Trishla Talera

What is the role of a museum in different contexts? Will these roles change as we move into a digital era? How can we speak about our own history and art? Who are museums for? How do we improve on how we serve them? Can audiences vote on collections and new acquisitions? Do museums inspire? Is there a sustainable structure for museums to exist? These were some of the questions looming in my mind while attending my first CIMAM Annual Conference.

Coming from a city where museums are considered dead spaces since there has been no programming or curation for many years, I began to reflect on how the city of Stockholm presented its culture to us through the museums during the course of this conference. The governments of the European countries support cultural institutions because of the understanding that they contribute to the soft power of their countries. This, however, seems to be a distant reality for our context. The Mori Art museum’s (Japan) structure of funding using a tri-part model of private, government and self-funding provide possible solutions we could adopt. The Museum shop, cafes and restaurants, and venue rental models could also be options for sustainability in our museums.

Victoria Noorthoorn’s presentation on The Proud South Mouth: Local Museums Rewrite World Art History sparked a light as she explained their contribution to local themes and how the museum programs for the local people and not only the international visitors.

Her understanding of ancient traditions, far beyond contemporary art and the discourse outside the Western canon was something that resonated with me deeply. These are similar questions we ask ourselves as we begin to think of the future museums in a country like India.

One of the most valuable takeaways from the conference was the people we interacted with and learnings we shared. A few of us created an informal knowledge sharing forum to discuss opportunities and research within our areas of concern. The diversity in the group and connected challenges we share provided insightful conversations that made the conference truly and a fulfilling experience.