Project "Reading as an enhancer of cross-generational connections" In recent years many scientific researches about the connections between fiction and Theory of Mind have been published. (For example the magazine ?Science? published an article by David Comer Kidd?i and Emanuele Castano ?Reading Literary Fiction Improves Theory of Mind ?, Lisa Zunshine books etc.) These researches claim that fiction improves person's skills for empathy, imagination and that it's related to the person's social capability and how he/she is coping with the life. Quote from an article: (Neil Gaiman): ?I was once in New York, and I listened to a talk about the building of private prisons ? a huge growth industry in America. The prison industry needs to plan its future growth ? how many cells are they going to need? How many prisoners are there going to be, 15 years from now? And they found they could predict it very easily, using a pretty simple algorithm, based on asking what percentage of 10 and 11-year-olds couldn't read. And certainly couldn't read for pleasure.? There is a connection between not-reading and asocial behavior. It is related to the empathy and to the ability to imagine yourself in the other person's situation. Fiction creates a unique world in each readers head and offers an opportunity to feel involved in the characters life in a way no other art/ discipline allows. Researches say that reading fiction activates certain areas in our brain that no other type of arts do. Researches also say that reading fiction is a falling trend, specially among youth/ children. For this reason we find it is important to stress the positive impact of reading and one of the best ways to do so is to include the whole family (also grandparents) to this activity. The way different generation experience the world through reading and understand the texts is varying. Talking about the books and stories helps to get connected with different point of views. With our project we want to achieve following goals: 1. Wider acknowledgement of the importance of reading fiction in society 2. Reading and storytelling as a strengthener of the cross-generational bonds. In a contemporary society more and more communication between children and parents is virtual/ superficial; families don't share the "same stories" any more. Also many grandchildren and grandparents do not speak the same language and they may live in different countries. Not to mention the different ways of communication (social media, new technologies). Sharing a common reading-experience, storytelling and reading aloud works as an effective way to enhance the connections between generations: to share the same stories, to pass the knowledge. Writers' museums are a perfect environment to develop and to promote such activities for different age and target groups. 3. We also want to promote literary classics and literary heritage to maintain the cultural continuity. The activities of the project contain improving new skills of the museum staff to achieve the stated goals. The aim is to get acquaint with best practices of other literary museums: what are the best ways to reach the families as a target group, what are the best teaching methods; in what way do other museums promote literature and reading as a part of better social capability and ways of coping with life. We also want to learn the ways other literary museums have used literature as a tool for integrating immigrants. As a result there will be new innovative educational programs in the museums; new activities for the families based on reading and storytelling; better marketing of the museums and improved organizational management (communication etc).