When a museum states that a project has been carried out "with young people," it may refer to a survey, a pilot activity, content production, an exhibition, or intervention in decision-making. Using terms such as participation or co-creation for all these situations obscures differences in power, authorship, and continuity.
I write from the perspective of cultural mediation, one of the fields of work of Kripties Fundación. This experience allows for the recognition of the distance between what is announced and what is decided, yet it is not presented here as a model, nor are undocumented results attributed to it.
There is no single scale
It may be useful to distinguish five positions:
- Consultation: the institution asks for input while retaining the decision.
- Testing: the group rehearses a pre-designed activity and may modify it.
- Production: the group creates content within a framework established by others.
- Exhibition: the group's work is selected and displayed.
- Decision-making: the group intervenes in objectives, programming, resources, or evaluation.
These are neither mandatory steps nor a moral hierarchy. A consultation may be well-designed, while a supposed co-creation may be opaque. This classification necessitates a declaration of scope.
Being heard and knowing the outcome
The Council of Europe’s child participation assessment tool is based on the 2012 recommendation concerning those under eighteen years of age. It proposes ten indicators and understands participation as the right to be heard and taken seriously.
Being taken seriously does not mean that every proposal must be accepted. It requires understandable conditions, feedback, and the possibility of knowing what effect the intervention had. The tool is designed for States and administrations; adapting it to a museum context requires modification.
Rompepuertas: residency, training, and production
Rompepuertas is a cultural action and participation team for the municipal museums of Zaragoza. The 2025-2026 call brought together twenty-five young people aged sixteen to twenty-one, providing ninety hours of training, financial compensation, and participation in activities linked to the Noche en Blanco.
Municipal documentation states that the group formulates proposals and develops artistic or creative initiatives. Almudena Caso’s academic article describes two courses: one in interdisciplinary training and another in planning and execution, with a central role in the Rompepuertas–Noche en Blanco Festival.
What the case does not reveal
The available sources do not detail which budget the group controls, which proposals were rejected, how disagreements are resolved, or which decisions remain reserved for the institution. The academic article evaluates the programme favourably, and its author is linked to its study; it does not constitute an external impact evaluation.
Furthermore, some of the participants are adults. The case serves to study youth participation, not exclusively child participation.
From the classroom to the museum: showing is not governing
In 2026, the Fundación Juan March presented Del aula al museo, a selection of works created by students from various stages and other groups between 2019 and 2026. The works originate from activities initiated in the classroom using educational kits and from workshops held following visits to the Museo de Arte Abstracto Español.
The institutional website documents production, selection, and exhibition. It does not indicate that the students decided on the final selection, the budget, or the programme. Therefore, it is a precedent for educational continuity and public recognition, not proof of co-curation.
Two forms of recognition
Exhibiting a work may recognise the production of the person who created it. Sharing decisions recognises their capacity to intervene in the institution. Both are relevant, but they are not interchangeable.
The distinction also affects credit: authorship of works, design of activities, mediation, selection, and coordination are distinct tasks. A project should specify what each party contributed.
Five questions
- What could the group decide, and what remained outside their remit?
- Did they have the time, information, and resources to do so?
- What happened to the proposals that were not accepted?
- How were authorship and work recognised?
- Was there feedback and continuity after the activity?
These questions do not automatically convert a project into effective participation. They allow it to be described without inflating its scope.
Participation can also mean refusal
Ethical participation should not depend on appearing in photographs, publishing data, or agreeing to an exhibition. There must be an alternative for those who do not wish to accept those conditions, and a clear explanation of how the produced materials will be used.
When works by minors are exhibited, the guide How to exhibit or publish works by children and adolescents separates authorship, data, image, and authorisations.
About the open conversation
It would be useful to learn of projects that document not only what young people produced, but also which decisions they were granted, what limitations they encountered, and how the institution responded to disagreement. Independent evaluations regarding continuity, credit, and resource distribution are also lacking.
If you have participated in, coordinated, or evaluated a programme of this type, write to me. I am particularly interested in experiences that can explain what was decided, rather than merely showing the final result. Individual testimonies will be treated as situated experiences, not as proof of general impact.
The author's relationship with the cases
I am the president of Kripties Fundación, which works, among other fields, in cultural mediation and inclusion through art. I have no financial, professional, or collection-related relationship with the municipal museums of Zaragoza or the Fundación Juan March.
Sources
- Council of Europe, Child Participation Assessment Tool.
- Zaragoza City Council, Rompepuertas.
- Zaragoza City Council, Rompepuertas 2024-2025 guidelines.
- Almudena Caso, “Rompepuertas: An Innovative Approach to Youth Engagement in Museums”, 2024, DOI 10.18848/1833-1866/CGP/v16i02/9-22.
- Fundación Juan March, Del aula al museo 2026.