Valentina Koça

The opportunity to attend the CIMAM 2018 Annual Conference in Stockholm was first of this kind. Never before I had a chance to meet such a vast amount of museum professionals from all around the globe in one place. As the Director of a relatively small exhibition venue in the Western Balkans, I have mostly maintained professional contacts with regional art centers and colleagues from neighboring countries. CIMAM 2018 was an outstanding occasion to get insight into the current trends on a broader scale, notably during the conference devoted to a topic of significance for all of us, regardless of whether we are employed by a museum, gallery or academic institute. Transition has been a keyword for Albanian society over the last three decades: the exchange of opinions and experiences expressed by colleagues who were invited to give keynote presentations at this year’s CIMAM, alongside intensive workshop each of us had a chance to take part in, will only contribute to my understanding of similarities and, also, huge differences between the European and worldwide museum standards (including, inevitably, occasional controversies) in comparison to the local situation in Albania. I have enjoyed the organization of the entire program, as well as visits to cultural venues around Stockholm, which allowed me to have a better perspective on Swedish working models in the field of contemporary visual arts. Furthermore, I had a chance to establish more profound contacts with several participants in the hope this would lead to our future bilateral or international cooperation – this would have been impossible without the financial and also institutional support provided by CIMAM and its travel grant program. Finally, I would like to express my hopes that a similar event will be organized in the near future in Tirana, Albania, either in terms of CIMAM Annual Conference or a small-scale public gathering of museum professionals, through which the mission of CIMAM and its progressive policies could be disseminated in the region that strives to find its own way in the chaos of local cultural politics, burdened by the lack of transparency, up-to-date knowledge and professionalism.