CONFERENCE DOCUMENTATION / MUSEUM WHY? PRACTICE, AGENCY AND KNOWLEDGE IN THE ART MUSEUM (ENG)

ART MUSEUMS FOR THE FUTURE: MUSEUM WHY?
Partner’s panel Christian Skovbjerg Jensen (Museet for Samtidskunst, DK), Kirse Junge-Stevnsborg (Malmö Konstmuseum, SE), Saara Hacklin (Kiasma, FI) and Marianne Zamecznik (Trondheim Kunstmuseum) chaired by Nanna Balslev Strøjer.  

Art museums in the Nordic region (and beyond) currently face challenges and demands for change. Demands that arise equally from external political and economic pressures and developments, from acknowledging that Western hegemonic ideas of art and culture are no longer valid nor socially sustainable, and from internal wishes to create museums that are better, more inclusive and have relevance to broader sections of the publics they intend to serve. On the basis of these observations Malmö Konstmuseum (SE), Trondheim Kunstmuseum (NO), Museet for Samtidskunst (DK) and Nykytaiteen museo Kiasma (FI) have formed the creative learning network Museum Why? for sharing and developing new perspectives on the art museum of the 21st Century. The network was formed in 2020 with the aim to use the momentum from the respective partner institutions’ current development to investigate the role of art museums in the future by asking the two fundamental questions: Why do we have art museums? What would they look like were we to invent such a concept today? In this panel the four partner museums present, reflect on and discuss the learnings from the first three years of the network. The panel is structured around four presentations and a discussion.