Contribution short abstract:

This presentation explores how participatory practices at the Estonian National Museum enable encounters with cultural heritage. By focusing on user engagement, digital heritage, and co-creation with stakeholders, we examine how museums reimagine heritage use.

Contribution long abstract:

This presentation explores how participatory practices at the Estonian National Museum enable diverse encounters with heritage. By focusing on user engagement, digital heritage, and co-creation with stakeholders, we examine how museums can challenge authority, foster engagement, and reimagine the uses of cultural heritage in society.

The presentation explores case studies which demonstrate evolving conceptualisations of how to open up a museum in the context of exhibition: (1) Over the past decade, the ENM’s participatory collecting, particularly the DIY exhibition hall has provided a space where non-professional curators—enthusiasts, students, and community members—have been invited to express themselves, contributing to knowledge production and collection reinterpretation. This bottom-up approach transfers decision-making and creative power to participants. (2) The paper looks into the ongoing collaborations with artists and other stakeholders experimenting with the new uses of digital heritage collections. The project demonstrates how technology transforms static collections into dynamic resources for society when paired with human agency. Within this context, the idea of a "quantum archive" emerges as a metaphor: much like quantum systems existing in multiple states until observed, digital collections exist in fluid, multi-layered states, as a kind of potential, reshaped and co-determined by users' perspectives and interactions. Ongoing experiment pushes archival boundaries, asking, how heritage can be rewritten and reimagined.

By facilitating participatory practices around heritage, the ENM demonstrates how museums can become spaces where unwriting occurs through lived experiences and collaborative creativity. This challenges hierarchical models of cultural production, offering frameworks for societal impact that transcend traditional understandings of heritage.