Increasing attention is being placed on the social responsibility of contemporary museums and galleries. The implementation of social responsibility projects and community outreach is often carried out through an institution’s education department. Museums and galleries are no longer largely focused on what they present (collections and artworks) but also on the people of their locality and on ways to involve them in their practices. Galleries and museums have never before involved as many individuals through their diverse programming structures, and fostered so many cross-institutional collaborations. This could in fact be interpreted as a direct result of the changing structure of funding mechanisms that have increasingly placed more emphasis on the involvement of diverse social groups and new communities. The need to sing to the tune of multiculturalism, variously defined, has brought museum and gallery educational narratives that aim to represent the voices of minority and marginalized social groups. At the same time, the notion of cultural diversity has been embraced by institutions even as the role of centres of art and culture in processes of regeneration and gentrification is acknowledged and accepted as a complicated one.
This conference, hosted by Point Centre for Contemporary Art and the University of Nicosia, is organised in connection, and in reflection upon Point’s collaboration with a local elementary school (the Eleneio Municipal School in Nicosia, Cyprus) for a local EEA-funded programme entitled “Promoting Anti-Discrimination through Arts Education for the Local Community.” The conference wishes to map out relevant knowledge, and bring about the sharing of good practices, educational and social theory, critical thinking, and on-the-ground expertise between scholars, professionals, and practitioners.
