Heritage in Practice: sustaining intangible cultural heritage through living museums

This BIP explores how intangible cultural heritage can be sustained, (re)interpreted and reimagined through storytelling, community participation, and “living museums”- institutions that bring historical practices, crafts and rituals to life through storytelling and co-creation. It focuses on how such heritage practices foster social inclusion, environmental awareness and collective wellbeing in contemporary societies.

The programme brings together students, academics, museum professionals and heritage practitioners from across Europe to examine how traditions, rituals, craft practices, oral histories and everyday cultural experiences contribute to social inclusion, environmental awareness, intercultural dialogue and collective wellbeing. 

Consortium partners include University of Glasgow, Sapienza University of Rome, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Paris Lodron University of Salzburg and University of Tartu, alongside collaborations with museum and heritage organisations including the Scottish Crannog Centre.

Through a combination of online seminars and an immersive summer school in Scotland, participants will investigate how heritage functions as a living, embodied and participatory process rooted in communities yet connected to broader European and global challenges.

Key elements

The programme aligns with the Hub 2 mission to address societal change through cultural heritage, diversity and civic engagement. It offers a platform for interdisciplinary exchange between museum professionals, academics and students across Europe to examine how living museums -such as the Scottish Crannog Centre and Scotland’s Highland Folk Museum -mediate between historical reconstruction and present-day sustainability.

Participants will investigate how community-based approaches, creative interpretation and heritage crafts contribute to social cohesion and intergenerational dialogue.

The project reflects the CIVIS mission of promoting civic participation, inclusivity and sustainability. It advances the goals of the European Education Area by equipping students with transferable skills in heritage interpretation, cross-cultural collaboration and responsible citizenship. Through its focus on “living heritage”- heritage as a living, embodied practice - the BIP demonstrates how shared cultural experience and active participation can nurture a sense of belonging and civic responsibility. It also supports the EU’s commitment to safeguarding intangible cultural heritage under the 2003 UNESCO Convention and contributes to the objectives of the European Green Deal by fostering environmentally responsible and community-oriented approaches to heritage.

Together, these complementary areas - museum education, public archaeology, art history, museology and regional history - create a strong interdisciplinary foundation. The collaborative framework combines academic research, field practice and reflective co-design, enabling participants to understand intangible heritage not only as a set of cultural practices but also as a dynamic process of meaning-making within communities. 

Through collective reflection and the co-design of small exhibition and interpretation projects, students and staff will engage directly with communities, heritage practitioners and local institutions. This interaction will generate new frameworks for sustaining intangible cultural heritage across European and local contexts.

Ultimately, Heritage in Practice contributes to a shared European understanding of how intangible heritage sustains cultural diversity and strengthens civic identity. It reimagines heritage learning as a collaborative, democratic and transformative process that connects the local, the European and the global dimensions of the CIVIS Alliance.

The BIP aims to create a transnational learning community where students and educators explore how living museums can contribute to the sustainability of intangible cultural heritage and civic engagement. It connects academic study with field practice, enabling participants to experience heritage as a living, participatory process rooted in local communities yet relevant to broader European and global contexts.  

The programme seeks to: 

• foster critical understanding of how intangible heritage contributes to social cohesion, community wellbeing, and sustainable development. analyse the role of living museums and open-air heritage sites in transmitting crafts, practices, and traditions across generations;
• develop intercultural competence and collaborative skills through transnational teamwork and shared reflection. encourage creative and ethical approaches to interpreting, documenting, and revitalising intangible cultural heritage;
• link academic study to real-world practice through immersion in community-based and participatory heritage projects in Scotland. 
  

Upon completion of the BIP, students will be able to:

(knowledge) 

• demonstrate comprehensive understanding of key theories and debates on intangible heritage, community participation, and sustainability across European regions; 
• identify the social and educational roles of living museums and community engagement within contemporary heritage discourse. 

