4th European CAF Users Event, Bucharest, 23-24 September 2010

ProgressingTowardsExcellence

The Challenge for European Public Administrations inDifficult Times

Reflections about the museum and social integration

1. Identification

Reference/ Session: S6.2.

Organisation: Musée de Mariemont
Country: Belgium
Name case presenter(s): Léon Zaks
@ :
Phone: + 32 (0)64 27 37 08; + 32 (0)2 4133003
Website:
/ Focus:
Corporate social responsibility

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Case presentation (two pages max.)

  1. Quality Improvement issues – the broader scope of excellence(i.c. the chosen principle of excellence)
    The Mariemont royal Museum tried to develop its corporate social responsibility by developing an integration policy for socio-economically disadvantaged visitors. In this case, the Museum is seenas a tool for emancipation.
  2. Case background (optional)

In Belgium, studies about poverty were at a turning point in 1994 with the «general report about poverty in Belgium». For the first time the necessity of establishing dialogue as a fight against exclusion is pointed out. The same document states that access to culture makes part of the rehabilitation process.

Another source of inspiration was the Akhmim experience (Egypt). At the beginning of the sixties, members of an Egyptian NGO opened a school for illiterate and destitute women in the ancient textile city of Akhmim. They elaborated an educational project based on the textile activity which once made the city famous. By participating in a creative and profitable activity, the participants experienced a real blooming of the personality as well as a taking of responsibility.

  1. The Actors

The actors are corresponding to the decision-making level on one hand, the operational one on the other hand:

The cultural actors are:

-The museum’s direction (decision-making body);

-The educational service, main interlocutor of the social actors, coordinating the projects and insuring the relay with the museum’s direction, the social workers and the trainers;

-The trainers: in this case, art historians, guidingat the Museum of Mariemont, or artists recruited by the educational service and working in collaboration with the guides.

The social actors are:

-The direction of the social help centres

-The caretakers of the social help centres and the social workers

  1. The Work process / the Approach (optional)

Together with the social help centres of its region, the museum elaborated several projects aiming to use the museum’s facilities to favour the emancipation of the society’s most fragile people. The most ambitious project, from this point of view, was about the creation of a “Maison des arts et du patrimoine social” (MAPS) (“House of arts and social heritage”), witch acted from 1993 to 2008. Whatever the term and modalities of the project of partnership museum-social structure, the modules of animation which constitute it correspond to adapted visits of the permanent collections and temporary exhibitions of the museum. The themes of those visits are adapted to the nature of the project. They are proposed on the mode of the dialogue (rather than an ex-cathedra presentation), which facilitates the ‘familiarization’ whit the museum. Workshops can complete those modules. They are provided by professional artists working in close collaboration with the staff of the museum’s educational service. Within the partnership between the museum and the social structures, the museum is acting as a leverage regarding to emancipation and citizenship.

  1. The Measure of Success

The results of this kind of partnerships are difficult to asses as it is situated in the field of personal experience. Nevertheless, they can be measured by the accounts of the participants and of the social workers.

1. At an individual level

“Before, I said “I don’t like museums”, now, I say “I don’t like museums but…” (Alexandra). This testimony show’s how access to culture leads to questioning and to intellectual curiosity. This virtuous circle is very beneficial for self esteem.If self esteem, desire to learn more and taking of responsibility are first reactivated for the participant itself, they also come to influence the participant’s family and friends.

2. At the level of community

“In fact, the Ancient Greek and Roman are just like us, they are people…” (Chantal). The feeling of membership is strengthened by the reading of one’s past.

3. At the level of society

“So, a museum is a place where we keep objects that are too old to be thrown away” (Amina). Confrontation with other values is also very beneficial.

A few ciphers also provide a measure of the project’s success. Every year, during fifteen years, about twelve beneficiaries of the minimum wage, followed a specific training of more than hundred lesson hours, including theory and practice, all over the year. Half of them succeeded. As this success also influenced their circle of acquaintances, we may say that more than 220 people were concerned. Besides, during fifteen years, two full-time workers were serving the project.

  1. The main obstacles (optional)

Concerning the MAPS the project leaded to a deadlock. There appeared to be a difference in the goals of the cultural and social actors. The principle of social integration is not always well appreciated in the lights of a socio-professional integration logic.The human factor constituted an important obstacle and the ‘heirs’ of the project didn’t choose to work together neither to trust each other. Finally, the lack of adaptation of the project to the moving society also led to problems even as the lack of self-assessment.

 Lessons learned

This project, allowed the museum to evaluate its integration possibilities towards a public that never spends time in such institutions. The ending of the MAPS leaded to a better comprehension of the difficulties of such partnerships, regarding as well the general working as their philosophy and goals. It appeared that an adequacy of the goals is essential and that self-assessment and re-adaptation are necessary.

The project also showed how pertinent culture is in a social integration process: a lot of testimonies give evidence of the self-fulfilment and emancipation of the participants.It also develops a feeling for citizenship.

  1. Project Innovation Content and Adaptability

The project, which is completely new in French speaking Belgium, is continuing in other ways. The Museum is setting its reflexions farther, developing new projects and looking for new partners, seeking to adapt the aims and approaches to its public, with in the background the experience of the MAPS.

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