We are grateful to have had Inês Bettencourt da Câmara as a keynote speaker at the TCZ project’s 2025 conference.
Inês is a cultural strategist, researcher, and co-founder and director of Mapa das Ideias, as well as the former President of Culture Action Europe (2021–2025).
Her presentation, “From Contact to Transformation: Rethinking Heritage Through Mediation and Failure,” highlighted the need for cultural institutions to build more meaningful relationships with communities ❗️
Participants also took away the following 9 key messages from her lecture:
- Good intentions are not enough for real change:
many institutions promote values such as diversity, inclusion, or participation, but these often remain at the level of campaigns or discourse. - Heritage institutions should empower people and encourage civic participation.
- Museums and heritage institutions should constantly reflect on why they exist and what purpose they serve in society.
- The cultural sector must support one another.
- Democracy and diversity require continuous practice.
- Cultural institutions should embrace collective approaches.
- Cultural work should prioritize listening and relational processes.
- Mediation should become a core organizational philosophy,
influencing how institutions operate and interact with society. - Projects involving communities should avoid being extractive or symbolic;
instead, they should create tangible benefits for participants, such as language learning and professional development.
