The university course: Heritage Technologies / Nine Lives of Curator
Sense Heritage: 9 Lives of Curator is about those yet to come to the past by believing in the future and those yet to come to the future by believing in the past. And the bridges they can make together. It is about not leaving anyone behind but looking beyond the horizon. It`s about sharing the beliefs of belonging to something larger than life yet undeniably born from life itself. It is about enabling the minds and hearts to speak and act together. It`s just about us.
National
Serbia
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Mainly urban
It refers to other types of transformations (soft investment)
No
No
Yes
As an individual
First name: Nikola Last name: Krstovic Gender: Male Nationality: Serbia Address (country of permanent residence for individuals or address of the organisation)<br/>Street and number: Bulevar Despota Stefana 124 Town: Beograd Postal code: 11108 Country: Serbia Direct Tel:+381645973245 E-mail:nkrstovic2012@gmail.com Website:https://nikolakrstovic.wixsite.com/senseheritage
Sense Heritage: 9 Lives of Curator (9LoC) is the concept based on the university course Heritage Technologies: 9 LoC and the online and physical platform Sense Heritage that enables students to connect and collaborate with diverse institutional and/or individual expertise creating thus the extensive network of stakeholders.
The main goal of the concept and the course is to regenerate the students` sense of belonging to the heritage profession. It started in 2015 as a pilot reaction to the government`s decision (2014) to prohibit any new employment in the public sector in the years to come, consequently distancing the graduating students from the profession and blurring the perspectives of professional development. The policy gradually the generational gap and severely endangered the usual transfer of knowledge from more experienced to newcomers. Since 2018 it is accredited as the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Philosophy course.
The concept responded to yet another need – the institutional heritage interpretations mostly suffered from professional elitism, romanticism and nostalgia. Gathering museum thinkers, progressive practitioners, from institutional and independent realms, CSOs and activists in the fields of human rights, culture and heritage, as well as the experts from other arreas of social life, the course became the hot spot for a critical understanding of the heritage practices and curating throughout debate lectures.
Using both the physical and virtual space, 9LoC is designed following nine neuralgic curatorial themes, tailored assignments, mentored work with students and public presentation of final students` exams (projects – websites) that were relied on the combination of gained knowledge and skills and their own social and cultural interests refined during the work with local communities. It evolved to the platform for the intergenerational exchange of expertise and diverse opportunities for the engagement of those stepping the scene.
(Connecting) heritage theories and practices
Two-way (Transferring) of Intergenerational knowledge
Developing critical and ethical (Consciousness)
Getting to know and sense (Communities)` needs
Developing (Professionalism) and its excellence
The main reason for initiating the 9 LoC Course was disturbing circumstances of cultural politics: (1) Two essential museums in Serbia were closed for renovation – The Museum of contemporary art (2007 - October 2017) and The National Museum (2003 – June 2018). (2) The 2014 Government`s prohibition of new employment in the public sector (partly abandoned in 2021). Generations of humanities graduates lost their sense of belonging to the profession and felt left behind. The gap in the intergenerational transfer of knowledge and skills was widening. The aging museum profession has been detached from new curating and communicating heritage models. The continuous cuts of culture and heritage budget for institutional and civil domains aroused shrinking in the innovative projects. Lastly, the populist government`s narrative narrowed the space for critical voices and interpretations of heritage.
The aim of the 9LoC and Sense Heritage concept, in general, was/(still is) to contribute to recovering the regular life cycle of the profession by reestablishing a more interactive educational environment as a common ground for professionals and upcoming ones, exchanging ideas and debating the possibilities of improvement. Also, the aim is to empower new generations to “recommend” themselves to both institutional and independent professional domains through concrete products (projects), as critical and proactive creators of new knowledge, skills and values with entrepreneurial relation to work opportunities. On the other hand, experts from diverse areas are primarily participating in providing quality education, expanding the heritage field with diverse knowledge, not rarely providing the in-kind services, spaces, funds, technologies, meeting opportunities and eventually jobs.
The 9LoC is a low-budget elective course that relied on stakeholders` connections and mutual support, not promotions. It was known as a no(n)-paper due to its refusal to print anything. Anything but the book.
