Our partners from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Dimitris Pettas and Martha Michailidou, and MAZOMOS, Stelios Lekakis, were invited to present Glammons and discuss cultural heritage as a common good during a conference at the Research Centre for the Humanities / Κέντρο Έρευνας για τις Ανθρωπιστικές Επιστήμες – ΚΕΑΕ, on February 29, 2024.
Three EU-funded research and innovation projects, invited professionals from GLAMs to take part in the webinar “Sustainable Models for GLAMs-New ways of participatory management and sustainable financing of cultural institutions” on February 20, 2024.
During the online event, GLAMMONS together with ReCharge and LibrarIN presented the core vision of their approach to participation in the cultural sector, the value of this approach, the needs assessments, and capacity building before an open discussion with the audience.
Watch the webinar HERE.
Program:
-Welcome and introduction by Hinano Spreafico, European Commission, and the moderator, Ares Kalandides, GLAMMONS
-GLAMMONS: Resilient, sustainable, and participatory practices: Towards the GLAMs of the commons by Vasilis Avdikos, GLAMMONS
-RECHARGE: Resilient European Cultural Heritage as Resource for Growth and Engagement by Trilce Navarrete, RECHARGE
-LibrarIN. Value co-creation and social innovation for a new generation of European libraries by Luis Rubalcaba and Andrej Vrčon, LibrarIN
Open discussion
-The multiple financial channels of GLAMs, chaired by Janet Merkel (Technische Universität Berlin)
-Understanding and Fostering Participation in Cultural Heritage, chaired by Maja Drabczyk (Fundacja Centrum Cyfrowe) with Una Hussey (The Hunt Museum), RECHARGE Living Labs and Kelly Hazejager (Sound & Vision, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid), RECHARGE Playbook
-Libraries as living labs, chaired by Lars Fuglsang and Luis Rubalcaba, LibrarIN
-Wrap-up and closing of the event by Ares Kalandides
Three EU-funded research and innovation projects, invited professionals from GLAMs to take part in the webinar “Sustainable Models for GLAMs-New ways of participatory management and sustainable financing of cultural institutions” on February 20, 2024.
During the online event, GLAMMONS together with ReCharge and LibrarIN presented the core vision of their approach to participation in the cultural sector, the value of this approach, the needs assessments, and capacity building before an open discussion with the audience.
Watch the webinar HERE.
Program:
-Welcome and introduction by Hinano Spreafico, European Commission, and the moderator, Ares Kalandides, GLAMMONS
-GLAMMONS: Resilient, sustainable, and participatory practices: Towards the GLAMs of the commons by Vasilis Avdikos, GLAMMONS
-RECHARGE: Resilient European Cultural Heritage as Resource for Growth and Engagement by Trilce Navarrete, RECHARGE
-LibrarIN. Value co-creation and social innovation for a new generation of European libraries by Luis Rubalcaba and Andrej Vrčon, LibrarIN
Open discussion
-The multiple financial channels of GLAMs, chaired by Janet Merkel (Technische Universität Berlin)
-Understanding and Fostering Participation in Cultural Heritage, chaired by Maja Drabczyk (Fundacja Centrum Cyfrowe) with Una Hussey (The Hunt Museum), RECHARGE Living Labs and Kelly Hazejager (Sound & Vision, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid), RECHARGE Playbook
-Libraries as living labs, chaired by Lars Fuglsang and Luis Rubalcaba, LibrarIN
-Wrap-up and closing of the event by Ares Kalandides
a working paper by Janet Merkel:
The financial survival of many cultural organisations has been shaken, and for some shattered, during the COVID pandemic—at a time when organisations were just coming back from the shock of the global financial crisis and the austerity that ensued in many EU member states. To date, the funding situation, and financial channels of GLAMs remain underexplored in cultural policy and cultural economics literature, especially in a European context as most studies on public funding, earned income, and fundraising are limited to the US and UK. Based on a literature review, a policy mapping across the EU-27 member states, and the result of the GLAMMONS survey that contained several items on the financial situation of GLAMs, this working paper discusses cultural policy changes after the pandemic and the specific changes with the funding of GLAMs and shifts in their financial structure. This working paper aims to gain a broader understanding of the field and get deeper insights into the challenges that GLAMs faced before the COVID-19 pandemic and after it.
The main findings can be summarized as:
While the findings of the Survey are not representative and only preliminary with a partial exploration of the research topics, they give indications for our shared research on GLAMMONS and can be considered a good starting point for future investigations.
A new interactive platform has been launched on our website.
