Historically, universities have been instrumental in promoting and shaping European culture, knowledge, and values, including democracy, human dignity, freedom, human rights, and equality, as a global project. They have also been leading institutions in promoting dialogue and building strategic alliances between the Global North and the Global South in the fields of science, heritage, and cultural and creative industries.

In recent years, universities and museums in Europe have increasingly developed innovative approaches to address the colonial entanglements in their collecting practices, material legacies, understandings of national and transnational identities, and the production of knowledge.

However, unfinished conversations with former colonies about colonial legacies in and beyond Europe continue to hinder cooperation and exchange. COLUMN brings together partners from the creative industries, artists from former colonies, seven European universities, and partner universities from the Global South to rethink, reframe, and refresh approaches to postcolonial arts, culture and heritage.

Over the past decade, universities have increasingly invested in their cultural heritage as a means to build bridges with society. They are facilitating access through renovated university museums, botanical gardens, and key campus areas. While enhancing the public profile of the university is urgent, the university is also struggling to address its difficult colonial past. COLUMN aims to empower universities worldwide with the confidence to confront their dissonant legacies.

Focusing on four pilot interventions that apply new collaborative and decolonial curatorial practices, COLUMN will lead the development of policies, recommendations, and best practices for new collaborations around European university heritage through strategic partnerships within and beyond the EU borders.

COLUMN bridges knowledge production and creative arts practices, deepening understanding of university heritage. It promotes equitable approaches to colonialism through dialogue with Global South partners, advancing cultural cooperation. Through its outputs, the project challenges existing scholarly consensus, heritage practices, and policies.