Elena Carluccio: Swapmuseum
34° Fuso (project manager Elisa Monsellato, coordinator Elena Carluccio), Italy
Launched in 2016 in Apulia, Southern Italy, Swapmuseum offers young volunteers – the swappers– and local museums the possibility to collaborate to refresh and enrich small local cultural institutions. The initiative involved adolescents in museums’ daily practices, inviting them to undertake non-specialised tasks. For their hours spent volunteering, the swappers could then exchange their banked hours for benefits, such as free entrance tickets to cultural institutions and events, or vouchers and discounts for books or music. On the basis of research, which demonstrated both low rates of cultural participation by young people and low engagement with small, local cultural institutions, the project aimed to close this gap and to subvert this well-established pattern.