About the program
The CONTACT ZONE program, initiated by the Ethnographic Museum of Istria, fosters participatory projects in collaboration with the local community. The program focuses on socially engaged topics that resonate with and are relevant to the community, encouraging active involvement and shared ownership among participants. Its primary goal is to position the museum as a key player in promoting inclusivity, social responsibility, dialogue, and the embrace of diversity. By identifying and strengthening potential "contact zones" — both within the museum and in the broader community — the program creates spaces for meaningful encounters, dialogue, and collaboration.
We aim for the CONTACT ZONE program to become a recognized initiative within the broader community where the museum operates. The goal is to make the museum a place where people feel empowered to share their stories and co-create new content, actively shaping the social and cultural dynamics of their surroundings. The CONTACT ZONE functions as an open, year-round platform for collaboration, with a flagship annual project. It’s also important that the program is recognized within the museum sector as a model of best practice, adaptable to other institutions and contexts.
Projects
CONTACT ZONE 01:
Coming Out Museum - COME
The COME project is the result of a collaboration between the Ethnographic Museum of Istria and Proces, an organization dedicated to promoting queer culture and LGBTIQ+ rights, based in Pula. The primary goal of the project is to collect and showcase coming-out stories from the LGBTIQ+ community, both in virtual and physical spaces.
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CONTACT ZONE 02:
New Neighbors: Biographies of Contemporary Migration in Istria
In the second phase of the Kontakt Zona program, we turn our focus to the phenomenon of new non-European migration in Istria and Croatia. The project highlights the experiences and life stories of individuals from our local community — our new neighbors.
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