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
Human Rights Media Center (South Africa), the Liberia Media Center (Liberia), and Civic Initiative (Liberia)
South Africa
Established in 2000, the Human Rights Media Centre (HRMC) works with oral history to promote awareness and a culture of human rights by enabling organizations and individuals to tell their life stories to the public through a variety of media forms and projects.
The Sites of Conscience Project Support Fund is supporting HRMC, Liberia Media Center, and Civic Initiative to launch art and memory workshops in Liberia to promote healing and reconciliation in the country. The workshops will use select artworks from HRMC’s travel exhibition Breaking the Silence: A Luta Continua as stimulus for public debates.
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:
- What does active citizenship mean?
- How can sites that remember past struggles for democracy inspire new involvement in shaping democracy today?
- How do different sites define dialogue, and does dialogue support active citizenship?
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.
