Conference Proceedings
We are pleased to tell you that 217 participants from 32 countries followed our invitation to the 6th HOE conference – the highest number of participants we ever had on a Hands on Europe conference.
Speakers and participants from almost all European countries took part, from Finland to Greece from Portugal to Slovakia. We could welcome participants from Kosovo, Turkey, Israel and Jordania, from Russia and the United States. And they came as far as from India, Nepal and Newzealand.
We are especially happy that this year representatives from 7 Eastern European countries joined our discussion and shared and exchanged their experiences, ideas and visions with us.
In his welcoming note the president of ICOM Europe Udo Gößwald, expressed his appreciation of children’s museums and promised to engage in getting closer the two museum’s associations ICOM Europe and Hands on! Europe. Scientists, philosophers and museums experts from all over the world were brought together to take part in a challenging programme.
An inspiring keynote speech by Elaine Gurian outlined the main topics for the following three conference days.
9 content-packed lectures by experts from the museum field and the field of education offered diverse ideas, approaches and perspectives to the three main topics of the conference:
- The museums in the 21st century – challenges and perspectives
- Knowledge society – what kind of knowledge is needed in the 21st century?
- Social fragmentation, ethnic conflicts and poverty – children’s and youth museums between the lines of social conflicts
7 concurrent Talking Circles addressed by speakers from within and outside the children’s museum and museum sector allowed the participants an opportunity for indepth discussion and debate. The essential statements including controversial points of discussion about the tasks for children’s museums in the 21st century were presented during the final panel discussion to the whole audience.
A brilliant closing talk by the well-being scientist Dr Nick Baylis bid farewell the audience with six wishes for young person’s lives in terms of »informal education«.
A lot of children’s museums all over Europe followed our call for DVDs which present in a 3 minutes lasting video their work and news from their institutions. This was also an opportunity for new children’s museums which are under construction. This interesting documentation was shown during the conference and is now available via info@bv-kindermuseum.de.