The blog was created to communicate information and establish a two-way communication channel. This dedicated section is employed for pursuing continuous engagement with updated materials and research. We invite interested parties (managers, practitioners, team leaders, etc.) to contribute content regarding their experiences of current challenges that GLAMs and CCIs face (due to the pandemic or more generally) and successful ways to tackle them and adjust. In GLAMMONS, the Members of the Consortium will commit resources to ensure active maintenance of the platform (also beyond the end of the project), and that it will continue to serve as a valuable source for related research. To start, we propose an article entitled “Transforming Insights: Adapting GLAMs to a Commons Framework” introducing a fresh perspective on Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums (GLAMs), framing them as potential commons, shared spaces produced and managed by their communities.
Be the first to comment and open the discussion!
In the ever-evolving cultural landscape, the way we perceive and engage with memory institutions is undergoing a profound transformation. Our recently published scholarly work, titled “Rethinking GLAMs as commons: a conceptual framework”, introduces a fresh perceptive on Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums (GLAMs), framing them as potential commons – shared spaces produced and managed by their communities[1].
GLAMs and their professionals have traditionally been viewed as the main custodians of knowledge and our common heritage. However, demands for greater democratization and participation in the sector today challenge this conventional understanding. Professionals need to examine further their roles as facilitators of community-driven narratives, encouraging inclusivity, and fostering a sense of shared ownership among the public. At the same time, more and more local commons-oriented initiatives are popping up in urban as well as in rural and peripheral areas in the EU, like neighbourhood libraries, oral history groups and archives, local community museums, etc.
Drawing inspiration from the “new commons”, we argue that GLAMs can be reconceptualized as commons-like institutions; spaces that can be collectively owned, managed, and sustained by their communities. This shift in perspective emphasises the participatory role of the public and its importance in shaping the purpose of memory institutions and safeguarding their sustainability in the current socio-economic landscape.
Figure 1: The different layers of GLAMs as commons, as conceptualised in Avdikos et al.
How do we conceptualise GLAMs as commons? Or where do we find commoning practices in GLAMs?
Figure 1 outlines three levels where commoning practices are performed. Commons-oriented GLAMs usually have a horizontal decision-making process that entails assemblies of the community, while the community owns the archive, library or the museum. The legal forms usually implemented in such organisations are associations, cooperatives, charities, etc. The next level is the one where most of the challenges in GLAMs’ operations are found. And this is the level of securing the autonomy of the organisation against dependencies from market forces (private donors/patrons) or the state. Commons-oriented GLAMs need to find the right balance to secure the resources that are needed for the organisation to keep performing, while maintaining relations with the market and the state. Many commons-oriented GLAMs attempt to secure their autonomy by relying on volunteering labour from their community, while others attempt to secure resources also through networks with other commons initiatives (e.g. urban commons, digital commons). The third level is the level of openness and accessibility of the organisation, where we find co-creation processes and an augmented possibility for the audiences to actively participate in shaping the outputs, through co-exhibitions, etc., that is, for the audiences to transform from audiences to participants.
Are all the above levels to be found in most of GLAMs? Probably not; there are not that many organisations that operate as commons-GLAMs per se, but there are a lot of GLAMs which have internalized and currently use commoning practices from all these three levels. A key difference is the ‘location’ of these commoning practices and whether these give an advanced role to the community to decide upon the matters that are most crucial for the organisation. Usually, smaller and community-oriented GLAMs may have greater flexibility in adopting commons-like governance, whereas bigger organisations (e.g. public sector institutions, or private entities) usually engage with co-creation commoning practices through digitalisation processes and citizen/community participation. One implication of mapping commons practices and their ‘entry points’ is providing GLAMs’ professionals with resources which could aid in promoting the proliferation and expansion of commoning practices within cultural organisations.
Overall, our conceptual framework challenges us to reimagine GLAMs as dynamic, participatory commons which thrive on community engagement and enable this engagement to become more meaningful participation. This fresh perspective invites heritage and culture professionals to further help unlocking the past in a way that truly belongs to the present and its people.
At the same time, the application of such practices shows us that we need to rethink the ways in which the state and public sector can assist such commons arrangements. The public sector should assist such initiatives through the provision of a supportive institutional and legal framework, which could further enable commoning practices (for instance, through social and solidarity economy legal forms), and funding schemes (or the provision of some basic infrastructure, like cloud storage) that can be effectively used in commons arrangements and can assist these organisations in responding to their main challenges.
[1] Avdikos, Vasilis, Mina Dragouni, Martha Michailidou, and Dimitris Pettas. “Rethinking GLAMs as commons: a conceptual framework.” Open Research Europe 3, no. 157 (2023): 157, https://doi.org/10.12688/openreseurope.16473.1
Save the date!
