Lessons Learned from 25 Years of Resistance and Remembrance
History Is Now
Museums Strengthening Democracy: Safeguarding Civil Society in a Free Ukraine
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Unlike many civic institutions today, museums and heritage sites are widely considered to be trusted spaces. As such, they are essential to fostering cultures of democracy by providing platforms where communities can examine their past with transparency, develop more inclusive understandings of others, and promote values and systems that support a more just and humane world. In October 2024 ICSC launched Museums Strengthen Democracy , a dynamic cultural exchange and capacity building project to equip ten museums and heritage sites in Ukraine to create programming that promotes social cohesion and democratic values in their communities. “Museums and heritage sites are not simply brick and mortar.
An image taken in 2023 at the State Historical and Cultural Reserve in Romny, Ukraine, who participated in ICSC’s “Building Resilience,” a collaboration with ICOM designed to help Ukrainian museum practitioners develop tools to promote resilience and address trauma with their staff and communities.
They are active spaces that can and should energize the public – in this case, by fos- tering critical thinking and building inclusive narratives in Ukrainian communities.” — Linda Norris, ICSC Senior Specialist of Methodology and Practice
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