MeLa Publications
The MeLa editorial activity promotes the widespread use of the advancement of knowledge produced by the Project. Special policies have been agreed by the Consortium Partners in order to guarantee a high open access level to all Project products, and in particular to make publications readable and downloadable.
In this page, you can find a selection of MeLa related documents, and the articles, papers and books produced by the Consortium members within the MeLa Project, which will be available free of charge whenever possible and, in any case, at least in their executive summary.
These works are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs License.
>> Access the series of open-access digital publications which report the main findings ensued from the research activities developed by the different MeLa Research Fields.
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MeLa Final Brochure: European Museums in an age of migrations
MeLa is a four year multi-disciplinary and collaborative research project, funded in 2011 within the 7th Framework Programme of the European Commission under the Social Sciences and Humanities. The MeLa Project investigated the role of museums in 21st century Europe, and their ongoing evolution triggered by accelerated mobility, fluid circulation of information, ideas and cultures, and the consequent increase of cultural encounters, cross-fertilisation and hybridisation of societies and identities. By analysing the challenges as well as the opportunities emerging from processes of globalisation, mobility and migration, MeLa identified innovative practices that can support contemporary museums in fostering mutual understanding, social cohesion and a sharper awareness of an inclusive European identity. This booklet presents a synthetic overview on the main findings produced by the MeLa Project, drawing on the critical suggestions, best practices, policies and recommendations proposed by the investigators involved in the different MeLa Research Fields, with the aim to support the scientific community, museum professionals, policymakers and the European Commission in envisioning and fostering the evolution of contemporary museums in this “age of migrations”.
MeLa Final Brochure: European Museums in an age of migrations Research Field 06 - Document - March 2015 Fd06 Document more -
MeLa Research Field 06 - Midterm Seminar Brochure: Envisioning 21st Century Museums
Two years and a half after the MeLa Kick-off Meeting held at at Musei Capitolini and MAXXI in Rome, which inaugurated the beginning of the MeLa Project activities, the Midterm Seminar has represented an important milestone fostering introspection, dissemination, collection of new stimuli and planning of further tasks, as well as gathering new key findings through the coalescence of theories and practices. By triggering a multi-disciplinary and multi-perspective critical debate about the transformation of the contemporary museums, the Seminar aimed at capturing the complexity of these processes by facilitating a cross-fertilisation between the scientific outcomes developed by the scholars involved within the MeLa Project and the innovative experiences promoted by some pioneering museums, illustrated through the words of the directors and curators who conceived and actualised them. Accordingly, the program of the Midterm Seminar included a morning session, devoted to the presentation of the ongoing results of the activities developed within the MeLa Research Fields 1, 2, 3 and 4, which are currently being completed, and two afternoon sessions aimed at reporting about the advanced practices promoted by several new or renovated European institutions, in order to evaluate the outcomes and new perspectives they produced. The selection of the invited museums was led by a plurality of tasks, on the one hand drawing on the consistence and the quality of the experiences intended to foster the involvement of new audiences and enhancing the role of museums as agents for social change, on the other highlighting the wide and transversal interest for these issues, which are at the core of the revision of a variety of museums. The panel was indeed characterised by the differentation of the focus and mission of the presented museums and their distribution across several European Countries. The heterogeneity of the reported experiences highlighted the richness and the variety of the approaches, tools and strategies which are being experimented to afford the challenges posed by this “age of migrations.”
MeLa Research Field 06 - Midterm Seminar Brochure: Envisioning 21st Century Museums Research Field 06 - Document - April 2014 Fd06 Document more