Join us for a first online meeting on February 20, 2024, and engage in this game-changer network.
Click HERE to subscribe to the webinar: “Sustainable Models for GLAMs – New Ways of participatory management and sustainable financing of cultural institutions”.
Three EU-funded research and innovation projects, GLAMMONS, RECHARGE and LibrarIN, invite practitioners from Galleries, Libraries, Archives, and Museums to exchange views on various challenges facing GLAMs such as augmenting participation, finding new and alternative ways of financing, and accelerating social impact.
ONLINE EVENT PROGRAM
During the online event, each project will present the core vision of their approach to participation in the cultural sector, the value of this approach, the needs assessments, and capacity building before an open discussion with the audience.
Tuesday 20 February
13.00-13.05: Welcome and introduction by Hinano Spreafico, European Commission, and the moderator, Ares Kalandides, GLAMMONS
13.05-13.15: GLAMMONS: Resilient, sustainable, and participatory practices: Towards the GLAMs of the commons by Vasilis Avdikos, GLAMMONS
13.15-13.25: RECHARGE: Resilient European Cultural Heritage as Resource for Growth and Engagement by Trilce Navarrete, RECHARGE
13.25-13.35: LibrarIN. Value co-creation and social innovation for a new generation of European libraries by Luis Rubalcaba Bermejo and Andrej Vrčon, LibrarIN
Open discussion
13.35-14.00: The multiple financial channels of GLAMs, chaired by Janet Merkel (Technische Universität Berlin)
14.00-14.25: Understanding and Fostering Participation in Cultural Heritage, chaired by Maja Drabczyk (Fundacja Centrum Cyfrowe) with Una Hussey (The Hunt Museum), RECHARGE Living Labs and Kelly Hazejager (Sound & Vision, Nederlands Instituut voor Beeld en Geluid), RECHARGE Playbook
14.25-14.50: Libraries as living labs, chaired by Lars Fuglsang, LibrarIN
14.50-15.00: Wrap-up and closing of the event by Ares Kalandides
MORE ABOUT THE THREE EU PROJECTS
COVID-19 forced the world to act quickly to face the extraordinary challenges brought on by the pandemic. Cultural institutions — galleries, libraries, archives, and museums (GLAMs) — were not unscathed. GLAMs had already been struggling due to a lack of funding, higher operational and maintenance costs, and tourism-laden problems. The question has emerged: How can GLAMs organise and articulate cultural production and consumption? GLAMMONS will address these challenges and will focus on how to organize and articulate cultural production and consumption. The project’s objective is to provide answers to the above challenges, fill gaps, and advance research and policy by employing the theory of the commons to provide solutions that safeguard the sustainability, access, and well-being of the sector, its workforce, and surrounding communities.
Public libraries remain major cultural institutions. However, they need to develop new functions and services and find better ways to engage with individuals, organisations, and communities. The project LibrarIN explores value co-creation – a process through which libraries and the public become equal and active partners in creating value. It focuses on three co-creation areas, namely digital transformation, living labs, and social entrepreneurship, as well as public-private third-sector innovation networks.
Emerging from the pandemic, the role played by many Cultural Heritage Institutions (CHIs) in keeping citizens engaged and mentally healthy through a variety of creative initiatives is widely acknowledged; however, this was also a time of financial loss. Turning that creativity into money that keeps the institution afloat is the challenge RECHARGE is set to answer. The project will show how creativity can be monetized to keep the institution afloat.
Our partner Mazomos was invited to participate in the online conference entitled “Heritage and Reuse”, on December 16, 2023. This event was organised by the University of Thessaly in the framework of the course “Contemporary Architecture in Old Buildings and Historic Complexes”, part of the Post-graduate Master of Reuse of Building and Complexes.
In Session 3: “Accessibility to Heritage”, Stelios Lekakis presented “Commons and the Prospect of Accessibility in Cultural Heritage Resources. The Case of Island Greece”.
GLAMMONS is pleased to be part of the new release of the European Commission publication office.
“Driving a green, digital & innovative European Cultural Heritage” gathers short descriptions of the projects from the 2021 and 2022 calls for proposals of Cluster 2 “Culture, Creativity and Inclusive Society”, under the Destination “Innovative Research on European Cultural Heritage and Cultural and Creative Industries – Building Our Future From the Past”.
Download the booklet here and learn more about GLAMMONS and our sister projects Recharge and LibrarIn.
Funded by the European Union. Views and opinions expressed are, however, those of the author(s) only and do not necessarily reflect those of the European Union or European Research Executive Agency (REA). Neither the European Union nor the European Research Executive Agency (REA) can be held responsible for them.