The 9LoC course is demanding and challenging to complete. It requires constant evolution in combining the knowledge and skills about heritage with those applicable in the contemporary world. Usually, and unfortunately, they often don`t go along. Overcoming this gap is the greatest challenge for the students, the guest debate lecturers and mentors.
The syllabus` assignments are tailored to challenge the students` needs to combine their personal interests, knowledge and skills with those required by the course. It also challenges them to exchange and upgrade those sets with other students they choose to work with for final projects. Going through intense weeks of debates, individual then group assignments and developing their own ideas, research and exam projects (websites), the students are academically and professionally constantly evolving in order to revolve around a final idea: the course isn`t designed in a manner that passing the exam is the end, but the whole process is just beginning of professional directions. That`s where the Sense Heritage concept comes to life. Involving this fluid concept into the course`s formula allow different atmospheres, sometimes “out of tune” to academic environment but in line with real work with heritage. It resembles a job-opportunity fair, Talk-Show when it comes to different opinions of debate lecturers, curatorial residency during mentored weeks or even “talent show” during public presentations of the projects. All those are coloring specific poetic and aesthetic of the course.
Getting used to this kind of tempo and atmosphere continuously inspires the intensive intellectual and emotional exchange between the students during the course. It also challenges them on many levels – solidarity, emotional attachments, professionalism, ethics, responsibility towards communities they collaborate with and/or themes they choose, and the weight of the public word.
The reasons why 9LoC started (Sustainability objectives) have the inclusion in its core through its Sense Heritage concept. Primarily it referred to regaining the sense of belonging of young people to their future profession. But, it quickly developed into several dimensions.
Debate lecturers brought new dimensions by including new, primarily unrecognized themes, spheres of knowledge, applicable methodologies and skills to the scope and dynamic of the course. They also instantly democratized the initially proposed heritage narratives and their values and often redirected the stream towards local or universal contemporary issues, thus connecting the past with the present and future. As the stakeholders, over 110 debate lecturers, 18 host institutions (most of them during 2021 2023) and 11 NGOs, activists, and even media widen the field of (potential) partners, thus diffusing not just the syllabus` frame but the outcomes of the concept as well.
The next level of inclusion was participation in and often co-creation of students` final projects (in total, 67 of them) by different communities or social or cultural groups. Many unheard voices and contested themes founded their space in the public presentations of students` projects and in alums`s projects after the course`s end: Graffiti artists, Traditional urban craftsmanship, Invisible jobs (2015), Squatting communities, Cross-border romances, Unavailable museums (2018), Aged (ageism), Sustainable Art (2019), Children (2021), Genderism (2021) to mention few, apart from those more focused on traditional heritage interpretations. Several themes repeatedly appeared: Tattoo(ists) (2015/2022), Endangered by irregularities of urban planning (2015/2021/2022), Looting and illicit trafficking of art/archaeology (2015/2019/2022), Young artists (arTinder/StartArt/QuarantineArt/ArtScope) (2018/2019/2021/2022), Migrations and diaspora (2015/2018/2019), Difficult heritage/Contested memory (2015/2022).
The students` research and development of participatory and co-creative final projects resulted in the growth of their networks and communities (of interest). This simultaneously leads to spreading the ideas and values of diverse heritage approaches diversifying the structure and possible applications of academic knowledge. An important contribution to the outreach was given by media presence (RTS, Brainz: 2020) and students` efforts to overcome the lockdown.
Cultural benefits are both direct and indirect.
Direct ones are obvious in the professional community. Students` Reenactment individual assignments (2020) and Tweets (2021) were published in ICOM Serbia Magazine, a number was engaged as members of project teams in different museums. ICOM Serbia Communication Board entirely consists of 9LoC alums.
Indirect benefits are visible in alums` projects and initiatives inspired by their own project solutions during the course, students` employment in museums (after 2021), galleries or the civil sector (even earlier), where they furthered or changed the operational models by applying their knowledge and skills. Some developed the communication of their ideas or projects independently online, like #UmetnostkažeMože (46+K Followers), #Slikeiprilike (13K Followers). The others contributed to projects to fit actual spaces, like exhibition Dematerialization of art (Gallery Remont) or Inter/Akcija (multiples spaces), or BusCulture (to be implemented in public transport of Belgrade late in 2023).
