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Abstract
In 2020, Brazil and Italy were among the countries most adversely affected by the Covid-19 pandemic. The situation highlighted latent structural crises at social and economic levels and prompted widespread concern for the future. Operating in this context, ecomuseums and community museums continued their mission of caring for and interpreting living cultural heritage, empowering communities to sustainably manage heritage and thus contributing to integral local development and the strengthening of a shared social consciousness and identity. Measures aiming at the containment of the pandemic led ecomuseums to explore new methods of public engagement, inspiration and support in a bid to meet local community needs.
The Brazilian Association of Ecomuseums and Community Museums (ABREMC) and the Italian Ecomuseums Network (EMI) discussed and approved the cooperation charter ‘Distant but United. The Ecomuseums and Community Museums of Italy and Brazil’ over the course of several meetings, reflecting on the responsibilities of museums in a period of crisis. The charter identifies the 10-year commitments of the signatories for the implementation of an articulated cooperation programme, as well as defining an annual calendar of promoted actions. It lays out agreed themes and strategic lines (Exchanging, Welcoming, Publishing, Training, Inviting, Organising, Communicating, and Monitoring), as well as implementation times and actions to be carried out with the involvement of actors from both sides.
The charter stresses the role of ecomuseums and community museums in the promotion of both museum practices and a transition towards the creation of resilient communities, supporting them towards the goal of renewing themselves and facing contemporary crises in effective and sustainable ways. This article presents the main themes and objectives of the charter and proposes a theoretical model for understanding how bolstering communities and their ‘social imaginaries’ is crucial to fostering the integral development of communities and social innovation. It first discusses the changes necessary to overcome contemporary crises by drawing on some important theoretical models; before turning to examine how ecomuseums of Italy and Brazil responded to limitations imposed by the Covid-19 pandemic. It next presents a few ecomuseum practices developed during the pandemic, illustrates the methodology and contents of the charter and, finally, presents the main results, limitations and development prospects of the cooperation experience.
Acknowledgements
We would like to thank all the colleagues who contributed to the elaboration of the ‘Distant but United’ Ccooperation Charter. Special thanks to Hugues de Varine and Alberto Garlandini for their theoretical and practical support towards sustaining a constantly growing network of Italian and Brazilian ecomuseums.
Notes
1 We refer to the concept of cultural heritage that emerges from the ‘Convention for the Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage’ (UNESCO 2003) and from the ‘Framework Convention on the value of cultural heritage for society’ (Council of Europe 2005): an evolving heritage, which contributes to sustainable development and to increasing the quality of life of the communities that identify with it; a heritage to be transmitted to future generations but also to be renewed and adapted to changing contexts and the needs of communities.
2 That is: it reaches the deliberative phase of the process and its realisation through the empowerment of citizens.
3 We define ‘sustainability’ as a dynamic balance between the demands of environmental protection, social equity and economic development.
4 The Associação Brasileira de Ecomuseu and Museus Comunitários (ABREMC) is an association founded in 2004. Its mission is to foster the creation, strengthening, support and dissemination of ecomuseums, community museums and similar processes. It works for social, community and sustainable development, culture and education and the enhancement of cultural heritage as an instrument of social emancipation. See: https://abremc.blogspot.com/ [Accessed 27 October 2021].
5 The Network of Italian Ecomuseums (EMI) is an informal community of practice founded in 2015; it is open to all ecomuseums that share the 2016 Strategic Manifesto. It promotes models and tools for sustainable local development. See: https:// sites.google.com/view/ecomuseiitaliani/ home [Accessed 27 October 2021].
6 https://www.ecomuseocasilino.it/ [Accessed 27 October 2021].
7 https://www.vallidiargenta.org/ [Accessed 27 October 2021].
8 http://ecomuseuamazonia.blogspot.com/ [Accessed 27 October 2021].
9 https://www.ecomuseoseulo.com/. [Accessed 27 October 2021].
10 http://www.ecomuseodelleacque.it/ [Accessed 27 October 2021].
11 http://ecomuseusjc.blogspot.com/ [Accessed 27 October 2021].
12 https://ecomuseudemaranguape.blogspot.com/ [Accessed 27 October 2021].
13 A community of practice is a group of people who work together to fulfill shared goals around common issues and through shared practices and methods.
Additional information
Notes on contributors
Raul Dal Santo
Raul Dal Santo is an ecologist and coordinator of both the Landscape Ecomuseum of Parabiago and the Mulini Natural Park near Milan, Italy.
Nádia Helena Oliveira Almeida
Nádia Helena Oliveira Almeida is a museologist and a PhD student in Educational Sciences (University of Porto). She has coordinated the Maranguape Ecomuseum since 2005, and has sat on the executive board of the Association of Ecomuseums and Community Museums (ABREMC) in Brazil since 2013.
Raffaella Riva
Raffaella Riva is Assistant Professor of Architectural Technology at the Politecnico di Milano, Department of Architecture, Built Environment and Construction Engineering (Italy).
The authors are part of the steering committee which in 2020 promoted the Cooperation Charter ‘Distant but United’.