Inhabiting heritage through community participation: co-creating exhibitions with the people of Huaycan de Cieneguilla

Abstract

Citizen or community participation is becoming ever-more important in all aspects of political and public life, not just to streamline public policies, but also because people have the right to participate directly in decision-making in regard to the issues that pertain to them. Heritage management —and what heritage is and isn’t— is one of the few issues discussed horizontally by the State and the citizenry. Museums and interpretation centers have been no exception. Events held in Latin America since the 1970s pointed out the connections between museums and the community, and have moved on from a passive public to one that is active and has a leading role, gives its opinion, builds and participates in the various mise-en-scènes. The development of a participative exhibition in association with the community of Huaycán de Cieneguilla allowed us to reflect upon and establish a dialogue between the government, researchers and the citizenry, in order to jointly build a shared narrative of the history of Cieneguilla.