Community Crafts and Cultures

There is no time like the present to ensure that youth have every opportunity to contribute to their communities, promote their heritage, and participate in decision making to challenge the threats that they and their communities face. Prof Karen Brown and Jamie Brown have run a project in collaboration with the Museo Nacional de Costa Rica and Network of Community Museums of Costa Rica, called Community Crafts and Cultures (CCC), since 2017. CCC is a community-based project funded by the Scottish Funding Council’s Global Challenges Research Fund (GCRF), seeking to support two indigenous community museums and one ecomuseum towards sustainable futures. In the course of research, Brown and Brown have co-designed fit-for-purpose practical solutions to problems identified by the communities themselves relating to artisanal production and promotion, mainly through intergenerational transmission of knowledge and working with women’s groups. In 2017, in response to tropical storm Nate, Brown and Brown partnered with the International Council of Museums (ICOM) Regional Alliance ICOM-LAC President and National Chair, and UNESCO, to facilitate Disaster Risk Preparedness and Response workshops. More recently, the Covid-19 pandemic and tropical storms have affected the communities in very challenging ways relating their homes, livelihoods and food security. One community demonstrated exceptional adaptation and resilience in the creation of a community and medicinal garden. Forging new research partnerships with Sustainable Development and the Institute of Cultural Memory and Identity, the multidisciplinary team are now part of a 2021 “Cultural Hub” based in GeoScience, bringing together a range of development aid projects located in the global South including Peru and Tanzania. 

The CCC project has been conducted in parallel with a project funded by the Horizon 2020 programme, called EU-LAC Museums, which ran from September 2016 to January 2021. Herein, Brown and Brown led a bi-regional Youth Exchange between the Isle of Skye in Scotland, Portugal, and Costa Rica and the Youth Exchange testimonials are available to view.