Senegal – ‘Waxtaanu Aada’ Narrating Heritage. Training course on Museum mediation

Waxtaanu Aada / Narratingher Heritage is a training and capacity building project focusing on vocational education together with technical training in museum mediation in conjunction with the use of ICT for the communication of museums heritages.

The project final educational content resulted by the joint needs assessment carried out between September 2016 and May 2017 by AMTO e IFAN–UCAD staff. Goal of this project is to support the Senegalese authorities in safeguarding and valorizing the country’s cultural heritage through the updating of the national museum system and resources, thus contributing to the promotion of museums in the socio-economic along with cultural development of Senegal. Despite the country’s rich and diverse museum heritage, Senegalese institutions are currently in a difficult condition, as revealed by the deficiency of visitors, especially nationals. Beside the scarce financial resources and the insufficiency of professionally qualified personnel, Senegalese museums suffer of the inadequateness of organizational and management models and the lack of innovation in museography approaches, methods and resources. With Waxtaanu Aada / Narrating Heritage AMTO in conjunction with its local partners aim to support the upgrading of museums in Senegal focusing on the reinforcement, actualization and professionalization of capacities in museum mediation and promotion practice, insisting especially on the use of innovative methodologies. The didactic activities, framed within a multidisciplinary cross-sectorial approach are both addressed to museum professionals and to students. Three are the core thematic components of the projects: Role of mediation in contemporary museology and museography practices; Museum mediation and new media; museums, new media and audiences development. Each part consists of several sessions led by national and international experts in museum mediation practices, in the use of multimedia and ICT in expography, and heritage communication, addressing each issue with different training methods and strategies.

The conclusive part of the project will foresee the development on site of three pilot eshibition/activity in the field of projects of museography, museum mediation and museum promotion through the use of ICT.