Summary of the Project

summary of the project

BACKGROUND

The Inclusive Memory project aims at promoting the building of a common shared social memory realised through a museum based social inclusive system, through the link Art-Health-Wellbeing. The core idea of the project stems from the potential benefits of the cooperation between HEIs, Health and Social care Institutions and Museums, as a strategic partnership to advance in museum education as well as in museum experience in order to support the design, realization, monitoring and evaluation of art-based activities and actions specifically addressed to people with social care and health problems. The Covid 19 pandemic has brought many health systems to collapse: in addition to illnesses directly caused by the virus, hospitals, physicians, and health centers have to deal with numerous illnesses, including mental diseases, caused by the spread of the virus and the restrictive measures defined by governments (WHO, 2021).

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Moreover, the Covid 19 health problem has highlighted some long standing educational issues especially connected to cultural inclusion and the disposal and use of transverse skills that need to be developed in order to take active part in society. Some predictions underline that social marginalisation has increased cultural inequality: already marginalised and vulnerable groups, such as people with disabilities and health problems, will be more affected by physical restrictions and, consequently, have fewer opportunities to enter the labour market (Azevedo et al., 2020) and participate in social life. In 2008, the Foresight Mental Capital and Wellbeing Project defined mental wellbeing as a “dynamic state, in which the individual is able to develop their potential, work productively and creatively, build strong and positive relationships with others, and contribute to their community”. Evidence reviewed within the Foresight project showed wellbeing to be self-perpetuating and inextricably linked to health, to the extent that ‘a high level of wellbeing is associated with positive functioning, which includes creative thinking, productivity, good interpersonal relationships and resilience in the face of adversity, as well as good physical health and life expectancy’.

There is an expanding body of research and evaluation to support the case that the arts have an important contribution to make to health and wellbeing. Arts therapies have been found to alleviate anxiety, depression and stress while increasing resilience and wellbeing. However, the potential contribution of the arts to health and wellbeing has, as yet, been all too little realised. Too often, arts programmes for health are temporary, and provision is uneven across the different european countries. For this to improve, culture change is needed. Universities can play an important role in realizing a collaboration across the systems of health, social care and the arts. The project was designed from the educational and social needs of the partners’ communities. From the partners community prospective, the lack of participation in the social life and the exclusion from the places in which culture is promoted, such as museums and cultural organizations, leads to their worrying exclusion from active citizenship, with direct consequences such as marginalisation and, sometimes, social tensions.

Through the reversed community approach, the Inclusive Memory project tends to stimulate processes of rebuilding troubled communities (“Building Communities from the Inside Out: A Path Toward Finding and Mobilizing a Community’s Assets, Kretzmann & McKnight, 1996) through the collaboration of Universities, people working professionally in health and social care as well as of artists and people working in cultural organisations. The project challenges habitual thinking and asks for new collaborations to be formed across conventional boundaries.

Objectives

The Inclusive Memory project wants to promote an innovative strategy for social inclusion, derived from the creation of a new teaching methodology, the use of digital tools and based on the development of transverse competences in both university teachers, students museum users, thus promoting well-being, health and social inclusion. The project is based on the concept which sees museums as teaching and learning environments, and Universities as active social actors, both strengthening their role of cultural integration facilitators. The Inclusive Memory project will be developed as a shared process among academics, researchers, healthcare and social care, educators and museum professionals and will involve different partners who already showed their interest in participating and their commitment to the project goals.

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The main objectives of the project are: – the creation and the start of a new social inclusion system (especially for people with social care and health problems) based on the link Art-Health-Wellbeing, which can prove to be a best practice from which Health and social care institutions, cultural organizations and educational institutions from all over Europe will be able to draw inspiration; – the design of innovative didactic paths for the promotion of social inclusion and the development of transverse skills for future museums professionals, social care givers, school teacher sand healthcare personnel based on the link Art-Health-Wellbeing ; – the possibility to continue organising innovative didactic paths for health and wellbeing promotion, also within school, health and social care institutions and museums thanks to the support of professionals who will have been properly trained on the matter, to compass and put in practice innovative art-based approaches dedicated to social inclusion.

The methodology applied in this project is based on the logic of converting the theoretical concept of Museum as inclusive spaces for Health and Wellbeing development into a practical protocol of teaching scenarios adapted to specific local communities needs and newly created open educational resources (the Inclusive Memory MOOC), testing the protocol and OERS into ready-to-use courses and using the test outcomes to enrich the theoretical basis. On a methodological level, the project adopts a Design Based Research methodology, first described by Reeves (2006), who conceptualised it as a cyclic process for a didactic product creation.

The model is developed as a process of diverse stages, known by the acronym ADDIE: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. Moreover, the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach will be used for the development of art-based activities for Health and Wellbeing promotion within partners’ local communities. ABCD premise is that communities can drive the development process themselves by identifying and mobilizing existing, but often unrecognised assets.

