Interview with Emek Yilmaz Sancar

EMA continues interviewing experts in their field. For our current issue we have been speaking to Emek Yilmaz Sancar about her career, experiences, projects, role in EMA.

1. Your background includes roles ranging from Museum Coordinator to Projects and Communications Lead. How have these varied experiences shaped your approach to cultural heritage communication and project management at the European Museum Academy?

It is, actually, thanks to the European Museum Academy that I became involved with these roles. Before that, I was a newly graduated PhD holder focusing on identity construction in city museums. During my fieldwork, I discovered just how multidisciplinary museums truly are. My curiosity to understand how different museums operate, somehow connected my path with EMA co-founder, the late Dr. Wim van der Weiden -whom I remember with great respect- and had the opportunity to join EMA. 

I think cultural heritage communication basically (and should) focus on co-creation, the goal is to involve all users to participate in creating meaningful experiences and civic dialogue as museums are also forum arenas. 

2. You are currently working as a collaborator on communication strategies for major EU-funded projects such as HERITALISE and META-MUSEUM. In your view, what innovative shifts or long-term impacts might these projects bring to the European museum landscape? 

HERITALISE project focuses on digitizing and visualizing cultural heritage using advanced technologies like AI, multispectral imaging, and 3D modelling. Its goal is to create interoperable tools and methodologies for cultural heritage professionals, enhancing preservation, study, and public engagement, and integrating cultural heritage data into the European Collaborative Cloud for Cultural Heritage (ECCCH). This means a small museum in a rural area can share its data and access the same high-level research tools as a major national gallery. 

META-MUSEUM Project researches how engaging with the transformative nature of cultural heritage fosters empathy, confidence, and resilience in citizens. It re-positions museums as crucial actors in addressing contemporary societal challenges (e.g., anxiety, social cohesion, climate change fears), The project uses neurophysiological sensors and psychology to measure visitor emotional and cognitive responses, developing the TransforMeans Theory (TMt). It will provide museum professionals with evidence-based guidelines on how to design exhibitions and programmes that actively stimulate transformative and democratic encounters. It empowers individuals to interpret, transform, and co-create cultural heritage, promoting the understanding that heritage is dynamic and belongs to all citizens. 

I also would like to invite readers to follow these projects on social media. It offers a behind-the-scenes look at our work and is a wonderful way to feed curiosity. 

3. As the Founder of Museums For Future -Türkiye which comes to end right now and an active advocate for youth engagement, how do you see grassroots movements influencing institutional museum practices today? 

We were a climate movement supported by the MFF International Team and various country chapters, and in Turkiye, we focused on bridging some very important gaps. Our main goal was to show how deeply the climate crisis is intertwined with traditional museum work- preserve earth for future to continue preserving cultural heritage. We wanted to demonstrate that a museum’s contemporary role makes it the perfect platform for dialogue and for promoting change, both for individuals and the institutions themselves.

Because movements can think and act quickly. We were able to offer museums a step-by-step path toward change—a trustworthy and easy-to-follow process because our activists were also museum and cultural heritage professionals. We collaborated with several museums and university departments, and even took part in global climate strikes to show that museums are places for activism, and change. 

MFF eventually ended because, in a way, we fulfilled our mission. Today, many museums are aware of their impact and are taking precautions, like updating their infrastructure or business operations to be more environmentally friendly. It was a wonderful opportunity to work with such like-minded people and be the change we wanted to see.

4. Having worked in Türkiye and at EMA, how has this international experience enriched your perspective on collaboration and cultural exchange in the museum field?

In Türkiye, I learned that effective collaboration requires sensitivity to national cultural policy, funding structures, and the institutional change. Heritage in Türkiye often intersects with deep-rooted social/political identity, requiring people to handle complex political and community relationships with extreme care. Collaboration often relies heavily on building strong, interpersonal relationships and trust, which sometimes comes before formal procedures. When you grow up in such conditions, it feels natural. I know some European countries are familiar with this.

Engaging with the European Museum Academy provided the essential multilateral framework and a set of shared professional standards. The EMA environment, its award programmes, projects, reports, meeting professionals from various European countries, exposed me to a vast array of solutions for common museum challenges (e.g., audience development, digital strategy, sustainability, education, funding, bureaucracy). It gave me a bird’s-eye view but I also can go deeper and analyse. Through these experiences, along with my sociology background, I can connect “cultural empathy” with building standards for high impact, objective results.  

5. Finally, what key advice would you offer to emerging museum professionals who hope to contribute meaningfully to the future of museums and cultural heritage? Could you also tell us about your Phd in Sociology and how has it affected your work on cultural fields?

I think interdisciplinary and socially engaged are key words here. Young museum professionals should have that interdisciplinary mindset. As I said previously, museum work encompasses multiple disciplines; sociology, technology, data analysis, climate science, be able to communicate with relevant authorities in these fields and among museum departments to be able to address and make something about contemporary challenges. Make your museum a platform for dialogue. Invite visitors and turn them into users, co-create with them. Like the two projects we mentioned above.

Before my PhD in Sociology, I was more focused on object on display, I didn’t think about the archives, narratives, the role of museums seemed to be preservation only, but with the resarch, it shifted to context, atmosphere, the audience, narrative story, education, dialogue, etc. Sociology taught me that heritage is not a fixed, objective entity, but a social construct—a tool that communities and states use to negotiate identity, power, memory… This made me think critically, why certain objects are preserved and exhibited and others not, whose stories are excluded.  I try to understand the social impact of a museum programme. I always ask so why this museum made this event, or exhibition, or educational programme, to understand their clear message, what they aim, challenge or promote. That’s why I love museums, and our work. It’s never just an exhibition!