Identity on the Line
Identity on the Line

About

Identity on the Line (I-ON) is a large-scale cooperation project between six cultural history museums and one university, working together to explore the long-term consequences of different migration processes, forced or voluntary, which took place in Europe over the last 100 years. The project is a broad cooperation between museums in Norway, Sweden, Denmark, Poland, Lithuania, Slovenia and Croatia. Starting with similar approaches and using the same methods, each museum will work on one important migration process in its country by collecting and facilitating sensitive narratives in local exhibitions and uncovering challenges which have not been addressed before. The main findings and common features will be summarized and made available as a joint travel exhibition within Europe and a digital package for education.

The project has a total budget of €2,563,202 of which Creative Europe is co-funding €1,281,601.

Please find an abbreviated project description here >>

For more information on the project and each museum, please read here >>

Goals

Museums can make a difference in the lives of the people and communities, by being an arena for participation, intercultural dialogue, and by catalysing personal processes of identification and belonging to a community. Experiencing that one is not alone with one’s experiences and discover ways in which they are related to social processes such as migration, for example, can change a person’s lifeworld. Relating to and learning from other people, who have experienced and conquered similar experiences as oneself, can foster community and empower the individual by giving hope and affirmation that one is not alone. The parallels between former and newer migration processes can be engaged as bridges between the current and future common cultural heritage in Europe. To facilitate this, museums must work in participation with audiences locally, as well as reaching beyond the local and national level. This is a challenging order, which will be pursued through thorough cooperation.

Enhancing cultural dialogue and raising the awareness of common history and values and thereby reinforcing a sense of belonging, is the focus of all actions in this project. As museums with access to a uniquely tangible and intangible cultural heritage, we have chosen E. Legacy of the European Year of Cultural Heritage 2018 as our main priority. Nevertheless, as one will find below, in the description of the activities, I-ON relates in some way or another to all the main objectives. Among the concrete outcomes of this project, one finds the testing of innovative approaches to audience development, the organization of cultural activities on several geographical levels and the development and transfer of skills, competencies, and know-how.

This project will raise awareness of common history and values through the collection and dissemination of experiences from seven former migration processes in Europe. We will unfold and transmit common features of migration in European history from past to future generations, involving former migrants and their descendants in the collection and dissemination of experiences from factual historical contexts. Hereby, we aim to reinforce the sense of belonging to a common European space to contemporary migrants, as well as to those who have settled and to the hosting communities.

I-ON does so by:

  • Facilitating objects and memories to safeguard, supplement and develop cultural heritage as a source identity and belonging for all inhabitants in Europe.
  • Following an inclusive and participatory approach.
  • Giving people a voice to present narratives and experiences which are normally overlooked and not acknowledged.
  • Summing up main aspects and similarities from seven exhibitions in a joint exhibition which will be circulated and shown internationally.
  • Strengthening the interaction between the cultural heritage sector and other sectors.
  • Facilitating the use of school-packages for teachers, with the aim of engaging children and young people in intercultural dialogue and reinforce their sense of belonging.
  • Strengthening the intercultural, international and interprofessional exchange of knowledge, ideas and working methods.Transferring fellow professionals.

In sum, the project aims to assist inhabitants to take up and sustain a European identity and a diversified common cultural heritage by bridging historical and contemporary experiences of migration in Europe.