CIMAM's 2025 Rapid Response Webinar Program

3H8A7605
CIMAM Annual Conference, Los Angeles 2024

The 2025 Rapid Response Webinar series will explore how museums can embrace sustainability, inclusivity, and innovation to shape the future of cultural institutions.

The RRW program aims to present and discuss progressive, experimental, and impactful museum practices from around the world.

CIMAM members have free access to these sessions, where participants can contribute with questions or suggestions after the panelists finish their presentations. If you can't join the sessions live, you can watch the recordings later in the CIMAM Members Only Section. Additionally, you'll have access to the recommended reading list.

If you are not a CIMAM member, you can still participate in the sessions and view the recommended reading list by paying €10,00 per webinar.

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

CIMAM's 2025 Rapid Response Webinar Program:

From Outstanding Practices to Future Possibilities. Shaping the Museum of Tomorrow with the Outstanding Museum Practice Award (OMPA)

🗓️ Thursday, May, 22th

  • 🕖 8.00 AM Rio Janeiro, Brazil (BRT)
  • 🕖 Noon London, UK (BST)
  • 🕖 2.00 PM Kyiv, Ukraine (EEST)
  • 🕖 4.30 PM Bengaluru, India (IST)
  • 🕖 7 PM Singapore, Singapore (STG)

Abstract:

We live in times of great change and even as the world searches for a response, so too must museums. How do we move beyond our traditional roles as institutions to innovate, inspire and renew? Do we use the valuable collections that we are guardians of, to respond to the needs of our communities? Are the museums of today spaces where accessibility and inclusion lie at the heart of our functioning creating a platform for education, reflection, cultural exchange and meaningful dialogue with their audiences? Can museums build a network of support that encourages the sharing of innovative practices amongst one another?

These are questions we explore in this webinar that introduces the Outstanding Museum Practice Award (OMPA), an initiative launched by CIMAM in 2021 to highlight modern and contemporary art museums that embody ethical and sustainable values, prioritize cultural and social relevance, and promote inclusion and care for communities within their missions. As we approach the fifth edition of the award in 2025, we are inviting the 2024 awardees to share their exceptional practices and the positive influence they have had on their communities. This conversation looks to engage with all museum professionals, encouraging them to reflect, reimagine, and discuss what constitutes "outstanding" practices in the years to come.

Guest Panelist:

Moderated by Kamini Sawhney, CIMAM Board Member and OMPA Committee member, Head, Public Arts Projects, BlrHubba, Museum Management Expert and Independent Curator from Bangalore, India, this session will feature presentations from the 2024 winners:

  • Deniz Oral, Education Program Specialist, Istanbul Modern, Istanbul, Turkey.
  • Shion L, Educational Coordinator at the Pedagogical Programs Division of the Education Department at the Museum of Modern Art, (MAM Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil.
  • Yuliya Vaganova, General Director, Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Art, Kyiv.

Through their stories, we will explore how local, context-based practices can influence global standards. And we’ll invite you to be part of this shared conversation — not just to witness outstanding practices, but to join a collective effort to shape the future of modern and contemporary art museums.

Whether you’re considering a nomination or looking to be part of a wider dialogue on the evolving role of museums, we invite you to join this session.

Review the Projects Case Studies.

Shaping the New Museums’ Future? Training New Generations of Museum Curators along Sustainable Paths

Thursday, April, 10th

Abstract:

Art is and will remain a producer of carbon footprint, and so are the museums that display and store it, have offices, cafes and air-conditioned interiors. And at the same time, they are developing their ambitions to educate the public about climate catastrophe awareness and our impact in this regard. How can museums remain more consistent in their narrative and practice? On whom does the more sustainable future of art museums depend? Experiential art and curatorial education formats that shape future contemporary art creators and art institution staff come to the rescue.

Rapid Response Webinars are free of cost for CIMAM members.

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

Guest panelists:

  • Sarah Glennie, Director at National College of Art and Design Dublin, Ireland
  • Dehlia Hannah, Curator and Associate Professor of Environmental Aesthetics in Art History at the University of Copenhagen, Denmark
  • Kirsty Robertson, Canada Research Chair in Museums, Art, and Sustainability and Professor and Director of Museum and director of the Centre for Sustainable Curating, Western University, London (ON), Canada

Moderated by CIMAM Board Members, Malgorzata Ludwisiak Ph.D., Museum Management Expert / Freelance Curator / Academic Teacher, Warsaw, Poland and Leevi Haapala, Dean, The Academy of Fine Arts and Former Kiasma Museum Director.

The Ecologically Minded Museum: Renegotiating Museum Structures and Sustainable Practices

🗓️ Thursday, March, 13th

Abstract:

Is the concept of a “sustainable museum” possible in practice? How can existing or new museum structures be renegotiated? Or should we start reimagining museums without buildings? Can we achieve ethically committed sustainability goals whilst embracing historical justice in our missions and values?

Two firm believers in the values of equity, sustainability, historical and social justice and reparation will bring fresh views and practical experience on how to make values real. Arriving from very different trajectories, Gus Casely-Hayford and Paulo Tavares will discuss museums and institutional platforms to share how they have brought their unique visions on historical justice and reparation to concrete action from very different perspectives and strategies. As an experienced museum leader and communicator, Gus will share with CIMAM members the ways in which V&A East is opening up one of the UK´s largest patrimonial holdings to bring it close to the public, to make them alive and meaningful, relevant for the British public. An arquitect and ecological activist, Paulo Tavares, is able to reconceive of nature itself as a forensic space, where forests and maps may reveal connections between environmental violence, violations to human rights and state-perpetrated terror. His unique vision will prove inspirational for those seeking to reconceive museums beyond walls, or to find museums beyond the institutions per se, to find museums in nature itself, in the real.

Guest panelists:

  • Gus Casely-Hayford: Inaugural Director of V&A East, London, UK
  • Paulo Tavares: Architect, educator and researcher, Brasília, Brazil

Moderated by CIMAM Board Member, Victoria Noorthoorn, Director, Museo de Arte Moderno de Buenos Aires, Argentina, and Malgorzata Ludwisiak Ph.D., Museum Management Expert / Freelance Curator / Academic Teacher, Warsaw, Poland.