Programme

What can university students learn from museums? And what can museums learn, in turn, from university students? While the university and museum spheres are often seen as separate fields, this workshop explores the mutual synergies of a specific form of collaboration: the integration of university courses into curatorial processes.

Why not start the year off once again with a general look at objects in exhibitions? How aware are we of the significance of things as relics and legacies, as representatives and witnesses, as artefacts and symbols when we exhibit them? How do we discuss the value and the possible reception of originals, models, and copies when we arrange them in the exhibition space?

In 1994, Zoom was established as the first children’s museum in Austria. With programmes for refugees and an exhibition on the topic of escape and flight, the museum once again this year reflects the current reality and takes a very specific approach to the topic for its special audience. 

Besides maps and atlases, historical terrestrial and celestial globes depict the way in which time and space were constructed mathematically and represented in multiple dimensions. Because these cartographic repositories of knowledge are equally interesting as historical models of science and technology, the cultural sciences, and aesthetics, we would like to deal with the following questions, among others, in this event: How can maps and globes best be used to convey historical world views in the context of the development of scientific disciplines? 

The drone-based digitization of archaeological sites, the visual restoration of fragmented objects, or the interactive visualization of past conditions in visual exhibitions – there is no doubt that digital technologies open up new possibilities for both museum professionals as well as the public. In a series of short lectures, project presentations and talks with experts, we would like to discuss how much awareness there is among museum executives of the benefits of digital technologies in the areas of documentation, restoration, and communication.

Whether museums of local history, museums specializing on specific historical topics, or provincial exhibitions: museums and exhibitions on (cultural) history operate within a particular tradition of displaying and communicating when it comes to dealing with past events and developments. Such presentations usually focus on the available, more or less accidentally preserved, precious objects. Their intended role is to substantiate a linear, previously defined history from beginning to end as well as provide evident causal links. During this event, we would like to explore the question of whether there are other, more contemporary ways of dealing with local and regional history. 

“European identity” – what does this term mean today against the background of Europe’s historical entanglements and the challenges and hopes of the present? We will approach this question by focusing on the new and renewed museums that embody this idea, above all, the House of European History and the newly renovated, perhaps largest colonial museum on the continent, the old Royal Museum for Central Africa in Tervuren.

In the 2016/17 school year, a new curriculum for history, social studies and political education went into effect in Austria. The aim of the new curriculum is to foster a “reflective and (self)-reflexive awareness of history and politics” in young people. Together with educational and museum experts we will discuss the contribution museums can make towards achieving this goal as places of learning outside the classroom.

The National Mall is the museum mile of the U.S. capital, Washington, D. C. In the immediate vicinity of the halls of government and numerous monuments are located the national history museums, almost all of which belong to the Smithsonian Institute, the largest museum complex in the world. Only one of the institutions focuses on American history as such, whereas the other (more successful) museums deal with specific aspects or individual groups. We will examine the past and present of selected museums.

Addressing the topics of exclusion, hierarchies, and power in the museum also means talking about racism. It is true that for some years, besides exhibitions on this topic, there has been a growing number of debates on mechanisms of exclusion or the reproduction of discriminatory stereotypes in cultural institutions and how to avoid them.

Since the last third of the 19th century, pictures have been reproduced in ever more cost-effective ways and in greater volumes. Serial formats like trade cards, commercial photographs or postcards spread throughout the social sphere – and in the process, affected what they depicted. In the context of exhibitions, there has not been much reflection on the use of these mass-produced pictures.

In Cologne, there are around fifty, in part, internationally important museums and museum-related institutions on almost every field of knowledge. What is characteristic of these museums and institutions is that, apart from a few exceptions, they owe their existence to citizens’ initiatives because feudal traditions were completely absent in the former free imperial and Hanseatic city. A special feature of Cologne’s museum landscape is the fact that most of the buildings are located in close proximity in the city centre and appear here in the context of the remnants of the 2,000-year-old city that was nearly completely destroyed during the Second World War. 

In 2014, the “DomQuartier” (or Cathedral Quarter) was opened in Salzburg. Bringing together several museums, buildings and collections under one umbrella brand not only created a new tourist highlight, but it also launched a restructuring of Salzburg’s museum landscape. Behind the scenes, this process of closer collaboration is being accompanied by organisational renewal, which is the actual focus of this event.

Short-staffed editorial offices and journalists under time and production pressure, the introduction of ever newer technological possibilities, and media consumption habits that have changed radically in just a few years: Together with media and museum experts we will examine the question of what perspectives the abovementioned developments open up for public relations work in museums. 

The history of the 20th and the early 21st centuries is underrepresented in Austria’s (cultural) history collections. Museums that have established plans in keeping with the times and have begun actively collecting are still the exception. Since museum professionals define their institution’s potential for future development through how they update their collection plans, we would like to deal with the following questions in a series of theoretical inputs and reports based on experience.

The Internet presence of museums is no longer limited to publishing announcements and reports online. Being online encompasses a wide range of possible activities and the digital expansion of traditional fields of work. New forms of public access to collections, the networking of information or the interaction with target groups now makes it necessary to reflect on the institution and the daily work methods within it.

The Warsaw Rising Museum and the POLIN, the new Katyń Museum or the planned Polish History Museum – Warsaw, like other Polish cities, has experienced a museum boom over the last decade or so. Against the backdrop of a highly politicised discussion on the interpretation of one’s own history, we will take a look at the concepts and offerings of selected institutions.

Whether they are devoted to specific topics and events, famous individuals or social groups – museums have always been products of their times. They are established against the backdrop of political, economic and social developments, as well as social movements. They adapt their collections and offerings to meet a narrowly defined set of conditions. We want to raise the question of what occurs when realities undergo radical change.

Dioramas were already in use in museums of nature, technology, history and ethnology in the 19th century. For museum experts, they were an opportunity to create the illusion of reality and to display the objects in context. For visitors, they suggested a glimpse into past or distant worlds. 

The “preservation of immaterial cultural heritage” has risen to become a ubiquitous call today. The concept itself, however, not only refers to the documentation of language, knowledge or practices, but it also includes the increased value of immaterial cultural heritage and its handing down as “living culture”. We are interested in the relation between regional and cultural history museums and immaterial cultural heritage and how those responsible for these institutions act in light of the fact that the social role of these museums can no longer consist in caring for and maintaining the traditional, but rather that their strengths lie in analysing and contextualising cultural phenomena in the broadest sense.