The project responds to the latest turn in museum theory that emphasizes social engagement as the central concern and has manifested in the recent initiative of the International Council of Museums to change the definition of the museum, to include obligation for museums to work with the participation of communities. Inspired by the theoretical framework of “participatory engagement” by museologist Nina Simon, the project aims to study determinants, patterns and consequences of participatory engagement dynamics in the museum sector through inquiry into one more museums’ core function – museum education. The study will identify determinants of the advancement of participation from museum perspective and by applying participatory action research methodology – from the perspective of communities of practice as well as will reveal broader imprint to lives of engaged communities, to museums and in a wider cultural or socio-political contexts, by (1) mapping museum education programmes in museums in Latvia and identifying  determinants that shape or constrain museums to strive towards participatory engagement, (2) by studying dominant patterns and attitudes towards participatory engagement in museum education and qualitative markers that reveal advancement of particular relationships from the perspective of communities of practice in Latvia, and (3) by analysing social and cultural imprint of identified participatory engagement practices in a wider socio-political environment.

Baiba Tjarve (Project Leader),

Maija Spuriņa (Lead project participant),

Liene Ozoliņa (Lead project participant),

Anda Laķe (Lead project participant),

Gints Klāsons (Project participant),

Līga Vinogradova (Lead project participant),

Elīna Vikmane (Student project participant),

Maija Ņikitina (Student project participant),

Laura Brutāne (Student project participant),

Lote Katrīna Cērpa (Student project participant).

Elīna Vikmane in Cultural News on the Role of Artificial Intelligence in Museums 

15.10.2024. 

In a segment of Latvian Television News Service’s Cultural News, LKA lecturer and researcher of Institute of Culture and Arts Elīna Vikmane commented on the role of artificial intelligence (AI) in museums. Elīna highlighted how AI is currently used in museum research and noted that AI projects are mainly carried out by individual researchers and scientists. Therefore, museums without such resources need to engage more proactively in collaborations with scientists. 

Read more: https://www.facebook.com/share/UiCkU7dyvq2jV5my/  

Participants of the MEET project at the conference in Viljandi, Estonia 

1.–2.10.2024. 

Research assistants of Institute of Culture and Arts Lote Katrīna Cērpa and Laura Brutāne participated in the international conference Heritage in the Service of Resilient Communities in Viljandi, Estonia. As part of the conference, two papers were presented: Mindful Museums: Nurturing Mental Health Through Cultural Participation (authors: Laura Brutāne and Lote Katrīna Cērpa); Participatory Engagement of Youth in Museums and Its Research with Participatory Methods and Techniques (author: researcher Elīna Vikmane, presented by Lote Katrīna Cērpa). 

Read more: https://www.facebook.com/lkakmi/posts/pfbid02ujkmPZPKSavAJ1cMymAFY7LhBqexbk8C618EUP3dbqXy2ynamWmYajTPgeoMfxPml

Presentation of research results at the European Sociological Association conference in Portugal 

27.–30.08.2024. 

At the European Sociological Association conference Tension, Trust and Transformation, held in Porto, Portugal, participants of the research project MEET shared their fieldwork findings and insights: 

Methodological Challenges Applying Qualitative Research Methods With Young People in Culture and Arts (authors: Līga Vinogradova, Baiba Tjarve, Elīna Vikmane); 

Exploring Participatory Engagement of Young Audiences in Museums: Challenges and Patterns (authors: Baiba Tjarve, Elīna Vikmane, Līga Vinogradova, Laura Brutāne, Lote Katrīna Cērpa); 

Participatory Culture: Case of Youth Engagement in Museum Activities (authors: Baiba Tjarve, Laura Brutāne, Lote Katrīna Cērpa). 

Fieldwork at the Olaine Museum of History and Art and the Latvian National Museum of Art 

07.–08.2024. 

Fieldwork in museums continues: at the Olaine Museum of History and Art to explore the experiences of young people who participated in the archaeological excavation process, and at the Latvian National Museum of Art to meet with members of the Youth Club. 

Project participants meet at the summer school 

15.–16.07.2024. 

On July 15th and 16th, workshops organized by the MEET project team took place in the Smiltene and Valmiera regions, together with representatives from memory institutions. 