(skills)

• apply interdisciplinary research and observation methods to analyse heritage practices; 
• document and interpret field experiences using visual, written, and collaborative tools; 
• co-design interpretative concepts or small-scale exhibition frameworks integrating community perspectives. 

(competences) 

• work effectively in transnational, interdisciplinary teams; 
• engage in critical reflection on ethical, cultural, and social dimensions of heritage work; 
• communicate findings through oral, written, and digital forms to both academic and public audiences.  

These learning outcomes correspond to a total workload of 150 hours:

1. Online component (2 ECTS): 30 hours of synchronous teaching and discussion; 30 hours of independent study and preparation of an annotated reflection on a heritage practice in the student’s home context;
2. Physical component (4 ECTS): 40-50 hours of field activities, collaborative group work, and presentations during the summer school; 25-30 hours of individual reflection, analysis and final report writing.

The physical section of the course (7-11 June) will be hosted by the University of Glasgow - an ancient, Russell Group University with civic engagement at its core, shaping societal change. The staff and students are engaged in strong, enduring research and community partnerships to support community well being and build a better future. 

The university is situated in the West End of Glasgow and is Scotland’s largest city. It is in close proximity to museums and galleries, including The Kelvingrove Art Gallery and Museum, and its own Hunterian Museum.

Activities combine experiential learning, structured observation, group collaboration and reflective analysis, supporting the programme’s objectives of fostering intercultural dialogue, community-engaged understanding of ICH and interdisciplinary interpretation.  

The agenda also includes field-based learning at the Scottish Crannog Centre and Highland Folk Museum, where participants engage in craft-based learning, collaborative interpretation projects and reflective group work exploring living heritage in practice. 

By combining academic research, intercultural collaboration and community-engaged practice, the programme encourages participants to critically explore the role of heritage in shaping sustainable and inclusive futures:

Day 1 - University of Glasgow

Dr Margaret McColl introduces the structure and objectives of the week, followed by workshops facilitated by BIP co-leads: Professor Martin Knoll, Professor Irene Baldriga and Assistant Professor Marlen Mouliou. Through these workshops, academics and participants will together explore multi-national, multi-cultural considerations for the work of national heritage bodies and museums. This session enables comparative discussion of ICH practices across participants’ national and disciplinary contexts and helps to create mixed-national learning groups.  

Day 2 - The Scottish Crannog Centre

Students engage in embodied, craft-based learning. Activities include preparing an Iron Age lunch, guided interpretation of reconstructed structures, and participation in heritage craft demonstrations. Small groups gather observational data (photographs, notes, conversations, object sketches) related to cultural relatability, community relevance, and intercultural interpretation. Overnight stay in Aberfeldy supports informal peer exchange and reflection.  

Day 3 - The Highland Folk Museum

We extend the investigation focusing on further living museum-based strategies for interpreting ICH within the social, geographical, intellectual and financial confines of current societal and global challenges. Education and curatorial staff introduce themes related to narrative construction, heritage identity, and visitor and community engagement. Students continue their group documentation to compare ICH in two distinct community-embedded settings, supporting interdisciplinary understanding of heritage practice.  

Day 4 - University of Glasgow

Structured reflection and collaborative synthesis. Student groups analyse their field notes and prepare poster presentations demonstrating their comparative understanding of ICH across cultures, sites, and interpretive methods. Staff meet to reflect on group dynamics, discuss pedagogy, and explore future collaboration.  

Day 5 - University of Glasgow

Group poster presentations, peer and tutor feedback and collective discussion of insights gained. This final exchange reinforces intercultural learning, critical reflection and the co-creation of a transnational framework for sustaining living heritage. 

The virtual component of the BIP is designed to build a strong collaborative foundation among participants before the physical meeting. It combines online seminars, a student-led workshop and group discussions to ensure that students arrive already in Glasgow familiar with one another, the programme’s objectives and the core themes and values underpinning Intangible Cultural Heritage policies practices across Europe and, where relevant, beyond. 

