Project Roots – when history becomes a community
Roots is a development project that uses cultural heritage as a starting point for conversations about identity and belonging. The project targets people who rarely visit museums – such as inmates in prisons and young adults in vulnerable situations – and invites them to actively work with history as a mirror for the present.
In collaboration with Storstrøm Prison and the Headspace youth counseling center, Absalon University College, Guldborgsund Municipality, Mother's Aid, the comprehensive housing social plan My Place, My Life, My Future and Nykøbing Cathedral School, the museum is moving out of its familiar framework and into new communities.
Participants encounter the museum's objects, create timelines, sensory exercises and reflection tasks, where traces of the past become a starting point for talking about today's choices and future possibilities.
The project is based on the museum's Educational Manifesto, which focuses on three central ideals:
- Mastery – being able to act and participate actively in society.
- Perspective – seeing oneself in a historical context.
- Participation – feeling like part of a larger community.
Roots shows how the museum can create meaning and learning that can nourish new hope in a time marked by crises and hopelessness. By bringing history close to people, personal formation and the experience that we belong together through cultural heritage and stories from the past are strengthened.
In 2023, the project was honored with the Museum Mediators of Denmark Communication Award for its innovative and inclusive approach and the Historical Days Innovation Award in 2025.