On July 15th, colleagues from the LKA Institute of Culture and Arts, Baiba Tjarve, Anda Laķe, Gints Klāsons, Līga Vinogradova, Elīna Vikmane, Lote Katrīna Cērpa, Maija Spuriņa, Liene Ozoliņa, and Laura Brutāne met to summarize the insights gained up to the mid-point of the research. Quantitative survey data, the participatory research fieldwork results so far, and discussions on the next necessary steps and result communication were presented. 

On July 16th, the colleagues visited the Valmiera Museum. During the meeting, the head of the museum's collection department, Alberts Rokpelnis, and historian Liene Rokpelne shared the story behind the creation of the De Woldemer exhibition, and a discussion on the possibilities of participatory museums and participatory research in museums in Latvia was held. 

Elīna Vikmane participates in the annual meeting of the young academies of the Scandinavian and Baltic countries in Copenhagen 

04.2024. 

At the beginning of April, the annual meeting of the young academies of the Scandinavian and Baltic countries took place in Copenhagen, with young scientists from Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Denmark, Sweden, Norway, and Finland participating. This year, the meeting focused on global challenges and discussions on the future collaboration format of the young academies. The meeting was organized by the Young Academy of Denmark. 

The Latvian Young Scientists Association (LJZA) was represented by Liene Spruženiece, Raimonda Soloha, Tatjana Pladere, Oskars Teikmanis, Rasma Pīpiķe, and Elīna Vikmane from the Latvian Academy of Culture, who shared her experience: “It was valuable and inspiring to be in an environment where the contribution of social and humanities sciences to the creation of new knowledge is recognized as being on par with the natural sciences.” 

With insights on the transformation processes of Latvian museums – at the Yale University conference 

14.06.2024. 

Researcher Elīna Vikmane participated in the Association for the Advancement of Baltic Studies (AABS) conference at Yale University, United States, where she presented the results of her doctoral dissertation with the paper Transformations and Challenges in Memory Institutions: Navigating Museums and Archives in the 21st Century. 

AABS awarded Elīna Vikmane the 2023–2024 Aina Birnītis Scholarship for the completion of her doctoral thesis. 

Elīna Vikmane defends her doctoral dissertation 

27.11.2023. 

On November 27, 2023, at the open session of the Doctoral Council of the Latvian Academy of Culture, Elīna Vikmane defended her doctoral dissertation titled The Development of Cyber-Museum Studies: A Study of the Diffusion of Digital Innovations in the Museum Sector in Latvia for the award of a Doctor of Humanities and Arts degree (Ph.D.). 

The dissertation can be accessed at the library of the Latvian Academy of Culture, Ludzas Street 24, Riga, and here (jāpievieno saite). The dissertation is a result of the MEET project. 

Presentation of research results at the conference series Cultural Crossroads XVII 

9.–10.11.2023. 

Participants of the MEET project were also actively involved in the events of the conference series Cultural Crossroads XVII. In her presentation Museum Accessibility: Exploring Participation Opportunities for People with Visual Impairments, Maija Ņikitina shared the results of her master's thesis; Līga Vinogradova and Baiba Tjarve presented insights from their research on participatory research in their paper Are Researchers Ready to Give Power to the Community? The Experience of Participatory Research in Studying Museum Practices, Elīna Vikmane shared the results of her doctoral dissertation in the paper Self-Research and Self-Exploitation Practices in the Most Digitally Innovative Museums in Latvia, while Laura Brutāne and Lote Katrīna Cērpa discussed their fieldwork experience in the paper Cultural Participation and Youth Well-being: The Example of the Eduards Veidenbaums Memorial Museum ‘Kalāči’. 

On November 9th, at the conference The Polyphony of Song and Dance Festival Memories, Elīna Vikmane gave a lecture titled Paradigm Shift in Museums: The Issues of Public Engagement and Participation. 

Fieldwork at the Eduards Veidenbaums Memorial Museum ‘Kalāči’ 

18.08.2023. and 30.08.2023. 

Fieldwork for the MEET research project is taking place at the Eduards Veidenbaums Memorial Museum Kalāči – exploring the experiences of young people. The museum has created new content together with the youth community and received high recognition for its work. The researcher explains the research project and participatory research methods to the young people, and in the second meeting, the young people become valuable partners, participants, and advisors, documenting their own experiences in collaboration with the museum – visually depicting their journey to the Kalāči museum and the self-organized festival Veidenfest (August 19, 2023). 