The BIP consortium will lead and facilitate the first four virtual sessions with a fifth session led by student participants who will each present on their personal experience and perspective of cultural heritage. Where appropriate, students will be organised into multilingual groups for the programme. Each group will include students from different universities and regions to encourage intercultural exchange and peer collegiality and learning. 

Virtual sessions introduce key themes including heritage education, museology, sustainability, community engagement, difficult heritage and civic participation. Particular attention is given to storytelling within Scottish heritage contexts, exploring how local narratives, traditions and community memories can deepen public engagement and strengthen cultural identity.

The virtual phase will begin with an introductory live session presenting the structure of the BIP, digital platforms, and core readings as agreed by the consortium partners. Subsequent online inputs will be by experts from Glasgow, Sapienza, Athens, Salzburg in addition to guest lectures from museum and heritage partners across Europe.

These sessions will offer virtual spaces to explore and discuss heritage education, museology principles, Intangible Cultural Heritage values and relevance in the world today, heritage politics, community-based museum and heritage engagement and sociological issues that shape and inform heritage and museum futures.  

Session One: University of Glasgow will explore the potential of intangible cultural heritage as a catalyst for storytelling, creativity and social inclusion across diverse cultural and educational contexts. Bringing together participants from museums, heritage organisations, universities and community settings, the session considers how practices such as oral histories, rituals, music, craft, memory and everyday traditions can foster belonging, intergenerational dialogue and cultural participation. 

Particular attention is given to the role of storytelling within Scottish heritage contexts, exploring how local narratives, traditions and community memories can deepen public engagement, strengthen cultural identity and create more inclusive heritage practices. The session will also reflect on the role of intangible heritage in supporting the United Nations Sustainable Development Goals, particularly in relation to sustainable communities, wellbeing, education and cultural equity. The event will additionally introduce plans for our new BIP connected, supporting collaboration between university, museum and heritage professionals, trustees and professionals across Europe.

Session Two: Sapienza University of Rome will organize its own session (to be held in April 2027) to present strategies and best practices for the promotion of intangible cultural heritage in Italy. There will be a general overview of the perception of intangible heritage in Italy and its recent development, particularly in light of the country’s socio-economic and cultural transformations. The Central Institute for Italian Intangible Heritage will be involved, and several examples of community and citizen engagement will be presented through firsthand accounts from directors of local museums and associations (Ecomuseo Casilino in Rome; Museo del Delta Antico in Comacchio, Northern Italy). 

Particular attention will be given to addressing the issue of the plurality of memories and identities and their representation/ recognition through forms of shared storytelling developed using bottom-up approaches, also in consideration of phenomena like decolonization and the deconstruction of "difficult heritage". Specific references will be made to the application of the principles of the Faro Convention

Session Three: National and Kapodistrian University of Athens's online session will be about Intangible heritage in Greece, its institutional safeguarding and enhancement as well as its living use all around the country with key focus on the North-East periphery of Thrace. Assistant Professor Mouliou will navigate this wide and challenging territory with the help of three invited speakers, including: 

• Stavroula Fotopoulou, Head of the Directorate of Modern Greek Culture at the Hellenic Ministry of Culture will present the state institutional strategies and implementation projects regarding Intangible Heritage in Greece and the representation of the country in the relevant bodies in UNESCO. Ms Fotopoulou has been instrumental in strengthening and implementing in the most effective and creative way the UNESCO Convention on Intangible Heritage in Greece and successfully building a national registry of intangible heritage and numerous relevant institutional initiatives which are crucial for its sustainable development in the country. 
• Dr Naya Dalakoura (Archaeologist-Ethnomuseologist & Writer) at the Ephorate of Antiquities in Rhodope, Thrace and Yannis Koukmas (Director of Folklore and Historical Museum of Xanthi, Thrace) will focus on the safeguarding and enhancement of Intangible Heritage in Thrace which is a very interesting region of the country for its incredibly rich heritage and its deeply multicultural identity which presents several challenges and opportunities for developing sustainable cultural policies that will strengthen communities and their intercultural dialogue. 

