terezín Memorial, Czech Republic, to address challenges their museums face in fostering public dialogue on human rights issues. Members toured the former Jewish ghetto of Terezín, and participated in education programs on the Holocaust and related issues developed by the Terezín Memorial Education Department. Members also discussed how the history of the Holocaust could be used to raise contemporary issues while suggesting ideas and strategies for inspiring visitors of all ages to think critically about their society and their role in shaping it.

Great Places, Great Debates: Opening Historic Sites to Civic Engagement
National Park Service, New York, NY, US
April 1 – 2, 2004
“Great Places, Great Debates”, a National Park Service Conference co-hosted by the Lower East Side Tenement Museum and the Regional Plan Association in New York City, was designed to nurture a growing movement establishing historic places as our new town halls, active centers for citizen participation.
http://www.nps.gov/nero/greatplaces/

Activating the Past: An International Symposium on Sites of Conscience
University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, MI, US
March 19, 2004
“Activating the Past” offered a forum for exploring how historic sites and museums can be used to address critical and controversial issues in our communities and what role memory and museums can play in the democracy-building. Sessions included facilitated workshops on questions Sites of Conscience raise for the museum field, as well as particular strategies for developing Sites of Conscience practices in various local contexts.
http://www.umich.edu/~ummsp/events/hsc_report.htm