Level 1 · In the room
Young people become co-authors.
They research, imagine, build and present — and discover that heritage isn’t just something you inherit. It’s something you can shape.
HUP — Heritage Understanding & Participation
Museums don't need more young visitors. They need young people who feel heritage belongs to them.
HUP pairs young people with museum teams in Heritage Hackathons: together they explore what heritage makes them feel — and turn it into experiences any visitor can share.
Be first to get pilot stories, webinars and the free HUP Toolkit as they're released.
Creative Europe · 2026–20285 museums · 5 countriesAges 10–16
Why this matters
Somewhere along the way, young people stopped feeling invited.
For generations, museums have kept Europe's memory safe. That work still matters — but the next generation is drifting out of the picture.
Here's the thing: attendance isn't really the problem. Young people still come — with school, with family. They look, they learn something, they leave. What's missing is what stays: the feeling that any of it is theirs. And what museums miss is everything those young visitors could have told them.
Both sides lose. It doesn't have to stay that way.
26 of 27
In all but one EU country, fewer young people visit museums and heritage sites than a decade ago.
Eurostat culture statistics — participation by age group, 2015–2022 (2024 update)15%
vs56%
Only 15% of European youth engage with cultural organisations. 56% get their culture from social media instead.
EU youth participation surveys, cited in the HUP proposal (2025)“Unwelcoming. Irrelevant.”
How young people often describe museums
“We speak to, rather than with, teenagers.”
How museum professionals describe their own programmes
Imagine instead
A way to discover what truly connects with young people.
When young people help shape what heritage means, they stop borrowing it — it becomes theirs. And museums gain something rare: partners who say out loud what other visitors only think.
Today
With HUP
Visitors
Co-authors
Watching
Co-creating meaning
“Please don’t touch”
“What would you make of this?”
One school trip
An ongoing relationship
The museum’s story
A story told together
The method
What happens in a Heritage Hackathon?
Small teams of young people and museum staff pick one piece of heritage — an object, a story, a place — and bring it to life for others. Seven steps, one arc:
1
MEET
Meet real heritage — and choose your object.2
FEEL
What does it make you feel — and why does it matter?3
PROMISE
the hingeDecide what a future visitor should get to feel.4
SHAPE
Imagine how — then give the experience a visible shape.5
BUILD
Build it so someone can live it.6
GIVE
Press play: give it to a real audience and watch what they feel.7
KEEP
Decide what we keep — the learning, the care, the story.Real objects. Real feelings. Real prototypes.
Explore the full methodAnd the ideas don't die in a slide deck: after each hackathon, teams get four months and a small budget to build them for real.
One hackathon.
Three levels of change.
A Heritage Hackathon looks like a fast, joyful design day. It is. But it's built so the learning doesn't stop when the day ends — it loops, three times, each turn wider than the last.
Level 2 · On both sides of the table
Museum professionals become co-creators.
Working with young people rather than for them, they see their collection through new eyes: what surprises, what confuses, which stories get reached for — and which never would be.
Level 3 · Long after the day
The museum itself learns.
What young people feel, choose and ask for flows back into exhibitions, programmes and plans. Participation stops being a one-off event and becomes a way of working.
When young people show a museum what moves them, the museum learns how to move everyone.
That's why our line is a spring, not a circle — every turn carries the last one's lessons forward.
The proof
What comes out of it?
Working prototypes — not reports.
Tours with feelings
Guided experiences built around emotion, not just dates.
Games & quests
The collection becomes a playground.
Installations
Spaces to touch, hear, step into.
Digital & AI experiences
AR trails, audio stories, objects that talk back.
Youth-to-youth campaigns
Young people inviting other young people in.
New welcomes
Fresh rituals for a museum’s next generation.
The first HUP prototypes will be built in 2027, in five pilot museums across five countries. We'll share every one here — including what flopped.
Who's behind this
Built together, from the start.
No single organisation can change how heritage is experienced. Every HUP Hackathon puts six kinds of people around the same table.
Project partners
Designathon Works Amsterdam · project leadNon-profit behind the worldwide designathon method: child-led design with 120,000+ children. Leads HUP and writes the method & manual.Visit website ↗
Change Of Course Brussels & LisbonStudio for educational hackathons and AI-driven learning. Leads the pilot hackathons, trains the museum teams — and built this website.Visit website ↗
Eduquest Naoussa, GreeceLearning-design non-profit blending education innovation with cultural work. Leads the research, co-creation and evaluation.Visit website ↗
Razvojna agencija Kozjansko Šentjur, SloveniaRegional development agency running the Ipavec House & Rifnik museums and a youth centre. Hosts the Slovenian pilot and leads the transfer across Europe.Visit website ↗Museum partners
Het Nieuwe Instituut RotterdamThe Dutch institute for architecture, design and digital culture. Pilot museum for the Netherlands.Visit website ↗
MAAT LisbonMuseum of Art, Architecture and Technology on Lisbon’s riverfront. Large-scale pilot museum for Portugal.Visit website ↗
ABBY KortrijkKortrijk’s brand-new city museum. Pilot museum for Belgium.Visit website ↗Pilot hackathons also run at Ipavec House & Rifnik (Šentjur) and a heritage site in Naoussa (Greece).
Where we are
Built in the open.
HUP runs from 2026 to 2028. This is the road — updated as we travel it.
Now · 2026
Research & co-creation You are here
Mapping how heritage interpretation and child-led design fit together — and writing the first HUP method. The first tools are already being tested with young people in Slovenia.
Late 2026
Training
Sixteen museum professionals from five countries train together in the Netherlands.
2027
Five pilot hackathons
Five museums, five countries, one method — stress-tested by the most honest audience there is.
2027
Prototyping
Each pilot idea gets four months and a small budget to become real.
Late 2027
Showcases
Prototypes meet their communities. We take notes.
2028
Everything goes open
Manual, toolkit, videos — free for any museum, anywhere.
Field notes
Read all field notesNotes from the journey
No press releases. Just honest notes from the road: what we're trying, what's working, what we're changing.
Six teenagers, one canvas, fifteen minutes
Testing our first tool with young people in Šentjur.
Coming soonFeelings first, facts later
Why HUP starts from emotion.
Coming soonFive museums, five countries, one question
Meet the pilots.
Coming soonThe goods
Everything we make will be free.
Open licence, no paywall. We'd just rather test things with real museums and real young people before handing them over.
HUP Hackathon Manual
How to run one, step by step.
In testing · late 2026Facilitation Toolkit
Canvases, cards, templates.
Coming 2028Training videos
See the method in action.
Coming 2027Field research & insights
What we’re learning as we go.
Rolling out nowWant each one the day it's released? Join the community
Help shape the future of heritage.
Whether you run a museum, teach, research participation — or simply believe young people deserve a real seat at the table — this journey is open.
- ✓Field notes from the pilots, as they happen
- ✓Invitations to webinars and showcases
- ✓Early access to test resources
- ✓The full toolkit, free, the day it’s released
A handful of emails a year. Every one worth opening. Leave anytime.
Want to bring HUP to your museum after the pilots? Get in touch — we're keeping a list.