Creating spaces where different histories, experiences and perspectives can meet
How can cultural and heritage institutions become places where differences and clashes are encountered, discussed and mediated?
Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) was a European cooperation project that explored this question through adult education and cultural and heritage practice. Co-funded by the European Union through Erasmus+ Adult Education, the project brought together seven cultural organisations working in different social, historical and institutional contexts across Europe.
At the centre of TCZ was the idea of the Contact Zone: a social and cultural space where diverse and often conflicting histories, experiences, and perspectives come into contact, co-exist, and are negotiated. These encounters are not always comfortable or equal. They may reveal disagreements, exclusions, unequal power relations and conflicting understandings of the past. According to the TCZ methodology, we should view these tensions not as something to be avoided at all cost, but as opportunities for dialogue, critical reflection and collective learning.
Accordingly, within the TCZ project and methodology, heritage ceases to exist as a single fixed story. It encourages cultural institutions to make room for multiple voices and perspectives. It asks whose histories are represented, whose voices remain absent, who is able to participate, and how communities can become active contributors to cultural interpretation rather than simply its audiences.
The following organisations formed the TCZ consortium:
- Culture Action Europe (BE) – lead for networking and knowledge sharing;
- Conexiones improbables (ES) – lead for curriculum development and pilot in Vitoria;
- Etz Hayyim Synagogue (GR) – lead for the training on multivocality and toolkit development;
- Goethe-Institut (RO) – lead for communication and pilot in Bucharest;
- Humán Platform (HU) – lead for the training on post-communism;
- PELE (PT) – lead for training and training on post-colonialism;
- H 401 (NL) – lead for project management and pilot in Amsterdam.
© LNDWstudio
Safe spaces for unsafe conversations
TCZ was developed in response to a practical need within the cultural sector. Cultural workers are frequently expected to facilitate difficult conversations, respond to disagreement and mediate between different perspectives, often without having received specific training for this aspect of their work.
At the same time, TCZ understands tension and disagreement as more than unavoidable challenges that cultural institutions must learn to manage. Encounters between different perspectives, experiences and histories are pivotal to cultural democracy and social cohesion. Cultural practitioners should therefore not seek only to prevent or resolve tensions, but also to create safe and carefully facilitated conditions in which they can emerge, be examined and negotiated.
When approached with care, such encounters can help communities listen to one another more closely, recognise experiences beyond their own and develop greater understanding, empathy and a sense of togetherness. Cultural institutions can play an important role in this process by bringing people into contact across differences and supporting them in remaining engaged even when conversations become uncomfortable.
From an idea to a shared European practice
To support cultural practitioners in this work, TCZ developed and tested a training programme for museum and heritage professionals, educators, artists, cultural mediators, and community practitioners. Training activities took place in Amsterdam, Bucharest, Vitoria-Gasteiz, Hania, Budapest and Porto, allowing the programme’s methods to be tested and adapted within different cultural and local realities.
Combining reflection with practical methods, the programme used participatory exercises, artistic practices, facilitated dialogue and experiential, collaborative learning. Its curriculum, syllabus and accompanying resources explored subjects including participation, mediation, multivocality, representation, contested heritage and cultural democracy.
The programme was not designed as a fixed formula, nor as a means of removing disagreement or producing complete harmony. Instead, it developed principles and practical tools that cultural practitioners can adapt to the histories, communities and challenges of their own institutions and local environments. It aimed to help cultural professionals and the communities they work with listen to one another more carefully, lead constructive dialogues and negotiate difficult situations in a caring and respectful manner.
Through this work, tension could become a starting point for learning, connection and collective change.
A resource for continued learning and action
TCZ’s work continues through a collection of resources created from the knowledge and experiences of the partnership. These include the TCZ Curriculum, Toolkit, Syllabus and Manifesto, alongside podcasts, a digital mapping platform and documentation from the local training programmes.
Together, these resources support cultural practitioners who want to create more participatory and dialogue-based ways of working. They also contribute to a wider conversation about cultural democracy: not only enabling more people to access culture, but giving everyone meaningful opportunities to question it, shape it and recognise themselves within it.
Although the project’s funded period has ended, its materials remain openly available under a Creative Commons licence and may be used and adapted in accordance with its terms. The main TCZ website is a good place to begin exploring the resources and considering how they might be applied within your own institution, community or local context.
Anyone interested in continuing the work of TCZ is also invited to contact Etz Hayyim or one of the project partners. Whether you are planning a training programme, adapting an exercise or looking for guidance on creating a Contact Zone in your own setting, we would be glad to share our experience and support the next steps.
Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.
