Call for Applications ‘Sharing Stories on Contested Histories’ 2025
25 april 2025
The call for the knowledge exchange programme for young museum professionals ‘Sharing Stories on Contested Histories’ is now open for applications. The programme includes online sessions across five weeks and a one-week onsite programme in the Netherlands from 29 October to 5 November 2025. The deadline to apply is 26 May 2025.
Theme
How are we – museum professionals around the world – dealing with colonial collections? How do we critically engage with the museum’s own histories and reflect on their role in society in the face of these challenges? How can we handle collections created and collected during colonial times in more caring and ethical ways? How do we navigate and react to contestations over certain histories and heritage?
This knowledge exchange programme brings together a group of young professionals from around the world working in museums or collection-managing organisations to reflect on these questions and to exchange knowledge and experiences regarding their working practices.
About the organizers
Sharing Stories on Contested Histories is a project of the International Heritage Cooperation programme of the Cultural Heritage Agency of the Netherlands (RCE), executed together with the Reinwardt Academy (Amsterdam University of the Arts). With different editions in 2018, 2019, 2021, 2022, 2023 and 2024, Sharing Stories on Contested Histories approaches challenges in the field of cultural heritage that are widely shared by bringing together professionals from different countries to exchange perspectives and develop new knowledge and practices together. These challenges are not confined within national borders. We believe that it is only by joining forces that we can fully benefit from the potential of cultural heritage to address current challenges. Sharing Stories on Contested Histories aims to contribute to an international dialogue on the practices involved in navigating complex histories and their legacies today, and to strengthen the international heritage community.