A group of students and faculty from the Latvian Academy of Culture participates in an international summer school in Germany 

10.-14.07.2023. 

A group of eight students from the Master's program in Cultural Heritage Management and Communication at the Latvian Academy of Culture (LKA), researcher Elīna Vikmane, and associate professor Ieva Zemīte represent Latvia at an international summer school in Nuremberg, Germany, from July 10 to 14, 2023. The focus of the study is to critically examine UNESCO's role in cultural heritage and cultural education, to learn new research methods, and to explore and develop opportunities for international collaborative projects. 

The goal of the summer school is to familiarize participants with and critically analyze international, especially UNESCO-related, documents in the fields of cultural and arts education. Earlier in the spring, students and faculty participated in online seminars to explore the history and institutional structure of the UN and UNESCO. During the on-site session, participants will analyze programmatic international documents related to cultural and arts education, learn various new research methodologies, and model future perspectives on cultural and arts education in working groups. Students will be introduced to the methodology of participatory research and its application possibilities in the field of cultural heritage by Elīna Vikmane, a researcher in the LKA research project Towards Participatory Engagement in Museums: A Study of Latvian Museum Pedagogy Practices (MEET). 

The summer school is organized by the UNESCO Digital Culture and Arts Department at Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, and has developed as a joint project among partner institutions involved in the European Cultural and Arts Education Cooperation Network (ENO) – universities and research centers from Bulgaria, France, Germany, the Netherlands, Poland, Portugal, and Latvia (LKA). During the summer school, new international collaborative projects will be developed between the involved partners and researchers. 

The summer school is funded by the ERASMUS+ Blended Intensive Programme (BIP), and the methods used in the MEET project (funded by the Latvian Council of Science, FLPP project Towards Participatory Engagement in Museums: A Study of Latvian Museum Pedagogy Practices - (lzp-2022/1-0379)) for working with communities will be tested on an international scale. 

Homepage of sommer school: https://www.ucace.fau.de/bip-summer-school-2023/#collapse_0

Elīna Vikmane participates in the annual symposium of Latvian museum professionals 

3.07.2023. 

Elīna Vikmane, a research assistant at the Institute of Culture and Arts at the Latvian Academy of Culture (LKA), shared her reflections on the concepts included in the new museum definition – interpretation, accessibility, participation, and inclusion – during the annual symposium of Latvian museum professionals organized by the Ziedonis Museum. As in previous years, the symposium covered various topics, with this year's lectures and workshops focusing on the theme The Museum as a Place and Space. 

Elīna Vikmane participates in an international PhD symposium 

20.-21.06.2023. 

Elīna Vikmane, a participant in the MEET project, took part in the PhD symposium organized by the internationally significant arts management conference AIMAC (The 8th International Conference on Arts and Cultural Management), held in Montreal, Canada, on June 20-21. Elīna presented online on the topic Advancing Cybermuseology: Digital Innovation Diffusion in Latvia’s Museum Sector, which was highly praised by internationally recognized arts and cultural management expert François Colbert. 

Maija Ņikitina defends her Master's thesis on museum accessibility for people with visual impairments 

20.06.2023. 

Project MEET participant Maija Ņikitina defends her Master's thesis titled Museum Accessibility: Exploring Participation Opportunities for People with Visual Impairments. The Example of the Memorial Museum 'Raiņa un Aspazijas Vasarnīca' (Academic Master's Program in Cultural Heritage Management and Communication). The Master's thesis was developed in close collaboration with other MEET project participants and thesis supervisor Elīna Vikmane, implementing the first fieldwork of the project at the Memorial Museum ‘Raiņa un Aspazijas Vasarnīca’ and testing the methodology. The Master's thesis is one of the first significant results of the project. 

Elīna Vikmane shares insights on digital innovations in museums on an international scale 

7.–9.06.2023. 

