ART AND RECONCILIATION - OPEN CALLS AND THE LIVING MUSEUM: INNOVATION, RESEARCH AND THE HISTORY MUSEUM OF BOSNIA AND HERCEGOVINA

This project builds on research and collaboration from the AHRC-PACCS 'Art and Reconciliation Project: Conflict, Culture and Community' project, specifically building on the original objectives: (a) to investigate the history and potential of artistic and creative cultural practices and objects in processes and outcomes of post-conflict reconciliation, forgetting, remembering and forgiving; and (b) to developing creative artistic practices and artifacts in relation to, and in collaboration with, particular communities. In particular, it will develop an innovative and creative partnership between Historical Museum of Bosnia and Hercegovina in Sarajevo and the project investigators. This occurred when the museum co-commissioned artist projects as part of the project's research agenda. In doing so, the Museum opened its doors for the first time to artistic intervention, inviting artists to respond creatively to the Museum's role and collection, and in doing so, bringing new interpretations and works into the Museum's collection (a contrast to merely curatorial interpretations of the existing collection). This has given a new strand of life to the Museum's mission to preserve and protect the contemporary and late twentieth century history of the country, including the war of the 1990s and its aftermath. The proposed project will significantly enhance and embed this new aspect of the Museum's role and life, sustaining employment, developing cultural life and fostering post-conflict peace and security. In doing so, it will address all three of the Additional Requirements for the AHRC for the Impact and Engagement GCRF Highlight Call, as follows: i) it will deliver significant cultural impact and research-led innovation, in line with UN Sustainable Development Goals' (SDG) targets (SDG 4 on culture's contribution to sustainable development ; SDG 8 on job creation and also creativity and innovation; and SDG 11 on protecting and safeguarding cultural heritage; it might also contingently address SDG 12 on sustainable tourism, creating jobs and promoting local culture); (ii) (ii) it will produce outcomes of significant value to the Museum of Bosnia and Hercegovina, allowing it to develop its new 'living museum' role, fostering the innovative and creative experience of making an open call round of commissions, facilitating further open call commissions and exhibitions, and also a range of complementary initiatives (open studios, participatory and community engagement activities) that will not only benefit the Museum, but also artists, museum audiences and visitors, artists (individually and collectively). and communities in post-conflict Sarajevo and Bosnia and Hercegovina; (iii) the project has been co-designed with Elma Hasimbegovic, Director of the Museum of Bosnia and Hercegovina, a heritage and creative organisation in an ODA LMIC country, which has no public funding because of its status as a national museum.

The Museum and the investigators will jointly implement a scheme of research and practice bringing a research-led fresh perspective. We will initiate a series of open calls with commissions and exhibitions, open studios, artist workshops and participatory-community engagement activities and events in partnership, inviting artists' to innovate and create to bring new interpretations to the museum's role and collection in relation to the history of the country, potentially to be added to the museum's collection. This will offer artists and the museum the opportunity and inspiration to make creative interventions, and to enhance the cultural landscape of post-conflict Sarajevo and Bosnia and Hercegovina, fostering engagement with art and memory. The joint project will also permit further research and development of evaluation methods and approaches inherent in the original project, which will also benefit a range of funders, including UNDP, which also advised on project design.

This project is co-designed with impact at its core. The primary beneficiary will be the Historical Museum of Bosnia and Herceogovina, which is a project partner. The Museum will benefit in several ways: (a) financially, supporting jobs, activities and contributing to its sustainability - the Museum is a national institution, but because of the complex post-conflict political, constitutional and financial structure of Bosnia and Hercegovina, it receives no public funding and relies on grants and donations to survive; (b) development of an innovative and creative new aspect to its role and collections, inviting artistic contributions that will bring new interpretations and add to its collections; (c) holding major public exhibitions that will enhance its public profile nationally and internationally; (d) establishing new relationships with creative artists and initiating use of Museum space with calls for 'open studios'; (e) organising participatory and community engagement activities, such as drawing or printmaking workshops, open across inter-communal boundaries; (f) hosting educational visits and events, engaging with artists, commissioned works, exhibitions and workshops; (g) attracting new audiences; (h) having a new basis for future research and practice activities and funding proposals.

The project will be of key interest to practitioners engaged at all levels in post-conflict reconciliation and sustainable development initiatives - one impetus for the proposed research was an enquiry from UNDP of how to understand and evaluate critically the variety of activities, including, notably, visual arts, funded under the umbrella of reconciliation in the Western Balkans. The proposal has been developed in discussion with Dr Ivan Zverzhanovski, UNDP Regional Partnerships Advisor, who will engage with the project as chair of a small advisory group.

The project will benefit artists in Bosnia and Hercegovina and internationally, but providing relatively rare open calls for commissioned work in grounded contexts - the antithesis of the 'White Cube' approach to art (devoid of place and time) - which provide not only the chance of commissions and financial income, but also opportunities for inspiration and creation, and to have works held in a national collection, if successful. It will also benefit artists by offering calls for 'open studios' and opportunities to work with the Museum and the investigators to explore and develop ideas and new work. Beyond those who are commissioned or selected for open studios, the evidence of the open call as part of the AHRC-PACCS project is that many more artists than those actually selected benefit from the process and from involvement in workshops both personally and professionally, gaining new perspectives on their practice and career - one of the most surprising and pleasing features of the Artists' Workshop that we held in Sarajevo in June 2018 was that several of those who had applied to the open call but not been selected attended and expressed unprompted views about the benefits the open call had brought, even without their having been successful in the competition.

Finally, the project will be of benefit to the audiences that engage with the Museum - including new and wider audiences that the exhibitions proposed can bring (this was a lesson of the AHRC-PACCS exhibition in Sarajevo). The project will allow the Museum to develop its relationship with audiences in three ways: by attracting general visitors, including increasing numbers of tourists; to involve schools and other educational and youth groups in visits, events and educational activities; and to engage communities in post-conflict Bosnia and Hercegovina though workshops focused on creative arts practice (drawing, printmaking etc). The project will seek to engage publics not only in the Sarajevo Canton, but across the country, widening awareness of the Museum and enhancing engagement with the recent past.