The conference entitled “The role of museum education in the preservation of the heritage of memory” has led to the implementation of a project called the Heritage of Remembrance Academy which is a joint initiative of the Lesser Poland (Malopolskie) Teacher Training Center (Pol: MDCN), the Remembrance Museum of Land of Oświęcim Residents and the St. Maximilian Center in Harmęże.
In the museum’s conference room, participants were welcomed by Dorota Mleczko, Remembrance Museum director.
“Education is a vast and multifaceted area. Today we want to focus on museum education, i.e. that which has been developing more and more rapidly in recent decades and whose implementation causes museums to become open, participatory,” she said.
In her speech, Barbara Ledwoń, deputy director of the Oświęcim branch of the MCDN drew attention to the important role of museum education.
“We should take care of the younger generation, for whom a visit to the museum will be a great adventure
In turn, Małopolska Deputy Education Inspector Halina Cimer pointed out the importance of methods of reaching students.
“Today, young people and even young children are immersed in the Internet. All these material things that we want to give them that are important to us – are hardly competitive. I think it depends on our creativity, ingenuity, it depends on how to link the material heritage with what awaits us – the future, modernity. And all this is encapsulated in the word: values,” she said.
The conference featured speakers from leading museums in Poland.
Marta Graczynska, Plenipotentiary of the Director for Educational Activities Royal Castle on the Wawel – State Art Collections, gave a lecture on “Museums in the post-pandemic world of the 21st century. Trouble or Hope?”.
Beata Grochowska, senior curator, head of the Educational Department at the Silesian Museum in Katowice, described what a lesson at a museum looks like through the eyes of a practitioner.
Jagoda Gumińska-Oleksy, an employee of the Education Department at the National Museum in Krakow, Poland, presented a lecture entitled “Draught in the museum, or the power of co-creation”.
Good practices on education at the memorial site on the example of the Museum of Cursed Soldiers and Political Prisoners of the People’s Republic of Poland at 37 Rakowiecka Street in Warsaw was shared by Dr. Filip Musiał, professor at AIK, director of the Krakow branch of the Institute of National Remembrance and director of the Musuem of Cursed Soldiers.
Participation in the meetings of the Academy of the Legacy of Memory was encouraged by Joanna Cebulska, a museum educator from the Remembrance Museum, who led the conference, and teacher- consultant of the Małopolskie Teacher Training Center Ewa Kantyka.
“We are committed to ensuring that the people participating in the project identify with the history of the place where they live and that they relate to it in their educational experience. It is important is for the project recipients to identify certain phenomena as their own, to relate to the cultural heritage, feel that this history is their history in order to feel a bond with the place, the history of the particular group of which they are a part. We would like teachers, and consequently also students, to develop the habit of using the museum’s rich offerings, thus learning to interact with culture and the heritage of memory,” said Joanna Cebulska.
“The academy also aims to draw teachers’ attention to the museum as a place of education, where they have a personalized educational offer prepared, tailored to a specific group, including students with diverse educational needs. It is important also to develop principles of cooperation between the school and the museum. It is important that the museum content should complement the content of school classes in a natural way,” Ewa Kantyka pointed out.
The conference at the Remembrance Museum was held under the patronage of the Małopolska Superintendent of Education.
