Between January and February 2026, Etz Hayyim hosted the Hania edition of Training for the Contact Zone:
a 40-hour train-the-trainers programme delivered across four weekends. The programme brought together 28 participants from the fields of education, culture and community work, inviting them to explore how Contact Zone practices could be applied within their own professional environments and local networks.
The training was led by Konstantin Fischer, artist, curator and founder of Young Citizens of the World, and Eleni Antoniadou, a special education teacher and educational programme coordinator. Their combined experience connected the TCZ methodology with the social, educational and cultural realities of Hania and Crete. The full programme was offered in Greek, supported by local outreach to teachers, cultural institutions, museums and public authorities.
Each training day moved between conceptual input and guided practice of the TCZ curriculum. The programme examined how Contact Zone methods could help cultural practitioners address representation, power and participation within their own institutions and communities.
The four-weekend format gave participants time to reflect between meetings and return with new questions, observations and connections to their own work. Daily reflection sessions also helped the group process the experiences of each training day and allowed the facilitators to respond to emerging needs and group dynamics.
Learning through place, art and experience
The Hania training treated the city itself as part of the learning environment. Visits to the Municipal Art Gallery and the Archaeological Museum of Hania invited participants to approach cultural institutions as constructed narratives. Together they examined how objects and histories are selected, framed and interpreted, and considered where absent or marginalised voices might enter the stories these institutions tell.
Art offered a way to work through these questions beyond discussion alone. Konstantin Fischer drew on everyday art practices to explore ambiguity, conflicting narratives and the changing meanings attached to cultural heritage. Dr. Constantinos Proimos, curator of the exhibition RED LINE at the Municipal Art Gallery, contributed an art-historical perspective, while social anthropologist Aristeidis Tsantiropoulos connected the programme with questions of collective memory and local cultural life. Their contributions rooted the curriculum in work already taking place in and around Hania.
Learning also took place through the temporary community that formed at Etz Hayyim. Shared meals became part of the rhythm of the programme and helped sustain a welcoming atmosphere during the full and often demanding schedule. Photographs and recipes from these meals were later uploaded to Moodle alongside the course materials, carrying a sense of the group’s experience into the periods between training weekends.
Through this close engagement with Hania’s cultural spaces and local knowledge, the training became connected to the city in which it took place. The Contact Zone methodology was experienced through actual institutions, current cultural practice and the relationships created during the programme.
Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.
