Imagine IC is a heritage organization based in the Amsterdam Southeast borough. For the public Imagine IC is a mix between an archive, a museum, and a debate center. They collect, exhibit and discuss present-day (city)life. Most people from Amsterdam consider Southeast the very outskirts. To Imagine IC, though, it is another city center. A center with a different outlook on the city. A center with other societal and cultural urgencies.

From within this ‘other’ city, Imagine IC wants to make new social connections and add to the existing heritage collections of Amsterdam and The Netherlands. They want to collect present-day society together with old and new inhabitants of the city. Imagine IC advocates for heritage democracy; ‘’because heritage tells a story about who we are, everyone should have a voice’’. This notion carries through everything they do as an organization. This lecture will discuss the participatory heritage work from Imagine IC and give you insights into the work this progressive organization does together with its network, accompanied by several examples of projects and educational programs. This lecture is one of the activities of Megawra's Khalifa Heritage Exchange Program, funded by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, in collaboration with Imagine IC, Merve Bedir Studio, Chirine El Ansary, and Cascoland. It is organized within the frame of Athar Lina's tourism promotion event "Spend the Day in Khalifa 7".

About the Instructor

Margot van Ruitenbeek is a starting heritage professional living and working in Amsterdam, The Netherlands. She studied Cultural Heritage at the Amsterdam School of the Arts. As part of her Bachelor’s program, she followed a minor in Gender Studies at the University of Utrecht and majored in Storytelling and Participatory Practices. Her thesis focused on the impact evaluation of Emotion Networking in an exhibition space. For this research, she studied the theory behind Emotion Networking, worked out ways in which this method could be translated into exhibition space (together with Imagine IC) and researched different impact evaluation techniques. In 2018 she started working at Imagine IC as an intern on the participatory neighborhood archive, working closely with a number of participants from the network. After finishing her intern and thesis, she started working as interim-educator at Imagine IC. Within this role, Margot is responsible for Emotion Networking workshops for ‘professionals’ as well as the educational program for children and students. She’s enthusiastic about educating people in heritage practices and has a passion for art, books and Amsterdam’s cultural scene.