MUCIT: Museums as Sites of Citizenship

This new project will gather forces across Norway, Poland and Ukraine to support Ukrainian museums and memorial sites by strengthening their civic education programs and building their capacity to safeguard, strengthen and showcase democracy as part of intangible cultural heritage during the war and in the postwar recovery.

“MUCIT: Museums as Sites of Citizenship,” is a two-year project that unites the European Wergeland Centre, National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity – Maidan Museum in Ukraine, POLIN – Museum of Polish Jews, and Utøya in Norway.

As a prelude to this project, EWC gathered  56 museum educators from 10 European countries in Oslo in March 2024 to explore how museums can respond to threats against democracy in Europe and help young citizens develop democratic resilience.

The project will build on the needs to strengthen the capacities of museums to promote the culture of democracy, develop democratic competences and encourage civic participation among younger generations in Ukraine and Europe as a whole.

We will facilitate networking and experience sharing between museum educators in the three countries on how to help society deal with traumatic experience causing alienation, disentanglement, lack of trust and social divides, and how to transform traumatic experience into constructive civic action and participation in local communities.

A specific focus will be on cooperation between museums and schools and teaching sensitive and controversial issues through synergies between cultural and educational sectors. The Project will encourage inter-sectoral co-creation, cooperation and innovation.

The Project will unite museum educators and experts from 10 institutions in Ukraine, Norway, Poland and other European countries, and 200 local actors, policy makers and educators through workshops, study visits and webinars, development of digital resources, and a summer school for teachers in Ukraine.

It is expected that cooperation between the National Museum of the Revolution of Dignity in Ukraine, the Ukrainian Coalition of Memory, Utøya, the European Wergeland Center in Norway and POLIN Museum in Poland will result in strong European partnerships, dynamic professional development for museum experts in Ukraine, Poland and Norway, and strong support to Ukrainian museums in their development of innovative educational programs and cutting-edge resources to address younger audiences.

Partners: Utøya, POLIN, Maidan Museum

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 the European Education and Culture Executive Agency (EACEA). Neither the European Union nor EACEA can be held responsible for them. 

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