Malta, MUŻE.X starts, conference on the future of museums with top experts

From October 18 to 20, 2021, Malta becomes the world capital of museology: in fact, the biennial MUŻE.X - S - Shaping Museum futures conference is scheduled these days at the Spazju Kreattiv - The Malta Centre for Creativity in Valletta, in which the future of museums will be discussed, as always, with leading experts in the field. The new edition of MUŻE.X comes at a very special time, after a pandemic year and a half, with museums around the world going through a period of great difficulty and uncertainty that has led them to reflect on their role and goals. The questions from which this new edition of the conference starts are: can museums transform themselves into genuinely democratic, inclusive, and polyphonic spaces for critical conversations about the past and the future? Can museums be fully integrated within communities, serving as co-catalysts of radical changes in ways of seeing and living? Will a human-centered museum in harmony with the natural environment ever see the light of day?

The conference will therefore present to specialists and the public the latest thinking, actions and initiatives on the subject, to move away from the traditional idea of the museum and to rethink the museum of the future. “We are excited,” they let it be known from the University of Malta, organizer of the conference, “to showcase the latest developments in the museum landscape, whether they are reactions to the COVID-19 pandemic, initiatives that have been in the pipeline for some time, or projects that are born and developing in the present and could inform, influence and define the museum of the future. We are particularly keen to showcase the lessons learned over the past year and the ways and means by which they have been overcome. However, we are also eager to create spaces for critical reflections that can help shape the future of museums.”

There will be three main topics at the conference. The first focus is on technology and online: so there will be a lot of talk about how a possible balance between physical and online can be achieved. The second is about the democratization of access, and how the museum can become a public space, whether physical, virtual or both, welcoming a polyphony of voices. The third is about climate change and how museums are or can rise to the challenge. The three focuses are seen as inevitably intertwined with each other.

Keynote speakers include Jette Sandahl, founder of the Women’s Museum of Denmark, former director of the Copenhagen City Museum and lead author of the new definition of “museum” under discussion at ICOM; Riel Miller, head of Futures Literacy at UNESCO; Diane Dubray, founder of the We Are Museums platform; Mike Murawski, museologist and founder of the “MuseumsAreNotNeutral” campaign; Fabio Viola, gamification expert and founder of the TuoMuseo collective; Bernadine Brocker Wieder, founder of the Vastari platform. They are joined by lecturers, museologists, museum directors and curators from around the world. The full conference program is available on the official website. Finestre Sull’Arte is a partner in the event.

Malta, MUŻE.X starts, conference on the future of museums with top experts

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