Austrian Commission for UNESCO

Professional Insights from the Netherlands and Turkey

Dr. Mark Schep from the Dutch Centre for Intangible Cultural Heritage (KIEN) impressively demonstrated how collaborative research with people from migrant communities in the Netherlands builds bridges—through participatory exhibitions, storytelling projects, and a digital inventory that makes cultural practices visible. He emphasized the importance of seeking relevance where it is truly rooted for the communities—and creating new cultural spaces together with them.

Dr. Ceren Güneröz from Ankara University connected international examples with numerous museums in Turkey that document lived heritage with local populations and migrants—through ethnographic museums, school projects, or entire “living villages.” Her central thesis: museums of the future should no longer be dining halls where pre-prepared content is served, but kitchens where cultural knowledge, stories, and identities are “cooked” together with the communities. Only this way can genuine participation and sustainable visibility succeed.

Interactive World Café

Afterwards, participants exchanged ideas at four themed tables during a World Café:

• Research and Heritage: They critically reflected on how the UNESCO concept of intangible heritage aligns with scientific practice. Research can help deconstruct established narratives and make new, multi-voiced stories visible.
• Networks and Exchange: Using Turkish folk dance as an example, they discussed exchange between groups, archive cooperation, and the possibility of an intercultural festival in Dornbirn.
• Participation in Museums: Targeted cooperation with gatekeepers and communities is needed to sustainably involve new groups—such as parents, youth, and migrants. Trust, reciprocity, and small, sustainable steps are crucial.
• Museums and Power Relations: Questions of institutional violence, representation, and the risk of instrumentalizing migrant knowledge for museum purposes were discussed. Museums must critically question power positions and seriously enable participation.

These discussions were deepened with questions such as:

• How can intangible cultural heritage be made visible in its diversity—beyond national stereotypes?
• What responsibility do museums bear as places of cultural interpretation?
• How can cooperation between archives, associations, and communities be built?
• What paths are needed to sustainably involve new groups?

Conclusion & Outlook

The visual documentation by Dennis De Jong accompanied the evening—key terms like trust, diversity, co-creation, decolonization, empowerment, and platform instead of showcase were central. The event made clear: intangible cultural heritage is not static. It lives through the people who practice it—regardless of their origin. Museums, research, and cultural policy are called upon to actively recognize this diversity, make it visible, and further develop it together with the communities.