Where Voices Meet: Ten Years of Multaka

For ten years, Multaka has been creating spaces for dialogue: guides from different regions of the world and museum visitors meet, share perspectives, and retell history and stories. To mark the anniversary, people involved with the project look back—and toward a shared future.

Interview: Sven Stienen

The successful museum education program Multaka is turning ten. How did the project come about in the first place?

Sarah: It all began as an initiative by the Museum für Islamische Kunst and the Syrian Heritage Archive in December 2015. At that time, many people from Iraq and Syria were arriving in Berlin, creating a specific momentum. The initial idea was to give these newcomers access to museums, to offer them space, and to build bridges between different cultures and historical periods. The Museum für Islamische Kunst invited the Vorderasiatisches Museum,the Bode-Museum and the Deutsches Historisches Museum to join, and the cooperation took shape.

During the first months, the main goal was to create dialogue — the key concept of Multaka, meaning “meeting point.” This happened through interactive tours. The program also became a great opportunity for the museums themselves, as the guides brought incredibly diverse perspectives and strengthened connections with various communities in Berlin. The offer started in Arabic and later expanded to Farsi.

Sandy: I came to Germany in 2014 and learned about Multaka through someone from Syria who introduced me to the project and suggested I attend a meeting. In the beginning, we were 16 Arabic-speaking people with very different educational backgrounds — not all of us had studied history or cultural subjects. We met, talked about the project, and started with a training phase in the participating museums. Afterwards, we chose our favorite exhibition or museum in which we wanted to offer tours.

The idea was to give newcomers — especially the many Arabic-speaking people arriving in 2015 — the chance to be involved in museums. Not only as visitors, but in a more active and meaningful way.

Pooneh: In 2021, the project expanded and hired Farsi-speaking guides from Iran and Afghanistan. That is how I joined the team. We were eight guides at the beginning, and the process was just as Sandy described: we started with training and then chose one of the four participating museums. Since then, Multaka has offered programs in two languages — Arabic and Farsi — and all guides also lead tours in English and German.

Do you have examples of the kinds of insights or perspectives the Multaka guides offer?

Sandy: Because we come from different educational backgrounds, our tours are very diverse, and they have always been interactive. Language plays a crucial role: when you speak in your own language and visitors talk with you, the interaction changes. Visitors bring their own expertise, experiences, and stories. This creates a shared platform.

At times, six, seven, or even eight guides were leading tours in the same exhibition — and yet no tour was the same. Everyone brought different perspectives, selected different objects, and shared personal experiences. Someone who studied history speaks differently from someone who studied architecture. And our reasons for choosing particular exhibitions also differ. Every tour offers something unique.

Sarah: What Sandy mentioned also shows how problematic it is when people talk about “the Syrian community” as if it were one group. Our work demonstrates how many different voices and backgrounds exist — there is not one Syrian community in Berlin, but a diverse landscape of identities.

Pooneh: To add to this diversity: we come not only from different countries and regions, but we also speak different dialects and come from a wide range of disciplines — literature, art, fashion design, history, architecture. All of this shapes our perspectives and leads to very individual tours.

When the project started in 2015, it seemed like an ad-hoc response to the situation at the time — a way to welcome people, provide opportunities, and connect them with the museum landscape. Has the project changed over the past ten years?

Pooneh: Definitely. Our target audience has changed. People who arrived ten years ago are no longer in the same situation. Their needs and expertise have evolved. Many now have jobs and families, and they no longer perceive the project as an “opportunity” in the same way. So the project must adapt — and that’s the dynamic nature of Multaka. It cannot remain static.

Sandy: I remember how visitors reacted to the exhibitions at the beginning — it’s very different today. There were reasons why we chose these four museums. As a newcomer, visiting the Museum für Islamische Kunst and seeing objects from your own culture helps you connect to your identity. You’re in a new country, but you find something familiar.

On the other hand, visiting the Deutsches Historisches Museum and seeing how migration has always existed — and its positive aspects — gives hope. So yes, things have changed. Needs have changed. And the way visitors perceive exhibitions has changed too.

Sarah: Our offers also evolved. For example, we realized how important the guides’ expertise is for school programs — encouraging young people to talk about migration or about their own neighborhoods. We created a toolbox called Shared Future, with three main topics: food, architecture, and music. It helps school classes discuss these issues and view migration from different angles.

Every third child in Berlin has a so-called migration background. The guides’ experience with diverse audiences is invaluable. That’s why they now also run workshops outside the museum.

If you had to describe it in one sentence — what is the secret behind the project’s long-term success?

Sandy: Keeping access as easy as possible for everyone. For years, no registration was required. We offered two regular public tours per month, on Saturdays and Wednesdays. People simply came to their preferred museum and joined a tour in their mother tongue. This has changed now, but it played a big role in the project’s early success.

Sarah: I would say: creating space to question and rethink perspectives on history and identity; making this space accessible; and allowing different perspectives to stand beside — or even challenge — institutional narratives.

Pooneh: For me, it’s inclusion and offering a space where people feel a sense of belonging.

What were some of the most beautiful or significant experiences you personally had during your time in the project?

Sarah: Since I’m not a guide myself, the most touching moments come from working with my Multaka leading team. It changed how I approach things and encouraged me to look at situations from different angles.

Pooneh: For me, meeting the entire team — including the Arabic-speaking guides — was very special. The project helped me form connections with people from the same region I come from — people I might not have had the chance to meet otherwise.

Sandy: I guided tours in the permanent exhibition at the Deutsches Historisches Museum. It was very emotional to see the same people returning with new visitors. People expanded our offer simply by telling others about it and bringing them along — even to the same exhibition, with the same guide. That touched me deeply and showed how meaningful the project was for many.

Now Multaka is celebrating its ten-year anniversary — what is planned for the celebration?

Sarah: To mark this milestone, Multaka Berlin and Multaka Oxford are organizing a two-day event. In 2019, Multaka Berlin created the International Network of Multaka, which now includes more than 30 partners — museums, universities, archaeological and World Heritage sites, schools, and community organizations across Europe. Multaka Oxford is one of our closest partners, so we decided to host the event together.

On December 5th and 6th, various workshops will take place at Haus Bastian, led by international Multaka partners from Turin, Zaragoza, Florence, Oxford, and Berlin. We want to open this space to communities and invite professionals — researchers, students, community workers — to collectively explore how we can shape our future based on the knowledge of the past decade. This is reflected in the title Reflecting the Future. In addition to workshops, there will be panel discussions and guided tours in the cooperating collections on Museum Island.

Looking ahead, what do you personally wish for the future of the project? Where do you see Multaka in five years?

Pooneh: I hope Multaka will engage even more closely with communities — and maybe expand to other cities.

Sandy: I feel the same. I hope we can expand and develop new offers for different communities. Ideally, not just tours, but also more spaces for people to interact with us and become part of what we do.

Sarah: I hope we can continue to facilitate participation so that communities are not only included but visible, heard, and acknowledged. Expanding their space within museums is essential, especially given the current political climate. It is crucial to include diverse perspectives and to encourage participants, communities, and partners to experience museums as dynamic, living spaces — not one-way streets, but places where several paths come together.

Sandy Albahri is part of the management team of the project since April 2023 and has been a member of the project since the very beginning in December 2015.

Pooneh Yekta is a member of the project since 2021 and part of the management team since 2023.

Sarah Fortmann-Hijazi is part of the management team of Multaka since 2020.

(Go to the german version)