CSO representatives, often activists, as debate lecturers offered the counterpoint to the institutional perspectives on heritage and ongoing life. Some of them are The Communication Point (tackakomunikacije.org), Evropa Nostra Srbija (europanostraserbia.org), Society against corruption (Museum of Corruption / museumofcorruption.net), Center for the rehabilitation by imagination (cri.edu.rs), Joint action – Roof Over Head (zakrovnadglavom.org).
he course 9LoC relays heavily on individual and collective stakeholders` inputs. The traditional relation professor – students is set out of balance thanks to the Sense Heritage concept that introduced diverse and influential models of decentering the power relations by diversifying stakeholders, enriching the debates and promoting self-evaluation.
The institutions (museums, galleries and heritage sites) provided their expertise, spaces, technologies and logistics during hosting some parts of the course, especially during the editions: 2021 (9LoC: No inviting this time – Hacking instead, 10 museums), 2022 (Inter-Hacking-National, 3 museums in Novi Sad, European capitol of culture, during mentoring work) and to be 2023 (9LoC: She/Reborn, Serbian capital of culture). The majority operate at the national level, while several are regional or local establishments.
Opposite to previous, the guest lecturers are to be recognized and understood as individual professionals regardless of what they represent: individual or collective endeavors in domains of curating/authorship/interpretation/event creation/management. In that way, institutional and independent scene representatives are not in a competitive counterbalance with their professional engagement.
Individual stakeholders operate on different levels: national, regional, local, state and private museums, large and small CSOs or their clusters, independent curators, individual or collective activists, government, and international representatives from Europe and USA. International debate lecturers took part thanks to the collaboration with Embassies or national museums: In-person guests were Museum Hack (Washington D.C. based), Museum Unbound (Huston based), Sandro Debono, Maltese museum thinker and PM`s counselor for culture, while in online editions (2020 and 2021) museum experts from Poland (Jagiellonian University), Slovenia and Croatia (Faculties of Philosophy) took part.
Studying heritage through its curating and using this knowledge and skills for applicable solutions (students` website projects) has perpetually been considered as interdisciplinary in 9LoC. One must concern numerous spheres of contemporary life to connect the present tense to heritage (which has stereotypical reference to the past). But, the question is whether the heritage is curated by everyday life or daily life is curated by heritage. The main perspective relied on humanities - art history, ethnology / cultural anthropology, history, archaeology, heritage studies, museology. Yet those perspectives were intertwined with other disciplines. The depth of those “mixtures” depended on the debate lecturers` arguments, the applicability of their ideas, and even convictions and eloquence during the debates.
The “other” disciplines` expertise opened up new perspectives for understanding the social relevance of students` engagements in heritage, especially its communication. What the invited debate lecturers brought closer to the students (and even other experts during the debates) were knowledge of ICT and marketing strategies, social media operational principles, governing, management, business and (circular) economy, sustainable politics and policies, effective law and human rights, informal and lifelong learning, strategies for and of activism (especially for working with sensitive groups). Considering that students are sharping their awareness about sensitive groups and related themes, the last mention was of particular importance. Students transform this awareness into practical project solutions – the debates about methodologies often consider already interdisciplinary area studies: Ethnical minorities (2015&6, Debate December 6), Race (2022, March 2), Gender (2022, March 23), Young (2015/6, October 30), but also Labors` rights and migration (2022, March 16), Poverty and legal (in)visibility (2019, March 14), Prisoners (2018, April 30), Corruption (2018, March 26)
Debate lectures have a dynamic rhythm that democratizes and boosts the sensitivity of the usual elective courses. Everyone is outside their comfort zone, yet in a safe and supportive environment. Regardless of professional achievements, one must adjust the approach to students still not to lose the sharpness of thoughts and ideas because it`s about debates. Very often, it took more than the regular 2 hours to end the debate between guest lecturers or students and lecturers. In the end, the aim is to connect, not to represent.
It is all about mutual transfers between stakeholders. With inputs that come from diverse experts/debate lecturers, students need to transform into a communicable and applicable set of knowledge and skills in order to co-create with communities. These new interdisciplinary assets are shared with diverse social groups, redefined, reformulated and reworked. That is how knowing but also sensing the real people and groups` needs and priorities is developed. At the end students share these new competencies (and values) publically during presentations of the final projects.
