Having evolved substantially in the last decades, museums play a pivotal role in today’s societies by actively contributing to social inclusion and widening people’s access to education, knowledge, culture, health and well-being. This complex role brings about major challenges to museum institutions, notably in what concerns the professional development of staff, which need to be addressed in a multidisciplinary way.
The aim of the Inclusive Memory Conference is to discuss and exchange best practices on how to transform museums into inclusive environments which promote health and well-being. Over twenty experts from six different countries will speak at the event, representing such diverse stakeholders as national and local Government agencies, universities and research institutes, national and regional museums, health organisations and cultural associations. They will be addressing the challenges from their different but complementary perspectives.
One of the highlights of the conference will be the launch of the Inclusive Memory MOOC which focus on developing key competences to explore the potential of museums as inclusive spaces. This open course is coordinated by Universidade Aberta (UAb) and targets students from HEIs in the fields of education, social care and medical sciences.
The Inclusive Memory Conference is organized by the Laboratory of Distance Education and eLearning (LE@D), an FCT unit based at Universidade Aberta, in association with the Inclusive Memory project consortium (see website). The project, which is funded under the Erasmus+ programme, aims at promoting the building of a common shared social memory realised through a museum-based social inclusive system.
We invite you to join this diverse group of experts and share your views and expertise on the transformation of museums into inclusive environments which promote health and well-being.