Herengracht401

03/06/2026

05/05/2026

Erasmus+
We're still reporting from our incredibly productive partner meeting hosted by Συναγωγή Ετς Χαγίμ/Synagogue Etz Hayyim in Chania, Crete.

Next year, we’ll engage around 100 participants in participatory trainings focused on addressing difficult heritage and memory.

The training implementation is led by PELE Association, and on Day 2 of our partner meeting, Maria João Mota—co-founder of PELE (2007), a nationally and internationally recognized collective in the field of participatory and community-based artistic practices—presented the plan for developing the TCZ training concept.

The TCZ consortium is composed by:
• Culture Action Europe (Brussels, Belgium),
• Conexiones improbables (Vitoria Gasteiz, Spain),
• Συναγωγή Ετς Χαγίμ/Synagogue Etz Hayyim (Chania, Crete Greece),
• Goethe-Institut Bucuresti (Bucharest, Romania),
• Humán Platform (Budapest, Hungary),
• PELE (Porto, Portugal),
• Herengracht401 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

🔵 TCZ is an Erasmus+ project and is co-funded by the European Union.

05/05/2026

Mapping the Contact Zone 📍🗺️

Within the framework of the Training for the Contact Zone project, we created a digital map where we invite our heritage enthusiast community to contribute their own Contact Zone entry.

𝐋𝐞𝐭’𝐬 𝐬𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐭𝐚𝐜𝐭 𝐙𝐨𝐧𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐠𝐞𝐭 𝐭𝐨 𝐤𝐧𝐨𝐰 𝐨𝐧𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐨𝐭𝐡𝐞𝐫 𝐛𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐞𝐫!

A Contact Zone is any social and cultural space where diverse perspectives, experiences, and histories come into contact, co-exist, and are negotiated. 👥

Contact Zones can emerge in moments where people cross lines of difference and build bridges for understanding one another.
Our interactive map allows you to share and reflect on those moments. ✨

By sharing your story, you can help us visualize how contact zones appear in everyday life, across cultures, and within communities. You can also explore and read stories written by others about their experiences.

Access the map here: https://map.contactzone.eu 🌍

🔵 This map is part of the Training for the Contact Zone (TCZ) project, an Erasmus+ initiative co-funded by the European Union.

05/05/2026

𝐋𝐨𝐨𝐤𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐛𝐚𝐜𝐤 𝐚𝐭 𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐓𝐂𝐙 𝐂𝐨𝐧𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐜𝐞 𝐥𝐚𝐬𝐭 𝐃𝐞𝐜𝐞𝐦𝐛𝐞𝐫 — 𝐚 𝐟𝐨𝐮𝐧𝐝𝐚𝐭𝐢𝐨𝐧 𝐟𝐨𝐫 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐲𝐭𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐟𝐨𝐥𝐥𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐝 𝐢𝐧 𝟐𝟎𝟐𝟔.

💡 The conference took place on 2-3 December at the Goethe-Institut Bucharest. Over two special days, heritage and museum professionals as well as TCZ's own Community of Practice were invited to meet the TCZ project team and begin building a transnational network for collaborative action within the heritage, museum, and cultural sector at large.

🔹 Drawing on the concept of the Contact Zone — spaces where different identities and perspectives meet — the event highlighted the role of dialogue and cultural mediation in fostering mutual understanding, inclusive participation, and collective action.

🔹 The conference presented the results of the Training for the Contact Zone project (TCZ), which developed and tested a curriculum and training format designed to equip professionals with practical tools to engage with complexity and difference.

🔹 Through talks, keynotes, screenings, and interactive workshops, participants reflected on cultural heritage, narrative justice, and cultural rights, shared insights from pilot trainings, and discussed who gets to tell community stories. The programme encouraged critical reflection, collaboration, and learning, laying the foundation for future actions that support cultural democracy and stronger connections between communities and institutions.

📩If you are involved in the heritage and museum field and would like to connect with our team, get inspired, share experiences, and become part of our network, please contact us at:
📩 [email protected]

Foto credits: Larisa Balta

🔵 TCZ is an Erasmus+ project and is co-funded by the European Union.

05/05/2026

Goethe-Institut Bucuresti hosted in October 2025 its first training based on the TCZ project’s curriculum and course materials, developed within the framework of the TCZ project.

The course explored how narratives about Roma communities have been constructed over time and how they can be reinterpreted today through multivocal and collaborative practices.
After two months, in December, the conversation continued with the opening talk of the Contact Zones in Practice conference, “Mapping Contact Zones: Voices from Within and Beyond Roma Communities”.

Moderated by Joachim Umlauf, the discussion featured:
• Elena Radu (activist and community leader)
• Delia Grigore (writer, researcher, and cultural activist)

Together, they reflected on how Roma professionals create spaces for dialogue and creativity within their communities — and how community knowledge can be recognized, valued, and meaningfully embedded within institutional frameworks.