The whole process is based on the development of critical and ethical consciousness about heritage and its impact on contemporary life. By evolving from individual engagement (and student-professor relations) during assignments, the bar of consciousness is lifted towards other students in the group, then to the public of professionals, or in cases of alums` projects, to the general public.
Almost invisible and imperceptible in the whole process is that students are adopting and developing the tools for applying the knowledge (expanded field of humanities by interdisciplinary approach) to the real world`s circumstances, institutions and collective habits and mentality. And these are the particular characteristics of professional excellence in heritage.
The course 9LoC has been located in Belgrade and Novi Sad during the 2015-2022 period. Yet in 2023, the course will be partly relocated both in terms of location and context (for details, see Recommendation in additional documents). The location is Čačak, Serbian capital of culture 2023; the context is the celebration of 150 years since the birth of the most prominent modern female painter Nadežda Petrović (1873-1915). The anniversary is included in the UNESCO calendar for 2023.
The Art Gallery of Nadežda Petrović from Čačak is going to be the host of the 9LoC 2023 once a month and through mentoring weeks and public presentations of students` online projects. This invitation opened new perspectives of thinking about the course and outcomes of the Sense Heritage concept in general. Five themes of Sense Heritage / 9 LoC are constant, but the nine (curatorial) areas of debate are slightly reformulated to fit the context of the celebration and the capital of culture. The methodology of the debate lecturers stays the same, except for the distribution of the level of expertise – during the Belgrade part the debate lecturers are going to be local experts from Čačak and during the Čačak part the debate lecturers are of national reputation. This solution emphasizes the mobility of knowledge among disciplines and areas of study as well as geographically – blurring the boundaries between “center” and “periphery”. In the context of students` project research, community participation and co-creation and the final project outreaches the beneficiaries are primarily locals (Čačak) because both the process and the products remain consistent in form and expression.
The plans for relocating the 9LoC 2024 to the Capital of Culture city Užice in west Serbia, are well advanced with the Ministry of culture`s commission for implementation of SCoC. These relocations open the perspective of broader possibilities to implement the concept, especially in the light of the course pro
The university course 9 Lives of Curator (officially accredited under the title Technologies of Heritage, elective in 6th or 8th semester) at the University of Belgrade – Faculty of Philosophy, Department of Art History but elective for all 10 faculty departments) is part of wider concept Sense Heritage which refers to cooperation with cultural institutions (museums, galleries and heritage sites), organizations and individuals (mostly in culture and civil sector) and monitoring the alumni after the end of course and BA level of studies. It also enables the career development based on the achievements during and after the course.
The 9LoC comprise 13 to 15 weeks of 2 hours lectures per week. Week 1 – Intro: Structure, Scope & Score, Week 2-10 – Nine Lives of Curator, follow different topic every week (consult website), Week 11-13/14 – Mentorship of the students` exam projects (websites), Week 14/15 (Exam week) – Public presentation of the projects.
Each of the nine lectures (Weeks 2-10) follows the same formula: a brief overview of contemporary aspects of curating the heritage (hence the title) as an insider`s perspective, followed by most commonly 2, sometimes 3, debating guest lecturers both from inside and outside the profession that critically push the hot-spots connected with the topic. The students participate during the debates, or if the guest lecturers have quite different opinions, they do Q&A. Two students and the professor moderate each of the debates. Students have 2 individual, 1 in pairs and 1 group assignment in the form of a written essay, audio, podcast, or video as the pre-request for a final project in the form of website.
Two or three mentoring weeks are dedicated to developing the ICT (basic) skills, content, structure, narrative, projects goals and project management sets of skills in the domain of culture and heritage.
Final week is dedicated to the public presentation of the project (websites) and 10-15 minutes of explication of the g
Heritage and its interpretation and curating can pin many global challenges, yet beyond raising awareness, it can`t do much directly. During one of the final project presentations (9LoC 2021 /Project: Can Women Can`t) one of the students responded to the intro sentence, “That`s something, isn`t it – the hardest task is to make people be aware of the problem.” The presentation was about Gender equality and issue Reproductive justice. She added, “Our group of five make 50 people (re)consider their thoughts.”
