Museums and Historical Sites
Museums and Historical Sites
We believe in the ability of the arts to offer forms of expression that transcend national and regional differences so that those who live different lives in different areas can communicate with others who have different beliefs and different identities and come together around their common values. We believe that isolation, insensitivities, and prejudices can be overcome through cultural interaction. We believe that artistic expression contributes to freedom. Anadolu Kültür is a civil initiative, committed to fostering mutual understanding through arts and culture, and has been working as an NGO on the sharing of culture and artistic production, focused on community development, participation, and a multi-stakeholder approach since 2002.
Australian National Maritime Museum
Australians have always had close links with the sea. In 1975 a museums inquiry commissioned by the Australian Government recommended that ‘…priority be given to a national maritime museum in Sydney’. In 1984 an ambitious Darling Harbour redevelopment program was unveiled. The museum would stand adjacent to the historic 1903 Pyrmont Bridge, now a pedestrian link to the city. Prominent Australian architect Philip Cox AO designed the museum building and construction started in 1986. Prime Minister Bob Hawke opened the Australian National Maritime Museum on 29 November 1991. US President George Bush, with Australia’s new Prime Minister Paul Keating, dedicated the museum’s USA Gallery on 1 January 1992. HM Queen Elizabeth visited the museum in February 1992.
The Cultures of Remembrance website is maintained by the German Topography of Terror Foundation. It provides information about memorials, museums and institutions that commemorate the victims of Nazi Germany, as well as about country-specific policies regarding public memory.
Depo functions both as a means to exhibit art of all mediums, as well as a forum for discussion on social changes and their effect on modern art. Depo publishes Red Thread, a journal intended to serve as a platform for the collaboration of artists and social scientists, and considers the changing world of art in an increasingly globalized world. Depo is supported mainly by Anadolu Kultur, a non-profit focused on encouraging cultural diversity both in art and in business.
Discovery Center (Kosovo/ Prishtina)
The Discovery Center provides a secure and open environment, where youth are encouraged to be curious. Emphasis is placed on creating a safe space to afford young people the chance to examine a wide range of topics and interests, from exploring issues of ethnic identity, to learning how electricity works. Initiated in 2003, the first phase of the Discovery Center’s development will include a traveling exhibit to access remote, rural communities and to collaborate with Serbian, Albanian and Roma youth and activists.
Knowledge is to pass on to the subject of National Socialism since its inception an important area of activity of DÖW. What began many years ago as a “guide” through the first survey exhibition to Nazism in Austria with the resistance and persecution of gravity, has since become a professionalized education program for different age groups.
European Observatory on Memories
EUROM’s goal is to study the science and politics behind transnational collective memory, and how global society memorializes certain events, while omitting others, within this popular recollection. EUROM does not desire the unification of global memory, but rather an amalgamation and understanding of the plurality of memories taking shape in the world, especially those surrounding conflicts like the Spanish Civil War, the rise of Nazism and fascism, and resistance against oppression in Europe and Latin America. EUROM analyzes the intersections between memorialization and public thought, and between memory and power, by hosting debates, public seminars, and workshops within both political and civil society in European institutions. EUROM evolves and introduces new projects and activites based on different mediums for discussion, like performance art, debate, and documentary.
This is a German website with information about events and publications related to the memorialisation of the Holocaust in Germany. It has a news section with links to relevant articles from the German-language media. Users are invited to contribute to a blog. The site is maintained by the Stiftung Topographie des Terrors (Topography of Terror Foundation).
Heritage Museums and Memorialisation in Kenya
This site celebrates research on contemporary heritage developments in Kenya, with some comparative reference to South Africa.
The International Coalition of Sites of Conscience
Founded and formerly known as the International Coalition of Historic Site Museums, this site profiles historic sites specifically dedicated to remembering past struggles for justice and addressing their contemporary legacies. The Coalition provides member sites with direct funding for civic engagement programs; organizes learning exchanges ranging from one-on-one collaborations to international conferences; and conducts strategic advocacy for sites and the Sites of Conscience movement.
International Memorial Society
Memorial is a movement which arose in the years of perestroika. Its main task was the awakening and preservation of the societal memory of the severe political persecution in the recent past of the Soviet Union. Memorial is a community of dozens of organizations in different regions of Russia, Ukraine, Kazakhstan, Latvia, and Georgia. Memorial is a group of specialized research, human rights, and education centers in Moscow, St. Petersburg, and several other cities. Memorial is a museum, a repository of documents, and a number of specialized libraries.
