Forum

• About the Forum

  

  Welcome to our forum! This is where CIMAM members can discuss articles by writing their contributions and comments to the website. All members are invited to propose new articles or discussion topics.

• Discussions

  

  Here you can find an overview of all discussions currently going on. Join in and share your views with us!

• “Time to Unlearn”: Urgency and Practical Intelligence in the Southeast Asian Museum

  

  This keynote paper was originally commissioned by CIMAM and presented at the National Gallery Singapore during the CIMAM Annual Conference titled The Roles and Responsibilities of Museums in Civil Society, in November 2017. By Patrick D. Flores

• “Make art a form of universal literacy”. A letter from Luis Camnitzer, CIMAM panelist at the Rapid Response Webinar, Reaching Across Distancing

  

  Luis Camnitzer, Uruguayan artist and writer, was one of the CIMAM panelists in the Rapid Response Webinar, entitled Reaching Across Distancing, that took place on 25 June. His part of the talk began with the following letter.

• “I believe in a Museum that acts as a social arena"

  

  Amanda de la Garza, General Director of Visual Arts at the UNAM, Head of the MUAC and member of CIMAM, interviewed by Call for Curators.

• Fail Better. Notes for a Museum Yet-To-Come

  

  Pablo Martínez is a member of CIMAM, and Head of Programmes at MACBA Museu d’Art Contemporani de Barcelona since 2016. Read his article for the Spanish online publication Ctxt Contexto y Acción.

• Going Public: An Introductory Text

  

  Anne Szefer Karlsen is a member of CIMAM, a curator, editor, writer, and Professor in Curatorial Practice at the Faculty of Fine Art, Music and Design, University of Bergen.

• A Letter from the Director of the Office for Contemporary Art Norway in response to Covid-19

  

  Katya García-Antón, Director of the OCA Norway, calls for "an intensified commitment from the arts" and asks us "what we are learning" in an open letter in response to Covid-19.

• The Human Connection

  

  The world is rapidly shifting, literally overnight in front of our eyes. What incredible times to be witness to! The challenges posed by the Covid-19 pandemic could not have been imagined even just two months ago. What does this mean for a nascent art institution such as Zeitz MOCAA?

• Art museums in times of coronavirus

  

  For a few days during the beginning of the confinement, Bartomeu Marí and Nicolás Gómez shared reflections on the role of museums today and with a view to the changes brought about by the COVID-19 virus, in addition to those that have taken place on the Peruvian art scene in recent years.

• Do museums matter?

  

  By Elizabeth Ann Macgregor. Museums must engage with their diverse communities in all kinds of ways, providing inspiration as well as provocation. In this fractured world where optimism is often difficult to find, museums surely have an even more important role to play in bringing people together, encouraging diverse viewpoints, making space for visitors to engage in learning, giving audiences the opportunity to imagine a better future for everyone. Museums do matter.

• Not all museums can be global

  

  Interview with Elizabeth Ann Macgregor by Ana Folguera for exit-express.com, section VOCES, 1 November 2019

• Context is key as museums seek new meaning

  

  Article by Elizabeth Ann Macgregor. The biggest question facing museum professionals, and one that will be discussed at the International Council of Museums conference in Kyoto next week, is the definition of a museum in a world that has changed radically since museums were established in the 19th century.

• Finding Resilience in Challenging Times

  

  Olga Viso, Independent Curator and Nonprofit Arts Consultant. Museums must embrace new values if they are to survive into the next century.

• Are Museums Abdicating Their Mission? Debating Morally Compromised Artists

  

  About the article published by The National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC) about the recent cancellation of a retrospective exhibition by Alejandro Jodorowsky in El Museo del Barrio, New York.

• How to be globally relevant and locally significant?

  

  There is nothing new about the global condition of the art world. Yet, this reality continues to be one of the main challenges for museums today.

• Building a supportive tool for museum professionals

  

  CIMAM's Museum Watch was initiated in 2012 with a series of news publications regarding the different critical situations of Museums and Collections around the world, also in regions affected by world economical and political crises.

• How to ensure the independence of art institutions?

  

  With the proliferation of ‘not for profit’ private museums and the increasing dependency of ‘public sector’ museums on private finance, modern and contemporary art museums are under increasing pressure to service the agendas of the individuals and organisations that fund them rather than the public they were founded to serve.

• Could one code of ethics be relevant to all art institutions within CIMAM?

  

  There is a wide diversity in funding and governance structures among museums of modern and contemporary art today.

• How can the art world live up to the new demands of rapid technological change?

  

  The full impact of the digital revolution is hard to grasp, as are its social and cultural effects. What is evident is that the consequences of an interconnected world now influence most aspects of our private and public spheres.