Training for the Contact Zone

Training for the Contact Zone “Training for the Contact Zone” (TCZ), an Erasmus+ Adult Education project, running from 1 September 2024 – 31 August 2026.

TCZ will conduct training sessions to enhance the skills of cultural mediators and innovate their practices. “Training for the Contact Zone” (TCZ) is an Erasmus+ Adult Education project, running from 1 September 2024 – 31 August 2026. The project aims to raise awareness about the importance and challenges that museums and heritage sites face in reaching and serving a broad and diverse audience. Training is essential to effectively manage new approaches. The following organisations form the TCZ consortium:

▪️ Culture Action Europe (Brussels, Belgium), in the lead for networking and knowledge sharing
▪️ Conexiones improbables (Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain), in the lead for curriculum development
▪️ Etz Hayyim Synagoge (Chania, Crete Greece)
▪️ Goethe-Institut (Bucharest, Romania), in the lead for communication and dissemination
▪️ Humán Platform (Budapest, Hungary)
▪️ PELE (Porto, Portugal), in the lead for the training
▪️ Stichting Herengracht 401 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands) as the overall project management lead partner. Over the next two years, we will develop and test training materials for heritage sector professionals, artists, cultural mediators, staff, and volunteers.

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – Human Platform (HP) Through a series of interview‑style podcasts, each partner organ...
31/08/2026

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – Human Platform (HP)

Through a series of interview‑style podcasts, each partner organisation from the TCZ network has the opportunity to present who they are, what they do, and how they contributed to the project’s mission.

How can culture create space for dialogue on difficult histories?

In this episode of Diving into the contact zones, Human Platform Budapest reflects on the challenges of addressing Hungary’s responsibility during the Holocaust and the final years of National Socialism. We discuss how the TCZ methodology helps build bridges across different perspectives and supports a more open, participatory, and inclusive culture of remembrance.

Joachim Umlauf (Goethe-Institut Bucharest) in dialogue with Mária Heller and András Rényi, representing The Living Memorial and Human Platform initiatives.

🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube – link in our bio!
🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – Etz HayyimOur Diving into the Contact Zones podcast series brings together the voices...
28/08/2026

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – Etz Hayyim

Our Diving into the Contact Zones podcast series brings together the voices behind the Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) project. Hosted by Joachim Umlauf (Goethe-Institut Bucharest), each episode explores a partner's local activities, workshops, and lessons learned, and how these shaped the shared TCZ curriculum for cultural mediators.

How can a historic synagogue become a meeting place for people of all cultures and faiths?
In this episode, Konstantinos Rizos and Eleni Mavragani present ETZ Hayyim in Chania, Crete - a unique heritage site that combines remembrance, dialogue, and community engagement. Through workshops and cultural mediation activities, they explore how contested histories can become opportunities for encounter, participation, and mutual understanding.

🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube – link in our bio!

🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.

26/08/2026

🌍💬La geografía también recuerda.

¿Qué ocurre cuando un territorio se rebela contra el silencio y decide recuperar su propia memoria?

✊🗣️En el marco de las jornadas ‘La Rebelión del Relato’, celebradas recientemente con impulso de la candidatura LPGC3031, Pino Sosa, activista y pionera de la memoria democrática, nos invita a mirar atrás para comprender quiénes somos y qué historias quedaron fuera del relato.

🗺️Porque “Rebelión de la Geografía” también significa esto: reivindicar las voces, las experiencias y las memorias de quienes habitaron nuestros territorios y que durante demasiado tiempo quedaron al margen.

Una rebelión para que la memoria no sea pasado, sino una herramienta para construir el futuro💜.

📹:

…………………………………………………………………

🌍💬Geography remembers too
What happens when a territory rebels against silence and chooses to reclaim its own memory?

✊🗣️ As part of ‘The Rebellion of the Narrative’, recently promoted by the LPGC2031 candidacy, Pino Sosa, activist and pioneer of democratic memory, invites us to look back in order to understand who we are and which stories were left out of the narrative.

🗺️ Because also means this: reclaiming the voices, experiences, and memories of those who inhabited our territories and who, for far too long, remained on the margins.

💜 A rebellion that understands memory not as something belonging to the past, but as a tool for building the future.