Foto credits: Larisa Balta

🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.

05/05/2026

🔎Join us for "Cultural Democracy in Contact Zones", the final conference of Training for the Contact Zone, a project exploring how cultural workers can facilitate dialogue across difference through participatory cultural practice.

▪️What kinds of spaces make it possible for different identities and perspectives to coexist and shape a common future through dialogue?

📍Across two days, we’ll gather to reflect on cultural democracy, dialogue, participation, and the role of culture in shaping more inclusive futures.

We look forward to bringing you together! 💡

📍Conference Cultural Democracy in Contact Zones📍
‣ 2-3 July 2026
‣ Pianofabriek, Brussels

Mark your calendars! Find the link in the comments section of this post.

🔵Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus + Adult Education.

05/05/2026

In the first trimester of 2026, the Training for the Contact Zone Erasmus+ project consortium focused on disseminating the project results while also developing a strategy for TCZ’s sustainability beyond the funding period. This meant working on policy recommendations, preparing the curriculum to become an open educational resource, and, most importantly, the project partners focused on synergy events.


🔵 Training for the Contact Zone is co-funded by the European Union within the framework of Erasmus+ Adult Education.

05/05/2026

Synergy Gatherings

We are grateful to be part of the BEYOND programme, a satellite conference that brings together cultural actors, artists, civil society organisations, and policymakers to reflect on how culture can foster dialogue, strengthen social cohesion, and safeguard democratic values.

📍 The East regional BEYOND event takes place in Istanbul on 4–5 May and focuses on the role of culture in peacebuilding, conflict resolution, resilience, and social transformation in regions such as Georgia, Armenia, Azerbaijan, and Turkey.

💡As part of the programme, one of the TCZ project partners will facilitate today a workshop based on the TCZ methodology developed in 2025. This is a valuable opportunity to create synergies, foster future collaborations, and ensure the sustainability of the TCZ outputs beyond the funding period.

🔵 Co-funded by the European Union.

22/12/2025

In the framework of our Erasmus+Erasmus+ Adult Education project TCZ Training for the Contact Zone we have organized several trainings for the contact zone in Amsterdam, Bucharest and Vitoria Gasteiz in 2025.

An impresssion of these training sessions you can watch in this video.

Participants from very diverse backgrounds received the modules from professional trainers in a non-formal education setting.
The training days included workshops, participatory walks, meditation exercises, mediation techniques, museum visits and a commensality diner.

in 2026 we will continue with the TCZ's - are you interested, please reach out to us:
trainingcontactzone.eu

Project Partners are:

Culture Action Europe (Brussels, Belgium)

Conexiones improbables (Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain)

Συναγωγή Ετς Χαγίμ/Synagogue Etz Hayyim (Chania, Crete, Greece)

Goethe-Institut Bucuresti Bucharest, Romania)

Humán Platform (Budapest, Hungary)

PELE (Porto, Portugal)

Herengracht401 (Amsterdam, The Netherlands)

https://youtu.be/GVT85bkc1Fw?si=ZEjS690GTMcRV6Ck

Training for the Contact Zone 2024-2025 (Erasmus+) first three training events in Amsterdam (Sept - Oct 2025), Bucharest (Oct 2026) and Vitoria Gasteiz (Nov ...

18/11/2025

Join us in planting and help bring an artwork to life on the fort island!

📍 Kunstfort Vijfhuizen
📅 Sunday 23 November
⏰ 14:00–16:00, followed by savoury tulip-bulb biscuits and tea to warm up together

We invite you to join a communal planting moment with artist Carlos Noronha Feio Carlos Noronha Feio on Sunday, 23 November at Kunstfort Vijfhuizen. Together, we will plant tulip bulbs in the letters of the previously excavated word ‘HELING’ (“HEALING”). Everyone is welcome to take part!

The planting not only marks the start of an outdoor artwork made with tulips, but is also a symbolic act of healing, collaboration, and cultural cross-pollination. Together, we shape a process that embraces the seasons and invites new meanings and encounters. Come and join in, and experience how language, culture, and nature intertwine in a poetic gesture of togetherness. This spring, the growing and blooming artwork will be visible from afar!

The Portuguese artist Carlos Noronha Feio explores layers of identity, language, and cultural exchange in his work. His practice often moves between the personal and the collective, between history and the future. In February, Carlos was artist-in-residence at the Kunstfort as part of Contested Desires, Constructive Dialogues (CDCD), a multi-year international project with a residency programme. In the Netherlands, this is organised by H401, Creative Court, and Kunstfort bij Vijfhuizen.

🔗Sign up here: https://bash.social/e/T5LC8Tq0AVEh?s=OBjLYtZlcKj