The historic Valletta campus of the University of Malta will be hosting an international conference on museum futures this month.

MUŻE.X ‒ Shaping Museum Futures will bring together museum managers and curators, researchers and students, start-ups and museum industry stakeholders from all over the world to discuss and debate possible museum futures.

The questions being asked at this point in time and the issues being raised, particularly in the aftermath of the COVID-19 pandemic, will be the subject of close to 50 presentations, two international conversations and the topic of five purposely invited keynote speakers.

The three-day conference is happening in times when the debate about museum futures is more than ever before ongoing and perhaps never taken forward with so much enthusiasm and commitment.

Indeed, the COVID-19 pandemic has exposed problems that have been there way before museums were forced to stay relevant from behind closed doors even though the digital has, at least in part, addressed this need.

A photo of another museum space. Photo: Philip Strong via Unsplash

Studies and reports taking stock of the situation suggest a new understanding of the potential digital holds for museum futures but most of what has happened during the COVID-19 pandemic is consistently being described as tactical action rather than seeds or the beginnings of long-term strategies. Reports by ICOM, the international council of museums and NEMO, the Network of European Museums Organisations, present more or less one and the same picture.

Digital maturity is indeed a desired ambition but the challenges facing museums at this historic juncture go way beyond. Questions around sustainability and the museum’s commitment in support of climate-change action, the democratisation of the museum space where discomfort and protest is given space are topics that go hand in hand with the development of digital strategies targeting digital maturity at institutional level.

The MUŻE.X conference will seek to look at the bigger picture with a focus on these three interconnected albeit overarching themes. The five keynote speakers will provide the backdrop, also serving the purpose of an introduction, to the papers and projects that will be presented. Riel Miller, head of Futures Literacy at UNESCO, will be the main keynote speaker.

The MUŻE.X conference will seek to look at the bigger picture with a focus on three interconnected albeit overarching themes

Jette Sandahl, from the European Museum Forum; We Are Museums founder Diane Drubay; museum gamification experience developer Fabio Viola; and #museumsarenotneutral campaign co-founder Mike Murawski will be sharing their thoughts and reflections, followed by papers and presentations by delegates from Italy to Greece, Germany to the UK and Poland to Chile.

Two international conversations will present discussions featuring Gail Lord, co-founder and president of Lord Culture Services; Patrick Noack, executive director of the Dubai Future Foundation; and Sunil Kant Munjal, founder patron of Serendipity Arts Foundation in New Delhi, India, among others.     

The conference will seek to present, discuss and debate museum futures beyond the traditional academic conference format. Indeed, although this conference has an academic backbone, with papers chosen by an international scientific committee, it will be deliberately bringing into the conversation academics and start-ups, up-and-coming scholars, with more seasoned and established researchers and academics to explore concepts and ideas but also to think and debate how these can become tangible and meaningful actions contributing towards systemic change at all levels of the museum ecosystem. 

The conference is co-convened by the undersigned and professor Carmel Borg of the Department of Arts, Open Communities and Adult Education within the Faculty of Education (University of Malta). It is being held under the distinguished patronage of the President  George Vella in collaboration with the Valletta Cultural Agency, Spazju Kreattiv and Conventions Malta.

Another photo featuring another museum space. Photo: Aaina Sharma via Unsplash

Entities generously supporting this conference include the Planning Authority, Italian museum companies Soluzioni Museali and Invisible Studio, French travelling exhibitions platform TEO and UK-based international culture consultants Barker Langham. International media platform Jing Culture and Commerce and Italian art journal Finestre sull’Arte are the official media partners. 

Spazju Kreattiv will be hosting the opening night on October 18. The centre is currently also showcasing the conference portal, featuring three video productions originally developed by Barker Langham for the UK ICOM annual conference in 2020 and case studies contextualising the latest developments in the international museum ecosystem from all over the world.

MUŻE.X ‒ Shaping Museum Futures will be a blended experience with online and in-presence participants. More information, full programme and registration details is available on www.museumfutures.net.

 Sandro Debono, together with Carmel Borg is the conference co-convenor.