Grants:Programs/Wikimedia Alliances Fund/Find and Tell Elsewhere
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Applicant information edit
A. Organization type
B. Organization name
- Canadian Centre for Architecture
E. Do you have an account on a Wikimedia project?
E1. Please provide the main Wikimedia Username (required) and Usernames of people related to this proposal.
- N/A
G. Have you received grants from the Wikimedia Foundation before?
- Did not apply previously
H. Have you received grants from any non-wiki organization before?
- Yes
- H1. Which organization(s) did you receive grants from?
- Canada Council for the Arts, Canadian Heritage, Ministère de la Culture et des Communications, Conseil des arts de Montréal, Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, Graham Foundation for Advanced Studies in the Fine Arts.
- H2. Please state the size of these grants from the following options.
- N/A
- H3. What type of organization (s) did you receive grants from?
- Government, Other
- H4. What percentage of your program budget do other funders contribute to?
- Less than 30%
1. Do you have a fiscal sponsor?
- No
1a. Fiscal organization name.
- N/A
2. Are you legally registered?
- Yes
3. What type of organization are you?
- Non profit organisation
4. What is your organization or group's mission and how does it align with the Wikimedia movement?
- The CCA is an international research centre and museum founded on the conviction that Architecture is a public concern. Based on its extensive collections, the CCA is a leading voice in advancing knowledge, promoting public understanding, and widening thought and debate on architecture, its history, theory, practice, and role in society today.
5. If you would like, please share any websites or social media accounts that your group or organization has. (optional)
- Facebook: @cca.conversation
Twitter: @ccwire (English), @ccaexpress (French) Instagram: @canadiancentreforarchitecture YouTube: CCAchannel
Grant proposal edit
6. Please state the title of your proposal.
- Find and Tell Elsewhere
9. Where will this proposal be implemented?
- International (more than one country across continents or regions)
10. Indicate if it is a local, international, or regional proposal and if it involves several countries?
- International
10a. If you have answered international, please write the country names and any other information that is useful for understanding your proposal.
10b. Are there any specific sub-regions or areas where your proposal will be implemented?
- N/A
11. What is the challenge or problem you are addressing and why is this important?
- In 2018, the Canadian Centre for Architecture (CCA) launched a collaborative and multidisciplinary research project on architecture’s complex developments in sub-Saharan African countries after independence. Titled Centring Africa: Postcolonial Perspectives on Architecture, this project asked, first, how to understand architecture’s historical role in decolonization, neocolonialism, globalization, and their manifestations across the continent, at local and regional scales; and, second, how this understanding could challenge established methods and disciplinary conventions of architectural and urban studies. The project also aimed to question, and eventually shift, perspectives shaped by North/South knowledge divides.
This research initiative was catalyzed in part by the recent arrival at the CCA of three important archival collections related to architecture, urbanism, and territoriality in Africa: those of Dutch planner Coen Beeker, German architect Georg Lippsmeier, and Kiran Mukerji, an employee of Lippsmeier. Generally, the CCA considers archival research essential to building new forms of evidence, understanding the archive broadly, even as one which still needs to be constructed. Specifically, this research project reconsidered the archive in order to challenge the reliance on Western sources by looking beyond institutional archives to others constructed around single buildings, international organizations, urban spaces, new policies, statistics, laws, photography, financial programs, and philosophical, intellectual, or cultural propositions.
However, the question of whether collecting or accepting material from the African continent is ethical or not was raised by the participants of the multidiscplinary research project. To some of them, extracting archives created in and about Africa and including them in the CCA’s Collection was in fact another form of colonial act -- even if the CCA could guarantee a high level of preservation of the material and its accessibility.
The multidisciplinary research project thus pointed to three main challenges: the knowledge gaps in architecture history around African architecture; the difficulty to have access to African sources of knowledge on African architecture; and the role of museums as ‘extractive institutions premised on the colonial urge to collect, classify, and exhibit – to “know”’ (Sharp 2022).
12. What is the main objective of your proposal? Please state why you think partnering with Wikimedia Movement helps to achieve this objective?
- Our projects aims at increasing access and research on African architecture and ensuring greater discoverability of primary and secondary sources of knowledge on African architecture in close collaboration with African partners. This project responds to Wikimedia’s commitment to ‘creating new knowledge, closing systemic gaps in global understanding of language, culture, and identity’ and to ‘help open the knowledge — making it more diverse, more equitable, accessible and inclusive.’