This is a website dedicated to gathering and publicizing information on the impact of ten years of exhumations of mass graves dating from Spanish Civil War. The website is connected with the project “Las Politicas de la Memoria: Balance de exhumaciones en España” of the Centro de Ciencias Superior de Investigaciones Científicas and the Centro de Ciencias Humanas y Sociales. You can find out more about the project, subscribe to the RSS feed, and read about recent events and publications in both English and Castellano via the website.
Levine Museum of the New South
This website provides a comprehensive list of institutions, memorials and museums dedicated to the commemoration of the victims of the Holocaust. It is maintained by the Topography of Terror Foundation.
Museo de la Memoria of Rosario, Argentina
The Memorial Museum was created in 1998 by an ordinance of the City Council of Rosario, in order to promote access to knowledge and research on the situation of human rights and social and political memory in our region, in the country and Latin America. Since December 2010, in its final site-building occupied in the past by the Command of II Army Corps, the Museum offers the public a permanent showroom, with works designed by leading artists in the city of Rosario, and other temporary exhibitions. It also has a documentation center, a specialized library with over 3,500 volumes and periodicals, educational outreach area, an auditorium for 120 people, among other services.
The Museum of Women’s Resistance
The Museum of Women’s Resistance examines the diversity, dynamism, and global influence of women of African descent and cultures over time in the realms of family, work, community, nations, and the natural environment. The Museum was part of the 2016 Black Women’s Truth Commission in the United States, the first such commission to focus on rape and sexual assault against Black women in the United States.
The Sierra Leone Peace Museum was launched under the recommendation of the Government of Sierra Leone in 2011, which requested that upon closure of the Special Court for Sierra Leone, part of the court site be set aside as a memorial to the civil war in Sierra Leone (1991-2002). The museum is now an independent national institution dedicated to preserving the history of the country’s decade-long conflict and the story of the peace process.
Topographie des Terrors (Topography of Terrors)
The Topography of Terror Foundation was founded by the Berlin Senate as a dependent foundation under public law on January 28, 1992. It was constituted as an independent foundation through the foundation law of April 8, 1995. The foundation is supported jointly by the state of Berlin and the Federal Republic of Germany. According to the statutes, the purpose of the Topography of Terror Foundation is to relay historical information about National Socialism and its crimes and to encourage people to actively confront this history and its aftermath since 1945. The foundation also assumes advisory functions for the state of Berlin when relevant issues arise. In addition to its own council, the foundation has an international advisory board and a working committee to which Berlin experts are appointed. The Topography of Terror Foundation grew out of a temporary exhibition project created in 1987 for the celebration of Berlin’s 750th anniversary. The foundation’s establishment and the political decision to erect a documentation center were the result of an exchange of ideas that continued for many years during which the ongoing commitment of social groups and individuals played an important role. In addition to its work at the “Topography of Terror” historical site, the foundation fulfils a number of wide-ranging responsibilities. It has been responsible for the Nazi Forced Labor Documentation Center in Berlin-Schöneweide since 2005. It has also produced several poster exhibits in Berlin to commemorate specific sites in the city.
UMAM Research and Documentation: Lebanese Association for Cultural and Artistic Exchange
Founded in 2004, UMAM R&D is a Lebanese NGO guided by the belief that acknowledging Lebanon’s relatively recent past requires that important evidence and artifacts of its history be carefully collected, protected, and promoted to the public. UMAM produces publications, exhibitions as well as films that document and analyze the history of conflicts and how Lebanese society is dealing with it. UMAM raises awareness that “Closing the files” is the wrong approach for sustainable peace in Lebanon, but that the country urgently must deal with its history of violence.
Villa Grimaldi is a Chilean national site of historic memory. Since its inception, the Corporation Peace Park Villa Grimaldi has set its objectives the promotion and defense of the rights of persons and the recovery of the historical memory of the place. In this sense, the culture of peace, the pursuit of justice and the dignity of the victims are in Villa Grimaldi a public space that welcomes you. Thus through various projects and activities, the Corporation has managed to become one of the most important references for work in human rights linked to a memory location where committed abuses and violations of human rights.
Zochrot (“Remembering”) seeks to raise public awareness of the Palestinian Nakba, especially among Jews in Israel, who bear a special responsibility to remember and amend the legacy of 1948. The principal victims of the Nakba were the Palestinians, especially the refugees, who lost their entire world. But Jews in Israel also pay a price for their conquest of the land in 1948, living in constant fear and without hope. The Nakba destroyed the fabric of relations that existed between Jews and Palestinians before 1948. In recognizing and materializing the right of return lies the possibility for Jews and Palestinians to live in this country together. Zochrot carries out different projects to advance understanding of Nakba and its legacy. The Nakba is spoken in different voices on this site — in photographs, testimonies, maps, prose, and more. Zochrot’s is one of these voices, a voice that seeks recognition for injustice and new paths toward change and repair.