Europeana WEAVE Event Series on diversity and inclusion

The WEAVE - Widen European Access to cultural communities Via Europeana - project aimed to develop a framework to link the tangible and intangible heritage of underrepresented and minoritised cultural communities, safeguarding the rich and invaluable cultural heritage which they represent. As well as aggregating new content to Europeana, the project organised events, training and guidelines that explored the correct handling of immaterial cultural heritage and working with vulnerable and marginalised communities.

As part of this work, in February and March 2022, WEAVE and Europeana organised a series of events for cultural heritage professionals around diversity and inclusion. These events provided participants with an opportunity to get a better understanding of how cultural institutions can support a more diverse and inclusive sector.

The four events were held on 11, 18, 25 February, and 10 March 2022. The sessions were planned and moderated by WEAVE partners and Europeana with the support of the Europeana Diversity Inclusion Cross-Team to ensure attendees had a safe space for informal and truthful conversations.

Watch recordings of the event series below. 

Introduction to Europeana WEAVE Event Series on diversity and inclusion. 13:00 - 14:00 CET, 11 February 2022

This Café explored the different activities in the WEAVE project, their progress, relevant learnings and the connection between WEAVE and Europeana’s efforts to bring diversity and inclusion to the cultural heritage sector.

How can cultural heritage institutions (CHIs) support inclusivity? 13:00 - 14:30 CET, 18 February 2022

Digital and social technologies are facilitating new and diverse forms of curatorial practice, which can be harnessed to highlight a balanced view of historical events. This gives the floor to underrepresented communities, in turn supporting inclusivity and diversity. The project is working towards the greater inclusion and involvement of underrepresented communities in content curation, where technologies mediate and allow users to contribute to our histories.

This hands-on workshop explored the importance of including the representation of cultural communities in the work done by cultural heritage institutions. During the workshop, participants learned how cultural heritage institutions can support inclusivity with practical exercises and facilitated discussions. The aim was to take (parts of) this workshop to repeat these exercises and continue the discussions with communities and colleagues.

Making Cultural Collections more inclusive.13:00 - 14:00 CET, 25 February 2022

This session was a panel discussion with aggregators, cultural heritage institutions and representatives of minoritised communities. The panel discussed how minoritised and underrepresented communities are directly impacted by how their cultural heritage is represented in museums and on digital platforms. Offensive terminology and imagery in these representations, combined with limited involvement of the affected community, can impact their heritage and social representation. The panel discussion focused on working with communities on how terminology is used, the content displayed, and the copyright approach. Furthermore, the opportunities and challenges that arise when heritage collections are reframed through aggregation in a shared digital space such as the one offered by Europeana were explored.

13:00 - 14:00 CET, 10 March 2022

In this cafe, the audience, together with the partners involved in the WEAVE project and Europeana’s Diversity and Inclusion team, looked back at the learnings as well as the outcome of the discussions of the previous WEAVE events in this series.