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From Collections to Classrooms: Unlocking Cultural Heritage for Open Education
Friday October 9, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT
3 - Salon I - 7th Floor
ID: 35081

Millions of cultural heritage objects from museums, archives, and community collections have been digitized and made openly available. This growing body of open access material has already enabled new forms of research and discovery. For example, scientists have used digitized butterfly collections to track the impacts of climate change over time.

Yet these collections are rarely designed with educators in mind. Educators, in turn, often lack the tools, context, and pathways needed to meaningfully incorporate these materials into teaching and learning. The result is a paradox: a vast and valuable body of open knowledge remains underused, even as demand for adaptable, culturally grounded learning resources continues to grow.

This session invites participants to explore a central question:

What would it take for open cultural heritage to become active building blocks for teaching and learning?

Drawing on Curationist’s work at the intersection of museums, open knowledge, and digital access, this session will examine the structural, technical, and pedagogical barriers that limit reuse. These include challenges related to metadata quality, rights clarity, platform design, discoverability, and the lack of educator-centered pathways for engagement.

Through a combination of framing, case examples, and facilitated discussion, participants will explore how educators, cultural institutions, and open education practitioners can work together to bridge these gaps. The session will surface practical insights and shared challenges across sectors, with a focus on moving from access to meaningful use.

Participants will be invited to reflect on their own experiences and contribute ideas for tools, practices, and collaborations that could better connect open collections with open education ecosystems. The goal is not only to identify barriers, but to begin outlining a more integrated and participatory approach to open knowledge—one where cultural heritage materials are not just available, but actively used, adapted, and brought into learning environments.
Speakers
avatar for Jennryn Wetzler

Jennryn Wetzler

Board Chair at Curationist Foundation, Curationist Foundation
Jennryn Wetzler serves as Board Chair of Curationist Foundation, which focuses on connecting people with global cultural resources through open knowledge. Curationist offers free access to over 5.4 million openly licensed artworks and artifacts, alongside curated collections and... Read More →
AF

Amanda Figueroa

Platform Director, Curationist Foundation
Amanda Figueroa works at the intersection of cultural heritage, digital access, and community engagement. Her work focuses on making collections more accessible, contextualized, and usable for diverse audiences. She brings experience in bridging institutional collections with public-facing... Read More →
avatar for Christian Dawson

Christian Dawson

Executive Director, Curationist Foundation
Christian Dawson is Executive Director of the Curationist Foundation and a leader in advancing open access to cultural heritage. His work focuses on connecting museum collections with broader digital knowledge ecosystems to support more inclusive and meaningful public engagement... Read More →
Friday October 9, 2026 1:40pm - 2:45pm EDT
3 - Salon I - 7th Floor MIT Samberg Conference Center, 50 Memorial Drive, Cambridge MA 02139 USA
  Panel

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