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – PELEOur Diving into the Contact Zones podcast series brings together the voices behin...
26/08/2026

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – PELE

Our Diving into the Contact Zones podcast series brings together the voices behind the Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) project. Hosted by Joachim Umlauf (Goethe-Institut Bucharest), each episode explores a partner's local activities, workshops, and lessons learned, and how these shaped the shared TCZ curriculum for cultural mediators.

In this episode, Joachim Umlauf (Goethe-Institut Bucharest) speaks with Maria João Mota, Creative and Critical Maker and Carina Moutinho, Project Coordination, both part of PELE collective (Porto, Portugal) - an initiative active in the field of participatory and community artistic practices.

What happens when cultural heritage confronts difficult histories? In this episode, the PELE team explores how cultural mediation can open spaces for dialogue around contested memories and colonial legacies. Through participatory workshops and community engagement, they create contact zones where diverse perspectives can meet, fostering reflection, understanding, and new ways of relating to the past.

🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube – link in our bio!
🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.

14/08/2026

también es una ‘Rebelión del relato’.

💬 La jornada exploró nuevas herramientas y experiencias para abordar el patrimonio cultural desde perspectivas más diversas, inclusivas y participativas.

🇪🇺 Voces de Canarias y Europa compartieron experiencias vinculadas a la memoria, la diversidad cultural, la igualdad y el pensamiento crítico, demostrando que el patrimonio no es un relato cerrado, sino una conversación en constante construcción.

👉Porque toda comunidad se cuenta a sí misma a través de las historias que conserva, pero también a través de aquellas que decide volver a mirar, revisar y ampliar.

📹:
………………………………………………………………………………………………

is also a ‘Rebellion of the Narrative’.

💬 The gathering explored new tools and experiences for approaching cultural heritage from more diverse, inclusive and participatory perspectives.

🇪🇺 Voices from the Canary Islands and across Europe shared experiences related to memory, cultural diversity, equality and critical thinking, showing that heritage is not a fixed narrative, but an ongoing conversation.

👉 Because every community tells its story through the narratives it preserves, but also through those it chooses to revisit, rethink and expand.

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – Connexiones ImprobablesOur Diving into the Contact Zones podcast series brings togeth...
12/08/2026

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – Connexiones Improbables

Our Diving into the Contact Zones podcast series brings together the voices behind the Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) project. Hosted by Joachim Umlauf (Goethe-Institut Bucharest), each episode explores a partner's local activities, workshops, and lessons learned, and how these shaped the shared TCZ curriculum for cultural mediators.

In this episode, Lukas Dedyn, Project Coordinator at Connexiones Improbables, and Alex Carrascosa—artist, activist, and professor at the University of the Basque Country—reflect on the development of the curriculum and discuss how artistic thinking and multipartial cultural mediation can help us engage with contested heritage.

Drawing on experiences from the Basque Country, they explore how cultural mediation is not about resolving conflicts, but about creating spaces where different perspectives can meet. Through artistic practice, memory becomes something we actively engage with, and everyone—not only museum professionals—can contribute to how places, histories, and their many layered narratives are understood and shared.

🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube – link in our bio!

🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – H401How can inclusive, decolonial heritage work be realised? What tools do we need to...
08/08/2026

🎙️ Diving into the Contact Zones – H401

How can inclusive, decolonial heritage work be realised? What tools do we need to engage with contested histories? Our Diving into the Contact Zones podcast series brings together the voices behind the Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) project. Hosted by Joachim Umlauf (Goethe-Institut Bucharest), each episode explores a partner's local activities, workshops, and lessons learned, and how these shaped the shared TCZ curriculum for cultural mediators.

In this episode, Joachim Umlauf (Goethe-Institut Bucharest) speaks with Micol Manunta, project coordinator of the Training for the Contact Zone project at H401 in Amsterdam, and multidisciplinary artist Minal Naomi Wickrematunge, who facilitated H401's TCZ pilot training.

Together, they reflect on the Contact Zone concept at the heart of the project and why it is especially relevant in post-colonial and post-totalitarian contexts, where contested histories, unequal power relations, and questions of whose voices are heard continue to shape collective memory. Minal also shares insights into the ongoing colonial continuities in Sri Lanka and explores how artistic and participatory practices can create new ways of engaging with identity, belonging, and difficult heritage.

