Paper short abstract:

This paper explores approaches for making cultural institutions accessible to migrant communities by integrating participatory work in the organisational structures. Understanding the motivations of the participants and the development of the competences of the staff play key roles in the process.

Paper long abstract:

Over the recent years, cultural heritage institutions have increasingly sought to engage migrant communities in their work. This paper explores approaches for making cultural institutions accessible to culturally diverse communities by integrating participatory work in the organisational structures.

During 2018-2021 Finnish Heritage Agency has been implementing a pilot project called Zoom in on Heritage, which is part of a larger EU-funded CultureLabs project. The participants with migration background have been invited to co-create projects involving photographs and storytelling with the Picture Collections of the Agency. With the aim of developing improved practices, the participatory processes have been documented through collection of feedback and through reflection discussions with the participants and collaborators.

The experiences of the project indicate that in order to encourage engagement, build better partnerships, and to increase the sense of ownership of the communities, the institutions should develop practices for understanding the needs, motivations and interests of the participants. Collaboration with migrant communities requires intercultural skills and consideration concerning sensitive issues, which are competences that the organisations often lack. Yet, working with migrant communities enables the organisations to work on societal issues such as racism or social exclusion.

Participatory work often involves a limited number of staff. Yet, in order to enhance the capacities and to integrate the participatory processes in the organisational structures, more staff members should have the opportunity to learn from the projects. This would lay the groundwork for organisational transformation involving networking, rethinking the collections and shaping the roles of the staff as facilitators.