The project is based on the concept which sees museums as teaching and learning environments, and Universities as active social actors, both strengthening their role of cultural integration facilitators. The Inclusive Memory project was developed as a shared process among academics, researchers, healthcare and social care, educators and museum professionals and involved different partners who had already showed their interest in participating and their commitment to the project goals.
The main objectives of the project are: – the creation and the start of a new social inclusion system (especially for people with social care and health problems) based on the link Art-Health-Wellbeing, which can prove to be a best practice from which Health and social care institutions, cultural organizations and educational institutions from all over Europe will be able to draw inspiration; – the design of innovative didactic paths for the promotion of social inclusion and the development of transverse skills for future museums professionals, social care givers, school teacher sand healthcare personnel based on the link Art-Health-Wellbeing ; – the possibility to continue organising innovative didactic paths for health and wellbeing promotion, also within school, health and social care institutions and museums thanks to the support of professionals who will have been properly trained on the matter, to compass and put in practice innovative art-based approaches dedicated to social inclusion.
The methodology applied in this project is based on the logic of converting the theoretical concept of Museum as inclusive spaces for Health and Wellbeing development into a practical protocol of teaching scenarios adapted to specific local communities needs and newly created open educational resources (the Inclusive Memory MOOC), testing the protocol and OERS into ready-to-use courses and using the test outcomes to enrich the theoretical basis. On a methodological level, the project adopts a Design Based Research methodology, first described by Reeves (2006), who conceptualised it as a cyclic process for a didactic product creation.
The model is developed as a process of diverse stages, known by the acronym ADDIE: Analysis, Design, Development, Implementation, Evaluation. Moreover, the Asset Based Community Development (ABCD) approach will be used for the development of art-based activities for Health and Wellbeing promotion within partners’ local communities. ABCD premise is that communities can drive the development process themselves by identifying and mobilizing existing, but often unrecognised assets.