13. Describe your main strategies to achieve this objective?
- Founded on the premise that architecture is a public concern, the CCA seeks to play an active part in fostering debate on architecture and its role in society, on a global scale. Despite its international scope and outreach, the Centring Africa project shed light on the gaps that exist in the CCA collection and research outputs as regards to African architecture. In order to continue its work of preserving and spreading knowledge on architecture from Africa, while avoiding any form of extractive practices, the CCA decided to undertake a shift in direction and explore a new approach:
‘The post-custodial model of archival practice uses digital technology in pursuit of a more collaborative approach to multinational archival work. The model originated as a response to the rapid increase of born-digital materials produced by institutions, a way of saying “archive your own emails.” But it was quickly taken up by archivists interested in human rights and social justice as a way to shift the balance of power in archival preservation.’ (CLIR 2023)
More concretely, in this approach, the archival material remains in its place of origin while external archivists provide management oversight. Besides, digital technology presents an interesting opportunity for participatory and post-custodial approaches that seek to shift curatorial authority and access to the communities represented. In this model, archivists and curators work side-by-side with community members to actively close gaps in historical coverage and proactively document the present day. At the same time, digitized material has the potential to reach (other) audiences beyond the physical space of a study room or library.
The adoption of this new model led to the development, in May 2022, of a CCA pilot project called Find and Tell Elsewhere: a collaboration with the custodians of the papers of the Sudanese architect Abdel-Moneim Mustafa was formed to examine his significant interventions in Khartoum and surroundings, and his role in the architecture of nation building in Sudan. The CCA provided assistance in the digitization of significant archival resources across national, regional, and urban boundaries, and facilitated access to these resources -- that is still housed in Abdel Moneim Mustafa’s office -- for future research. The archival material was made available on Wikipedia Commons (242 files were uploaded: plans, photos, videos) and two articles were published on the CCA website as well as on Wikipedia (pending approval).
Following the success of the pilot project, the CCA seeks to expand the Find and Tell Elsewhere program to other African geographies with two iterations each year for a three-year period. Find and Tell Elsewhere is a means to bring forward the contribution of underrepresented communities and historically marginalized communities in the field of architecture and a shift in museum culture in general.
14. Are you running any in-person events or activities?
- No
15. Please state if your proposal aims to work to bridge any of the identified content knowledge gaps?
- Geography, Cultural background, ethnicity, religion, racial
16. Please state if your proposal includes any of these areas or thematic focus.
- Culture, heritage or GLAM
17. Will your work focus on involving participants from any underrepresented communities? Select all categories that apply.
- Ethnic/racial/religious or cultural background
18. Please tell us more about your target participants.
19. Do you have plans to work with other Wikimedia communities, groups or affiliates in your country, or in other countries, to implement this proposal?
- Yes
19a. If yes, please tell us about these connections online and offline and how you have let Wikimedia communities know about this proposal.
- N/A
19b. If no, please tell us the reasons why it has not been possible to make these connections.
- N/A
20. Will you be working with other external non-Wikimedian partners to implement this proposal?
- Yes
20a. If yes, please describe these partnerships.
- With this project, we want to implement new modes of providing access to resources and supporting research, to evaluate how the management and use of these records can be dissociated from their physical ownership, and to nurture connections between our collection, our research programs, and this material. This implies that we develop strong collaborations with partners in Africa who will remain the custodians of the archives we want to explore and share. With these partners we want to explore the material they own and learn from the material and from them.
We offer our expertise in description and data management, and we offer our network of critics and writers. Together we aim to make material available and accessible, and hope to expand the expertise.
20a. If yes, indicate sharing of resources from these partners (in kind support, grants, donations, payments).
- N/A
21. Please tell us how your organization is structured.
22. Do you have the team that is needed to implement this proposal?
23. Please state if your organization or group has a Strategic Plan that can help us further understand your proposal. You can also upload it here.
- N/A
Learning, Sharing, and Evaluation edit
24. What do you hope to learn from this proposal?
Core Metrics edit
25. Enter a description of the metric and a number in the target field. If the metric does not apply to you, enter N/A for not applicable.
| Core metrics | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| Number of participants | ||
| Number of editors | ||
| Number of organizers |
| Wikimedia Project | Description | Target |
|---|---|---|
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
| N/A | N/A | N/A |
25a. If for some reason your proposal will not measure these core metrics please provide an explanation. (optional)
- N/A
26. What other information will you be collecting to learn about the impact of your work? (optional)
- N/A
27. What tools would you use to measure each metric selected?
28. How do you hope to share these results so that others can learn from them?
Financial Proposal edit
29. What is the amount you are requesting from WMF? Please provide this amount in your local currency.
30. What is this amount in US Currency (to the best of your knowledge)?
- USD
31. & 32. Please provide a budget for the amount of funding requested.
33. What do you do to make sure there is a good management of funds?
34. How will you contribute towards creating a supportive environment for participants using the UCOC and Friendly Space Policy?
35. Please use this optional space to upload any documents that you feel are important for further understanding your proposal.
- Other public document(s):
Final message edit
By submitting your proposal/funding request you agree that you are in agreement with the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and the Universal Code of Conduct.
36. We/I have read the Application Privacy Statement, WMF Friendly Space Policy and Universal Code of Conduct.
- No
Feedback edit
- Please add any feedback to the grant discussion page only. Any feedback added here will be removed.