Museums and cultural institutions are inserted in complex sociocultural spaces that are admittedly – and increasingly – heterogeneous, so it is an enormous challenge to politically and critically place the museum in its own context as a space that is open to dialogue and debate, entailing democratic and socially committed action.

Nowadays we acknowledge that institutions are more open to their own context, seeking the engagement of citizens. However, these initiatives generally originate in an institutional need directed from the centre to the periphery, and they do not challenge the traditional hegemonic and colonialist models or constitute a transformation within the institution. There are few examples that attempt to step outside the museum to focus on their context, on collaborating with people, movements and their social struggles and, from there, ‘do together’.

With this research, I seek to reflect on educational spaces in cultural structures, to study and to explore possibilities for thinking relational and participatory practices in the educational action which substantiate a social engagement.

It is important to explore positions that think of the museum as a space of possibility (Rogoff, 2008) and consider critical and transformative educational approaches that enhance social relations. Here I would like to highlight Carmen Mörsch’ s (2009; 2011) study on gallery education. Mörsch contextualizes the deconstructive and transformative discourses in a critical educational model – the deconstructive discourse is associated with a reflective and critical approach to institutions and to cultural and education processes, considering their deconstruction; while the transformative discourse is connected to shifting institutions outwards to local contexts and, consequently, incorporating contextualized projects related to issues of social struggle. It is by following the transformative discourse that collaborative processes and real participation are processed in a widespread manner, thus creating actual change in the institutions themselves and in their relational policies, enabling them to be considered a social agent. 

It is important to bring in the concept of contact zones as defined by James Clifford (1997), stemming from the notions of Mary Louise Pratt in Imperial Eyes: Travel Writing and Transculturation (1992, cited in Clifford 1997). This notion of contact zones considered by Pratt refers to ‘“the space of colonial encounters”’ (as cited in Clifford, 1997, p.192), where previously geographically and historically separated individuals are generically able to connect and relate within asymmetrical power relations. The notion of contact zone, thus defined, emphasizes the relations established between asymmetrical power structures, based on concepts of struggle and negotiation. This concept introduces itself as a fundamental element to ethically and politically consider processes of collective agency in institutions.

Firstly, this paper seeks to mobilise theoretical concepts around relational and participatory practices, and to establish a relation to practical international examples. At a second stage, I will critically analyse the dynamics of the educational practices intrinsic to the BIOS Project [Projeto BIOS] in the Douro Museum [Museu do Douro] in Portugal, particularly the work sessions with teachers participating in this project. These work sessions with teachers demonstrate a collective wish to come together in a space for sharing ideas and experimenting, which is open to critical thinking about educational processes and life in this territory and in the world. Through this analysis I attempt to understand which possibilities for discourse and narrative can be considered in these zones of contact and conflict, and how different interests and dialogical and negotiation processes can take part in a museum.

Clifford, J. (1997). Routes: travel and translating in the late Twentieth Century. Cambridge: Harvard University Press. Mörsch, C. (2009). At a crossroads of four Discourses: documenta 12 Gallery Education in between Affirmation, Reproduction, Deconstruction, and Transformation. In C. Mörsch (ed.) Documenta 12 Education II. Between critical practice and visitor services. Results of a research project (pp. 9 –31). Berlin, Institute of Art Education /Diaphanes. Retrieved from http://www.diaphanes.com/titel/documenta-12-education-ii-178 Mörsch, C. (2011). Alliances for Unlearning: On Gallery Education and Institutions of Critique. Afterall, 26, 4–13. Retrieved from http://www.afterall.org/journal/issue.26/alliances-for-unlearning-on-the-possibility-of-future-collaborations-between-gallery-educa Rogoff, I. (2008). Turning. E-flux, 0, 1–10. Retrieved from http://www.e-flux.com/journal/turning/