During the Covid 19 pandemic, SAWA took place as virtual series. 20 former participants of the SAWA Program started working on a trilingual glossary. It contains museological terms explained in Arab, English and German. In small mixed groups with two to four participants from the MENA region and Germany, every team found a different approach to a term. This lead them to reflect on their personal perspectives and to identify translational challenges. They were accompanied by the SAWA lecturers in regular online sessions. The result of the program can be found under Glossary on this website. In the ongoing SAWA program it will constantly grow.
Current and relevant topics such as Diversity Management, Interpretative Planning, Community Museology and Sustainability are integral parts of the exchange. Close contact with the teachers and intensive professional exchange on equal terms offer opportunities for future collaborations, joint projects and the emergence of new international, regional and local networks. In a safe environment there are also discussions about barriers and difficulties in the museum practice. Participants are confronted with practical problems as teachers speak openly about the challenges of contemporary museum practice and take real examples from their own field.
“Working with different participants in each activity
Former SAWA Participant 2018
helped me to open my mind to different cultures
and also to different ways of working in museums.”
Participants emphasize that SAWA is not comparable to other further education programs in the museum sector. They state that as an added value, in each exchange, numerous discussions with museum workers have given them insights into areas of museum practices that they were previously unaware of. Participants do not just spend time together. They live, eat, work and think together. This changes the participants not only on a professional but on a personal level as well. They realize that what remains in the end are not the differences but the similarities.
Local and International perspectives
Participative strategies for past and present
From single to shared authorship
Access, Engagement and Interpretation