Rewilding the Museum — Exploring the Sensitive Museum Architecture in a Changing Climate

🗓️ Wednesday, 20 March 2024, 13.30h CET (Central European Time)

• ⏰ Bilbao, 13.30h CET
• ⏰ London, 12.30h CET
• ⏰ Manila, 20.30h PHST
• ⏰ Tokyo, 21.30h JST
• ⏰ New Orleans, LA 7.30h CST
• ⏰ New York, 8.30h EDT

Register here if you are a CIMAM member.

Non-CIMAM members can attend the webinar by registering here at a cost of 10 euros, which will be deducted from their membership fee if they join CIMAM in the next 3 months.

Registration for Non-CIMAM members

The design and maintenance of a climate-sensitive museum is not an easy task. Architecture and the design of the functions that a museum performs –towards the artworks and also the teams and its audiences–it is still very dependent on modern ideals of representation. To challenge these views implies an imagination of another “climate” inside the museum. Rewilding the museum implies the possibility of the museum becoming nature, embracing different paradigms in conversation and preservation, and also different uses of the spaces. Saying goodbye to global and standard ideas that define spaces and functions in a similar way all over the world is perhaps the first step in that process.

Museums and their architectures may also be diverse in their but from different global perspectives (climate zones). The future for museums is not only visit but doing things inside.

Guest panelists:

• Graciela Melitsko Thornton, Head of Creative Green Consultancy and Training Programme at Julie’s Bicycle, UK.
• Edson G. Cabalfin, Ph.D., Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the School of Architecture at Tulane University, New Orleans, USA.
• Daniel Vega, Deputy Director for Exhibitions and Conservation, Guggenheim Bilabo, Spain.

Moderated by CIMAM Board members Joselina Cruz, Director/Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila, Philippines, and Malgorzata Ludwisiak, Artistic Director, The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland.

Rapid Response Webinars are free of cost for CIMAM members. Non-members can attend by paying 10,00€, which will be deducted from their membership fee if they join CIMAM in the next 3 months.

Sessions are recorded and posted in the Members Only section of the CIMAM website for those who missed the time.

Biographies

Edson G. Cabalfin, Ph.D. (He / Him)

Edson G. Cabalfin, Ph.D., is an educator, architect, designer, curator, and historian. He is the inaugural Associate Dean for Equity, Diversity, and Inclusion in the School of Architecture at Tulane University, serving as Director of the Social Innovation and Social Entrepreneurship Program and Associate Professor. He was the Curator of the Philippine Pavilion at the 16th Venice Architecture Biennale in 2018.

He received his Ph.D. in History of Architecture and Urban Development from Cornell University in 2012. Under a Fulbright Fellowship, he obtained his Master of Science in Architecture degree from the University of Cincinnati in 2003. Edson’s research in the last two decades lies at the transdisciplinary intersections of architecture history and theory, cultural studies, gender and sexuality studies, postcolonial theory, Southeast Asian studies, spatial justice, public interest design, and heritage conservation.

A licensed and registered architect in the Philippines, Edson also runs his multi-disciplinary, empathy-centered design consultancy Talyer Kayumanggi/Brown Workshop based in New Orleans, USA and Metro Manila, Philippines.

Graciela Melitsko Thornton (She / Her)

Head of Creative Green Consultancy and Training Programme at Julie’s Bicycle, UK.

She is a sustainability and climate change professional with more than 25 years of experience. Her diverse skill set includes developing policy and delivering projects for low-carbon cities, environmental management for the Arts and Leisure sectors, as well as the promotion of renewable energy in the UK, Europe, and Latin America.

In the last five years she has worked on 70 environmental sustainability projects with different art forms and organisations including heritage and museum buildings at different stages of environmental literacy and action.

Over time Graciela has worked in a wide range of roles: as an environmental campaigner; project manager of an International NGO; consultant and trainer; researcher; University lecturer; and sustainability expert for a dynamic local authority in the UK.

She holds a Master's Degree in Urban and Environmental Policy from Tufts University (Boston, USA)

Malgorzata Ludwisiak, (She / Her)

Artistic Director, The Museum of Modern Art in Warsaw, Poland

Malgorzata is an art historian, curator, art critic, an expert in museum management and academic teacher. Since 2021, Malgorzata has been Chief Curator of Modern Art Department in the National Museum in Gdansk (Poland), where she is responsible for three venues for modern and contemporary art. Malgorzata is currently working on a completely new permanent exhibition of the collections as well as on the 2-years program dedicated to the relationship between climate, art and museums. As a director of Center for Contemporary Art Ujazdowski Castle in Warsaw (2014-2019), along with the team they were looking for both experimental programming and new institutional formats. As a vice-director of the Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz (2008-2014), she was responsible mainly for developing public program, education and audience development. Among curated projects, she is especially proud of contributing to CIMAM conferences (2021 and 2022); an international public program "Curating Institution" (2016-2019, CCA in Warsaw); an exhibition "El Hadji Sy. At First I Thought I Was Dancing" (2016, CCA in Warsaw) reflecting on questions of community and performativity seen through a lens of Dakar, and "Correspondences. Modern Art and Universalism" (with Jaroslaw Lubiak; 2012-13, Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz), which created a dialogue between two collections of 20th and 21st century art: of Kunstmuseum Bern and Muzeum Sztuki in Lodz, applying Walter Benjamin’s notion of passages as a method for re-reading modernity and the very status of an art work. What most interests Malgorzata in her theoretical research and practical approach is a present and future social role of museums – especially in the face of the climate catastrophe.

Joselina Cruz, (She /Her).

Director/Curator, Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila, Philippines

Currently Director and Curator at the Museum of Contemporary Art and Design (MCAD) Manila which is part of the De La Salle-College of Saint Benilde. Joselina curated the Philippine Pavilion at the 2017 Venice Biennale, and was a curator for the 2008 Singapore Biennial and the Jakarta Biennale in 2009. She previously worked as a curator for the Singapore Art Museum and The Lopez Memorial Museum in Manila. Joselina has produced exhibitions and commissions with various artists like Michael Lin, Paul Pfeiffer, Haegue Yang, Tromarama, Lani Maestro, and Manuel Ocampo. As director of a contemporary art museum in Manila without a collection, she has been very active in producing exhibitions and projects that create networks and artistic connections across the globe and the Philippines. The pandemic was especially challenging, but still, we managed to partner with like-minded institutions across the world from Ballroom Marfa to the Bag Factory in Johannesburg to MMCA, Seoul and M+ to produce exhibitions. These opportunities provide points of contact for the local public and larger artistic conversations and vise versa.

CIMAM 2024 Rapid Response Webinars are made possible with the support from the Getty Foundation through its Connecting Professionals/Sharing Expertise initiative.