Welcome to the Contact Zone Community
Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) is a European project dedicated to rethinking adult education, with a special focus on museums and heritage learning. The project’s overarching goal is to strengthen European cohesion by encouraging dialogue and fostering shared cultural understanding.
Over the next year, we will develop and test training materials for heritage sector professionals, artists, cultural mediators, staff, and volunteers.
The following organisations form the TCZ consortium:
- Culture Action Europe (BE) – lead for networking and knowledge sharing;
- Conexiones improbables (ES) – lead for curriculum development and pilot in Vitoria;
- Etz Hayyim Synagogue (GR) – lead for the training on interculturality;
- Goethe-Institut (RO) – lead for communication and pilot in Bucharest;
- Humán Platform (HU) – lead for the training on post-communism;
- PELE (PT) – lead for training and training on post-colonialism;
- H 401 (NL) – lead for project management and pilot in Amsterdam.
The consortiums mission is to make cultural institutions more representative of today’s diverse European societies by promoting a transnational view of history and supporting greater social inclusion.
The TCZ Consortium Works To:
- Empower cultural mediators — museum educators, socially engaged artists, curators, and activists—to innovate heritage practices.
- Equip professionals with new skills in participatory and intercultural approaches.
How Do We Do This?
- Develop & test training materials that help professionals engage citizens in meaningful interpretation and storytelling around cultural heritage.
- Provide training programs that build the capacity of cultural workers to design inclusive, creative, and future-oriented practices.
- Foster sustainable connections between professionals, audiences, and stakeholders through evolving digital and technological methods.
Our Impact
TCZ helps cultural and heritage staff create new forms of activities that strengthen cultural belonging. Through innovative curricula and training, we enhance their knowledge, skills, and confidence—empowering them to develop dialogue-based and co-creative processes.
This work leads to dynamic new ways of presenting heritage—from telling stories through objects in virtual spaces to co-creating narratives with diverse communities across Europe.
Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.
Background
The TCZ project builds on the needs identified by the Heritage Contact Zone (HCZ), an EU-funded project under the European Year of Cultural Heritage (2018–2020). One of its final outcomes was the HCZ Toolkit, an online handbook available for free via: HCZ Toolkit.
Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.
