Author: glammons

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Launching of the interactive platform/Blog – 21/02/2024

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!  

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Adapting GLAMs to a Commons Framework

19/02/2024

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

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Newsletter #2 – Subscribe to our online event – 08/02/2024

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.

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Participation in an online conference – 16/12/2023

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”.

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3rd Consortium Meeting in Dijon – 12-13/10/2023

On the 12th and 13th of October 2023, our partner, BSB – Burgundy School of Business, hosted us in Dijon for the 3rd GLAMMONS Consortium Meeting.
During two days, the partners talked about the project, discussed the results of the survey, the research objectives, the case studies (museum, archives, galleries, and libraries selected to be the main focus of our research during the next months), and the role of the value-based approach.
 
The meeting ended with a visit to the contemporary art center, Le Consortium. 
Founded in 1977 and housed since 2011 in a 4,500 m2, Shigeru Ban-designed building, Le Consortium is an independent non-profit organization with an art collection that includes more than 350 works.
In collaboration with the Fondation de France, Le Consortium is the facilitator for the Nouveaux Commanditaires / New Patrons program, which allows individuals to band together around a specific issue or cause and commission an artist to make a piece centered on their concern. This initiative allows citizens confronted with societal challenges or land-planning development to commission artworks from contemporary artists, to associate them with their concerns.
Le Consortium is an interesting example for GLAMMONS aiming to develop new conceptualizations through the ways that the commons theory and practice can provide a new transformative power for the GLAMS and the local communities.
 
©BSB
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Release / EU Commission publication office – 29/09/2023

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.

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New collaboration with World Heritage Catalysis – 11/09/2023

GLAMMONS’ partners started a new collaboration with the World Heritage Catalysis to further explore shared synergies. World Heritage Catalysis seeks to support, connect and collaborate with value-aligned organisations, networks, and individuals.
World Heritage Catalysis supports an emerging commons-oriented community of practice applying strategic and innovative approaches in tourism destination and visitor management aiming to protect natural and cultural heritage while building adaptive, resilient, and peaceful communities.
Their mission is to realise the transformative potential of World Heritage through strategic visitor management, circular economics, and collaborative governance.


Find more about their commoning approach: https://www.whcatalysis.org/

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New collaboration with ICOM-INTERCOM – 30/08/2023

GLAMMONS’ partners are glad to announce the new collaboration with ICOM-INTERCOM, the International Committee for Museum Management that is part of the International Council of Museums (ICOM). INTERCOM’s interests include, but are not limited to governance; not-for-profit management practice in a theoretical framework; international law as it relates to museums; human and financial resource management; reputation management, and the financing of museums. The objectives of GLAMMONS closely align with INTERCOM’s mission and resonate with the findings of their recent global research efforts, including “Taking the Pulse” and the “MUSEUM WATCH Government Management Project“.

As Goranka Horjan, chair at the ICOM-INTERCOM board, mentioned: “Topics related to the Management field are crucial to understanding to stay relevant in our everyday work. We recently have been exploring topics like funding, collection development, and care, audience participation, operational and financial setbacks, challenges of decolonisation and restitution, and digital challenges – which are critical to embrace, and we are looking for your point of view to enrich them.”

Help us to explore these crucial topics, provide us with your feedback, and participate in our survey until the 10th of September. https://survey.zohopublic.eu/zs/VMBjfE

 

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Seminar “Museums and societies reinvented” (France) – 25/05/2023

On Thursday the 25th of May, our partner Vasilis Avdikos (from Panteion University of Social and Political Sciences, Greece, leader of the project) presented GLAMMONS to the French audience during the third session of the research seminar organised by SIC.Lab Méditerranée and entitled “Museums and societies reinvented”.

This session questioning « The museum: third place and cultural commons? » allows Vasilis Avdikos to set out our project “GLAMMONS: towards the GLAMs of the commons – a research and innovation project” alongside Alice Borchi from the University of Leeds (UK) who presented the “Commoning cultural value in the museum”.

Venue: Le 109 – Pôle de cultures contemporaines, 89 route de Turin, 06300 Nice

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Participation / European Group on Museum Statistics – 20/04/2023

On the 20th of April, Vasilis Avdikos (Panteion University) presented GLAMMONS at the European Group on Museum Statistics (EGMUS).

The Plenary Meeting of the European Group on Museum Statistics (EGMUS) was held in Belgrade, and organised by the Institute for the Study of Cultural Development. The focus of the international meeting was the contribution of museum statistics to the global Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs), which are part of the UN’s Agenda 2030.

Other topics important for quality statistics and efficient methodological approaches were also discussed, including the new electronic template for national reports, ISO standards for museums, European projects (EIT Culture & Creativity), and the application in statistics of the new museum definition (ICOM).

Some thirty experts from 12 countries (Czech Republic, Finland, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Latvia, Netherlands, Germany, Poland, Serbia, Spain – online, Switzerland), and representatives of Eurostat, GLAMMONS, and Compendium of Cultural Policies and Trends attended the two-day meeting.