In recent years, collaboration with communities has increasingly become one of the focuses of cultural work, and therefore also of museums. To fulfil their social responsibility and open themselves up to as many people as possible, many museums are trying to engage with different communities in various ways. Nevertheless, the concept of community is not free from criticism and difficult to define precisely, especially as communities are very heterogeneous. What are communities anyway, or rather: What can and do they want to be and in which contexts does community become visible?
Katharina Löhr, 2023
When my time at SAWA 2023 began, I was just finishing my studies and was already working intensively on the concept of community in my final thesis. The term or concept of "community" was also always present in the workshops and discussions with the other SAWA participants. New and different approaches were constantly being added to my understanding of community, and my time together at SAWA also awakened a sense of belonging and community in me. These professional and personal thoughts should all flow into this glossary entry and, with the help of the mind map, allow readers to participate not only in the thoughts and their development but ideally in the SAWA journey.
There is no such thing as the community. Sometimes communities only form together temporarily. People within a community have something in common and share something with each other. And sometimes community is just a feeling of belonging or solidarity.