Later, we all found out that the two mentioned are just 2 of the 20 major global challenges. Some of them we dealt with directly: Refugee rights through debate and students` projects about Migrations, Children`s rights, Freedom of press, Disability rights, LGBTQ+ rights as a general course topic Freedom of Speech / Unheard Voices (9LoC, Week 6) and several students` projects. Ageism is added by students` projects; (Global) Cooperation by inviting international guest lecturers whenever it was possible; we addressed Corruption and Authoritarianism in the debate lectures and several students and alums` projects being the promoters of free artistic expression in societies where populism dominates the politics and policies.
Even being aware of its misuse and abuse, the essence of heritage interpretation is entirely contrary to Disinformation. This is the ethical standard of the profession (9LoC, Week 9).
We couldn`t do much with Cybersecurity because the course itself and all the students` projects are designed on free website builder platforms, lost among 24M other users. We wore the masks, followed the experts` recommendations about COVID-19 and Health Care, adapting to social distance modes but publically advocating it on National TV Broadcaster (RTS) during the lockdown(s) (9LoC: 2020 / Reenactments). Paradoxically, the only year when there were no final online projects was 2020. It was our revolt and Mental health care.
The Course, 9 Lives of Curator, started in 2015/6 as a pilot and officially in 2018. During these six years, it became the platform for the interchange of diverse ideas and practices connected with heritage preservation and communication. Except for pilot year, where there were 126 students enrolled, each edition from 2018 was open for 30 enrolments. In total, it was attended by almost 250 students. The most direct outcome of the course is the extensive website on the free platform (see website attachment) and the book Nine Lives of Curator: From Museology to Museography (in Serbian, English resume, see PDF attachment).
The course website follows the program (week to week) each year. There are links to all the guest lecturers (110) and their most prominent achievements at the moment; the links to the students` projects and their websites (67) followed by photos and the selection of students` accomplishments. The last was the case, especially in 2020 during the lockdown and in 2021 and 2022. It also contains the program announcements for 2023.
On a broader scope, as a Sense Heritage concept (collaboration with different institutions, organizations and individuals), it enabled numerous recommendations and/or offers for employment in some of the most prominent museums in Belgrade or the local heritage ecosystem, funding of the 9LoC alums` redesigned projects or inspired by original solutions during the course, inclusion into ICOM Serbia operations (communications, Annual Award and ICOM YouTube channel). It also enabled skills and knowledge for self-employment, CSOs` engagements, and independent curatorship.
The plans for 2023 are mentioned (Replication and Transfer). The course and the concept the Sense Heritage were internationally promoted in 2022 in Cetinje (Ministry of Culture, MNE), Skoplje (EduCon, MCD), and at the ICOM General Conference in Prague in the ICTOP session - Training of museum professionals.
Two examples of alums` projects in the web links.
All the stakeholders must be aware that their increased mutual connections are gradually developing into intertwined obligations. This process includes the students, the six generations of alums and their actions and projects, the debate lecturers, the mentors and jury members for the students` projects, the museums` staff that host us all, all students` projects beneficiaries and me as a teacher. These obligatory relations might also mean vulnerability, especially in the light of the government`s decision to narrow professional opportunities. Vulnerability, in order to become a strength, must be overcome by fairness. All the stakeholders` (professional) capacities are exposed to others in order to support the system not just of the course but also its outcomes in the “real” world of heritage communication during the process or after the course season ends. And it goes both sides: those who are to step into the profession supported by new knowledge and those whose experiences are shared. That`s why it is not only about the 9LoC university course but also the Sense Heritage concept.
The students` work throughout (and after) one-semester course is both individual and collective. After the initial individual, even customized approach, the collective plays more and more important role due to their developing obligations to those whose agents they are. Having in mind that all students` projects are based on the critical perspective towards the problems they recognize in the societies and then reshaped into the heritage narrative, systematic comprehension of the structure and goals of the course is of great importance. That means that well-based and executed research requires not just adaptability of the content but also the development of a personal sense of collective expression and vision that has the potential to be implemented in actual and diverse professional environments.