Session Four: The University of Salzburg will lead the fourth session. The Austrian federal province of Salzburg; a political district of some 560K inhabitants, hosts approximately 150 museums ranging from large scale urban art museums and an open air museum of some 50 ha to a broad range of small community museums of different topic areas and concepts. The online unit will explore the Salzburg case study to discuss the work of regional museums under the specific framework conditions of a tourist destination hosting some 30 million overnight stays per year. 

How can the work with regional history and intangible heritage be created in a way meaningful both for local societies and international visitors? How can co-creation and participatory story telling be organized in a way inclusive for a heterogeneous audience and hereby succeeding in both, the creation of social cohesion of local societies and proceeding towards a more sustainable tourism? Andrea Dillinger, trained historian and president of the regional association of museums and collections, and Martin Knoll, professor for regional history, will give short inputs into exemplary case studies facilitating a discussion of the above sketched questions.

The 5th virtual session will be led by the student participants who will be organised into breakout rooms where they will present their own perspectives on ICH, drawing on examples associated with their cultural and national identity.   

*all sessions will be recorded and uploaded to CIVIS Moodle, allowing asynchronous access for participants in different time zones. A summary of the sessions will be produced as a report for circulation to consortium partners and participants as a record of what has come before the physical component. 

Assessment combines formative and summative methods aligned with the stated learning outcomes and workload.  

Formative

Participants will be asked to prepare 2 ppt slides on an ICH example they associate with on a cultural level. They will give a ten-minute presentation during one of the online workshops between March and May 2027 focussing on: 

• Context and narratives surrounding their example  
• Reasons why they relate, culturally to their example  
• Reasons why their choice is important for nurturing community inclusivity and societal well-being 

Summative

In groups of 3, participants select one ICH activities from The Scottish Crannog Centre and to explore its multi-cultural relatability and relevance. Students asked to map shared relatability in their interpretation and to identify unrelatable aspects. Students required to identify possible opportunities for exploration of IHC from culturally diverse perspectives to support enhanced approaches towards ICH as a stimulus for inclusivity and well-being in heritage practice. Mental well-being to be a focus through a sense of cultural connectedness and shared heritage. 

Participants will gather notes from observations and discussions with site staff as well as photographic evidence and even objects (e.g. objects they have made during heritage workshops) from the site. These will be used in Glasgow to prepare a poster presentations. 

Motivation Letter

Research project outlines

The motivation letter should contain a personal statement that makes clear applicants' reasons for wishing to participate in the BIP and the relevance of the BIP for their research field and interests. Applications will be evaluated on the strength of the relevance of applicants' research to the BIP theme. 

The BIP’s added value lies in its integration of diverse academic and professional perspectives from educators and researchers who approach heritage and regional development from different disciplinary standpoints. 

• Dr Margaret McColl (University of Glasgow) contributes expertise in museum and heritage education, exploring how creativity and experiential learning foster civic and cultural awareness. Dr.McColl is Programme Director of the International Master of Education in Museums and Heriatge and Co-editor of The Routledge Handbook of Museum and Heritage Education (2025).
• Assistant Professor Marlen Mouliou, Dept. of History and Archaeology and MA programme in Museum Studies and CIVIS Open Lab Coordinator at the NKUA (National and Kapodistrian University of Athens) brings her background in museology, archaeology and public archaeology, connecting living heritage practices with community participation and the social role of museums. 
• Prof. Irene Baldriga  (La Sapienza University of Rome) offers insights from historical, artistic, curatorial, and political perspectives, drawing on her research into collecting, patronage, and the dialogue between art, science, and society, particularly as it relates to the role of active citizenship in fostering peace and reconciliation.
• Professor Martin Knoll (University of Salzburg) contributes a historical and regional development perspective, linking living heritage to sustainable territorial and cultural policies.  

Blended Intensive Programme

This CIVIS course is a Blended Intensive Programme (BIP): a new format of Erasmus+ mobility which combines online teaching with a short trip to another campus to learn alongside students and professors across Europe.

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