"Museum directors value resourcefulness, flexibility, affirmation of real-space experience"

"What directors value about museums in the context of this experience is the resourcefulness, the flexibility, the affirmation of real-space experience, the love and desire that people feel for having that experience, and the political relevance and potential of the museum.”

András Szántó, New York-based author of the book, The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues, cultural strategy adviser, and moderator of CIMAM's roundtable Affirming the Social Value of Museums.

Affirming the Social Value of Museums

The session took place on Thursday 29 April 2021.

For years, museums have talked about their indispensability to society. Yet during the pandemic, most were closed for extended periods of time. Why is it that museums were not considered essential enough to keep open during the pandemic? And now that Covid-19 may be drawing to a close, how can museums make a stronger case for their indispensability? What are the best arguments for keeping museums open and operational?

On the heels of CIMAM’s recent survey titled Why should museums remain open and operational? and Szántó’s latest book, The Future of the Museum: 28 Dialogues, New York-based author and cultural strategy adviser András Szántó moderates a discussion between four prominent members of CIMAM, all of whom are featured in the book.

• Rhana Devenport, Director, Art Gallery of South Australia, Adelaide, Australia.
• Mami Kataoka, Director, Mori Art Museum, Tokyo, Japan.
• Hans Ulrich Obrist, Artistic Director, Serpentine Galleries, London, United Kingdom.
• Philip Tinari, Director, Ullens Center for Contemporary Art (UCCA), Beijing, China.

Watch the workshop recording at CIMAM's only member section.

About CIMAM’s Rapid Response Webinars

Started in 2020, CIMAM has taken the new virtual scenario as an opportunity to launch a series of online activities exclusively for our community to, now more than ever, reinforce the sense of connectivity through online meetings in a peer to peer environment to share, learn, and be inspired by the experiences of other CIMAM professionals.

For 2021, we have prepared a series of online sessions that will take place, nearly every month of the year. The next ones are:

• Thursday 13 May: Workshop with the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC).
• Thursday 27 May: Webinar hosted by the Museum Watch Committee about Governance.
• Thursday 17 June: Webinar hosted by CIMAM Conference Contents Committee: Museums in Eastern Europe Under Pressure?
• Thursday 22 July: Workshop with the National Coalition Against Censorship (NCAC).
• Thursday 30 September: Webinar hosted by the CIMAM working group on Sustainability and Ecology in Museum Practice.

More webinars to be announced soon.