Marijke Everts
Campaign Coordination and Administrative Assistant , Europeana Foundation
Black History Month is marked every October to highlight, discuss and reflect on the past and present lives and achievements of Black people as well as the challenges faced by Black communities. Find out how the Europeana Initiative is contributing in 2024, and how you can join in.
For a fourth year, Europeana is participating in Black History Month. Europeana has been collaborating with organisations and people highlighting Black heritage through stories and news pieces by and about Black individuals and communities. Along with all the usual ways you can get involved both now and throughout the year (see below), we have a brand new workshop you can join.
Join our Black History Month digital collage workshop to learn from practising artist Lela Harris on how to create collages and engage with Black heritage on Europeana.eu.
Collage serves a multitude of purposes such as creating new worlds, highlighting or reimagining history past and present , or creating a call to action. With Black heritage, collage can serve as a beautiful tool to tell stories reclaiming history and sharing the rich tapestry of Black cultures.
This workshop explores how to create stories around Black history through collage art and how to use Europeana.eu as a resource to create and tell those stories.
Beginners as well as professionals are all welcome to join and sign up for the workshop on 31 October. Register now.
We want to support cultural heritage institutions to get involved in highlighting Black History, whether that’s this October, or any other time throughout the year. We can help to share your work and content in a number of ways. We're particularly interested in hearing about stories or projects from southern, eastern and central Europe.
Here are seven more ways you can get involved:
Write an editorial piece which highlights Black history for the Europeana website or recommend historical Black European figures we could feature. You are welcome to share images and objects from your own collections. We offer editorial grants for stories that put a spotlight on underrepresented communities, voices and lived experiences. If you have a story to share and would like to apply for a grant to help you develop it, please use our form to apply.
Share your own work through Europeana Pro. Is your organisation mainly focused on Black history or running projects and exhibitions to highlight it? Let us interview you and raise awareness about the importance and challenges of making Black history accessible.
Tell us about your plans for Black History Month so that we can explore ways to support and align them with our activities.
'Take over' our Instagram account by sharing stories from your institution.
You can do all of the above by getting in touch with [email protected]. In addition, you could:
Promote relevant content, blogs, images and objects from your own collections on social media. Use #BlackHistory and tag us @Europeanaeu when you do.
Highlight a well-known or lesser-known historical Black figure on social media. Again, use #BlackHistory and tag us @Europeanaeu when you do.
Follow, retweet and share our editorials and news posts throughout the month - we will be sharing them on our Twitter, Facebook, Instagram and LinkedIn.
For any other questions or ideas, please get in touch with [email protected].