Elīna Vikmane, a research assistant at the Latvian Culture Academy Institute of Culture and Arts and a PhD candidate, participates in the working group on museum digital transformation organized by the two largest museum organizations in Europe, NEMO and ICOM. The latest meeting took place in Milan, Italy, from June 7 to 9, 2023, to discuss the recognition and accounting of digital visits to museums. Elīna's doctoral thesis, which is one of the outcomes of the MEET project, is related to digital innovations in museums, and the insights gained from her work are also valuable on an international scale. 

https://www.ne-mo.org/activities/working-groups/working-group-digital-transformation/

The popular science article When Being Open Is Not Enough. What Are Museums Thinking About? – discussing strategic development issues in museums 

18.05.2023. 

“Museums are trusted allies with whom we can think, critically evaluate, and, with cautious optimism, shape the collective unknown future” – In the article When Being Open Is Not Enough. What Are Museums Thinking About? Latvian Culture Academy Institute of Culture and Arts and MEET project initiator Elīna Vikmane discusses five key aspects that museum professionals need to think about more. These include: the stereotype that cultural heritage belongs to museums; digital innovation; efforts towards museum democratization; activism; and well-being. 

Read more: https://www.lsm.lv/raksts/kultura/kulturtelpa/18.05.2023-kad-but-atvertam-ir-par-maz-par-ko-doma-muzeji.a509057/?fbclid=IwAR3WyEoCRqdZPp4Pbrkxvt0sR8vYZzrn3Fv_HM03lFivsAOqcQPdQp1az9g

Fieldwork is taking place together with students and teachers from Rīgas Strazdumuiža Secondary School 

15.05.2023. 

The second phase of the first fieldwork of the MEET project took place with young people and teachers from Rīgas Strazdumuiža Secondary School – a development center. Researchers from the LKA Institute of Culture and Arts, including Elīna Vikmane, Līga Vinogradova, and Maija Ņikitina, explored the significance of sensory experiences such as hearing, touch, smell, and taste (in addition to the usual visual perception) in the eyes of the youth, aiming to create more intense emotions and memories for visitors in museums. 

In the autumn, museum pedagogical practices and the involvement of various communities in their development will continue in collaboration with other museums. 

A research seminar on the application of participatory action research methodology is taking place 

19.04.2023. 

On April 19th, a research seminar took place (via Zoom) on the application of participatory action research methodology, led by Associate Professor Charlotte Svendler Nielsen from the University of Copenhagen. 

Fieldwork is taking place at the ‘Raiņa un Aspazijas vasarnīca’ Museum 

17.04.2023. 

Fieldwork is taking place at the ‘Raiņa un Aspazijas vasarnīca’ Museum, with five young people and three teachers from the Rīga Strazdumuiža Secondary School – Development Center. They are exploring the role of various senses – hearing, touch, sight, and smell – in experiencing cultural heritage and enhancing engagement and participation within the museum pedagogical program ‘Journey of Senses’. 

Researchers introduce the MEET project concept on the Latvian Radio program ‘Cultural rondo’ 

14.02.2023. 

On the Latvian Radio 1 program ‘Cultural rondo’, the concept of the MEET project is discussed by its creator, Elīna Vikmane, scientific assistant at the Institute of Culture and Arts at the Latvian Academy of Culture, Elīna Bērziņa, head of the Education and Accessibility Department at the Latvian National Museum of Art, and Zane Grīnvalde, chairwoman of the Latvian Museums Association. 

Read more: https://lr1.lsm.lv/lv/raksts/kulturas-rondo/muzeju-darbiba-lidzdarbojoties-kopienam-un-izglitojot-vietejo-sa.a172662/

The research team from the Institute of Culture and Arts at the Latvian Academy of Culture has won the opportunity to explore the educational work of Latvian museums, after competing in a highly competitive selection process 

8.02.2023. 

The research team from the Institute of Culture and Arts at the Latvian Academy of Culture (LKA) achieved a remarkable 97% rating in the highly competitive Latvian Council of Science competition. They received funding for a three-year research project titled Towards Participatory Engagement in Museums: Exploring Latvian Museum Pedagogy Practices (MEET). This project is the only one in the competition to focus on analyzing 21st-century issues in the fields of humanities and arts. 

Read more: https://lka.edu.lv/lv/aktuali/jaunumi/petnieki-liela-konkurence-gust-iespeju-izpetit-latvijas-muzeju-izglitojoso-darbu/

The data management plan for the research project "Towards Participatory Engagement in Museums: Exploring Latvian Museum Pedagogy Practice / MEET" is available here (https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15324120)