This project will develop an innovative, creative and equitable partnership between the History Museum of Bosnia and Hercegovina in Sarajevo and King’s College London, building on previous AHRC-GCRF and British Academy research projects on Art and Reconciliation. It is co-designed with the Museum to respond to its need to become a full research institution and to investigate, interpret and catalogue its own previously un- researched archives. The research will produce the first history of the Museum’s contribution to memorialisation of atrocity, integrated with an exploration of its role as a ‘living museum’, in the country and developed through the partnership with King’s, including ‘open call’ commissions, workshops and participatory-community engagement activities. This groundbreaking new research will allow the autonomous development of research at the Museum, opening the path to further funding opportunities, as well as enhancing research on evaluation methods and approaches to reconciliation, developed in previous partnership projects. Impact is in the proposal’s DNA, benefiting the UK, developed with and supported by FCDO (Deputy Director Strategy) to meet the UK’s ‘primary objective’ in the country. The project benefits the Museum directly, promotes, inclusivity and reconciliation, benefiting individuals and communities in Bosnia, in relation to UN SDGs 4, 8, 11, 12 and 16.