🎧 Watch the full episode on YouTube – link in our bio!

🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.

✨Over the past months, our partners have transformed the TCZ methodology into a series of Synergy Events across Europe, ...
05/08/2026

✨Over the past months, our partners have transformed the TCZ methodology into a series of Synergy Events across Europe, demonstrating how the Contact Zone can be adapted to different communities, institutions, and cultural contexts.

From training future heritage professionals in Amsterdam, to rethinking Roma representation in film in Bucharest; from mediating contested heritage in Las Palmas, Gran Canaria, to fostering inclusive classrooms and participatory art in Crete and Chania; from community participation in Türkiye. Each event reinterpreted the TCZ curriculum to address local realities while strengthening dialogue, participation, and cultural mediation.

🧑‍🧑‍🧒‍🧒 Together, these initiatives show that the Contact Zone is more than a training programme. It is a living methodology that continues to inspire educators, artists, cultural practitioners, researchers, and communities to create spaces where multiple perspectives can meet, challenge one another, and shape more inclusive futures.

Thank you to all our partners for carrying the Contact Zone forward and proving that its impact extends far beyond the project itself.

🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union through Erasmus+ Adult Education.

All recordings from our final conference are now available on YouTube and website! 🎥On 2–3 July, we came together in Bru...
20/07/2026

All recordings from our final conference are now available on YouTube and website! 🎥

On 2–3 July, we came together in Brussels for the final conference of Training for the Contact Zone: Cultural Democracy in Contact Zones. Over two inspiring days, cultural practitioners, educators, researchers, policymakers, artists, and heritage professionals explored how cultural democracy can be strengthened through dialogue, participation, and inclusive cultural practice.

The conference featured discussions on cultural rights, contested heritage, participatory methodologies, European cultural policy, and the future of Contact Zone practices. Together, we reflected on how cultural institutions can become spaces where diverse perspectives are welcomed and meaningful dialogue can flourish.

We're happy to share that all panels and sessions from both conference days are now available online. Whether you joined us in Brussels or couldn't attend, you can now watch the full recordings at your own pace.

▶️ You'll find the YouTube playlist via the link in the comment below.

We hope these conversations continue to inspire new ideas, collaborations, and actions for more inclusive cultural institutions and stronger cultural democracy across Europe.

Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union through the Erasmus Plus Adult Education programme.

👐🏼👐🏿👐🏽👐🏾👐🏻A few weeks ago, on 20-21 June, the TCZ Synergy Event “Multivocality, Visibility, and Participatory Art” took ...
17/07/2026

👐🏼👐🏿👐🏽👐🏾👐🏻
A few weeks ago, on 20-21 June, the TCZ Synergy Event “Multivocality, Visibility, and Participatory Art” took place at Etz Hayyim Synagogue in Hania.
👐🏼👐🏿👐🏽👐🏾👐🏻

The event was organized by Young Citizens of the World, an associated partner of the TCZ project, and connected the Training for the Contact Zone curriculum with the emerging Activity Circle ΑμεΑ και τα Χανιά / AmeA kai ta Hania – People with Disabilities, and Hania.

The two-day training brought together teachers, artists, psychologists, parents, community members, and people working closely with the AmeA community in Hania. It was facilitated by Konstantin Fischer together with Maria Kyvernitaki and Nancy Love, newly certified TCZ trainers who completed the full TCZ training in Hania in January and February 2026. Michail Kalaitzakis and Nikolaos Kampianakis, also certified through the same training, contributed as artists.

The training became a space of exchange: between professional experience, lived experience, artistic practice, and TCZ tools. Through discussion, shared reflection, and participatory art exercises — including a collective jigsaw puzzle on “My Dream Society” — participants explored visibility, representation, access, equality, equity, and shared ownership of cultural and public spaces.

The weekend also opened an important conversation about longer-term cooperation between schools, organizations, artists, families, and the wider community. It marked a step toward a more coordinated local process around disability visibility, participation, and cultural democracy.

The long-term vision continues toward a joint exhibition in September/October 2026, presenting artworks created by young AmeA together with local artists.

🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.

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