IMPLEMENTATIONS

The project will be implemented through 7 main results. Each result will be achieved through the analysis, design, implementation and evaluation of specific actions.

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(1) The development of the report on the State of the art of Museums as Inclusive Spaces for Health and Wellbeing development. – Desk research on the use of Museums as Inclusive Spaces for Health and Wellbeing promotion – Investigation on inclusive and customized didactic and teaching museum practices for people with health problems – Identification of the disadvantaged groups for which Museums may become key Inclusive spaces and analysis on how to engage them; – Catalogue of Best practices of initiatives and actions to transform Museums into Inclusive Spaces for Health and Wellbeing promotion.

(2) Handbook on the use of technology for inclusive educational activities in museum context. – Investigation on the use of technology to support the development of visitor’s cross sectional skills and wellbeing – Analysis of best practices in the use of technologies for museum accessibility; -Short report on evaluation and assessment of museum-based activities for health and wellbeing development through technology.

(3) Using 1 and 2 project results, Partners carry out the action plan for the development of a blended Pilot-course to train future museum professionals, social care givers, school teachers and healthcare personnel into the idea of Inclusive Museums. – identification of teachers, trainers and key competences to be developed within future museum professionals, social care givers, school teachers and healthcare personnel – design of the course curriculum for Inclusive Museums for Health and Wellbeing promotion.

(4) Based on previous outcomes, IM blended course is designed, translated, implemented and delivered, focusing on museum and social inclusion applied to the best suitable technological solution for each teaching module and adapted to local communities needs, according to the ABDC approach. Partner organisations test the IM blended course in higher education institutions and museum institutions in Spain, Portugal, Iceland, Italy and Greece: – Pilot Course delivery, to be performed in the form of virtual mobility – Design, preparation and implementation of Workshops, Labs and Video-storytelling on the pilot experience – Media enhanced electronic handbook for the replicability of the experience.

(5) Partners will design IM OER and IM MOOC for HEIs students in the fields of education, social care and medical sciences. Based on the pilot phase, the created OERs and courses are redesigned into MOOC form to be freely available to a large public of (future) museum professionals, social care givers, school teachers and healthcare personnel worldwide. – Guidelines for designing OERs – OER design and creation – MOOC design and realization.

(6) Starting from knowledge acquired through the IM course pilot-phase, partner organisations will develop art-based activities, Laboratories, workshops and permanent installations to live the Museum as an inclusive space for Health and Wellbeing promotion devoted to target group 2 composed by people with health problems, users with disabilities and disadvantaged learners. – Design the IM paths for Health and Wellbeing promotion – Erogate the IM paths for Health and Wellbeing promotion – Assess the efficacy of the paths in terms of skills, wellbeing and health development within participants.

(7) The last project result is devoted to the development of assessment tools framework in the field of Inclusive Museums for Health and Wellbeing. A7: – assessment tools for the evaluation of the pilot phase, also in terms of key skills development within participants – assessment tools for museum-based activities, workshops and labs in terms of social inclusion, Health and Wellbeing promotion within participants – assessment tools for MOOC.

OUTCOMES

The main expected outcomes of the Inclusive Memory project are: * the development of a theoretical framework on the museums as inclusive spaces and on the use of technology for inclusive art-based activities for wellbeing and health promotion.

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This will generate 1. the state of the art on Inclusive Museums for Health and Wellbeing and 2. an Handbook addressed to different kind of professionnel (Healthcare, social care, school teachers and museum operators) on the use of technology for art-based activities for wellbeing and health promotion;

the realization of a pilot phase of training HEIs students from university partners in which future museum professionals, social care givers, school teachers and healthcare personnel can promote professional and transverse skills and abilities in the field of Inclusive Museums for Health and Wellbeing.
the creation of IM (Inclusive Memory) OERs and IM (Inclusive Memory) MOOC, available at the end of the project, which will contribute to the training of university students, museum professionals, social care givers, school teachers and healthcare personnel s about Inclusive Museum for health and wellbeing.
the realization of permanent labs/installations and activities designed to guarantee inclusiveness in the Museums and promotion of Health and Wellbeing within different categories of users;
the creation of a video storytelling database to conserve the memory of the experiences at the museum. The database will be permanently available in the museums to provide a common memory in the territories involved.
a set of new assessment tools tailored on the project but transferable in similar or related contexts and which will add expertise on assessment methodologies;
a network of actors in different countries from HEIs and museums which work together to promote social inclusion through the link Art-Health-Wellbeing;
7 different multiplier events in the partner countries that will disseminate the project results and the IM canon for the training of future museum professionals, social care givers, school teachers and healthcare personnel in the field of Heritage for well-being and health development.

All the expected outcomes would vary according to the specific needs and cultural contexts of the partners’ countries.

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DISCLAIMER

The creation of these resources has been funded by the ERASMUS+ grant program of the European Union under grant no. 2021-1-IT02-KA220-HED-000031991. Neither the European Commission nor the project’s national funding agency are responsible for the content or liable for any losses or damage resulting of the use of these resources.