SWICH – Sharing a World of Inclusion, Creativity and Heritage

SWICH – Sharing a World of Inclusion, Creativity and Heritage is an EU-funded cooperation project between 10 European ethnographic museums. Weltmuseum Wien acts as lead partner in this project, running from October 2014 until September 2018. Together, the partner museums reflect on the future of ethnographic museums in a society shaped by processes of migration and globalization.

The possibilities opened up by collaboration with communities, artists and interdisciplinary approaches are tested. How can museums function as nodes of debate and identification between local and transnational identities? Another focus lies on the question how museums will collect in the future and on the potential of digital technologies for the visitor experience. A series of workshops and exhibitions test how new technologies help to enhance cross-cultural encounter. The emphasis lies on the inclusion of diaspora and post-migrant communities in Europe.

In a number of activities such as conferences, workshops, artistic residencies as well as collaborative and experimental exhibitions, the partner museums raise these interrelated issues. In the course of the project different publications are developed. In addition, activities, results and the documentation of SWICH are published on the website www.swich-project.eu.