ABSTRACT
This piece will focus on the unlikely creation of the award-winning War Childhood Museum by founder and war survivor Jasminko Halilovic, including its driving principles and strategy built on the belief that a museum can and should help children and society address trauma and heal. Despite countless challenges with establishing a participatory museum focused on children of war, with a team of survivors and mental health experts in a place still rife with social upheaval, the museum has gained world renown and faces its next steps of international expansion. Halilovic will share the practical considerations, institutional strategy, and the need for belief in success required to lead an institution into a major new phase, while staying true to a driving mission of working for and directly with children formerly and currently experiencing war.
