On November 20-21, the Benaki Museum, the U.S. Embassy in Greece, and the British Council, in collaboration with the Goethe-Institut Athen and the Ambassade de France en Grèce/ Institut Français de Grèce, will organize the conference “My Museum: The Museum as the Living Room of Society.”
This year, the annual Museum Conference is getting bigger and better: it has grown into a two-day event in Athens, with expanded international participation and a dedicated website. For the ninth edition of the conference, professionals from museums and cultural organizations, artists, civil society representatives, educators, activists, and students are invited to examine how museums can be places of intercultural dialogue, activism, and community engagement.
The landscape for attracting audiences is changing, and museums are transitioning from once-hushed stewards of heritage into vibrant social, civic, and participatory venues. Visitors are increasingly exploring aspects of their identity in museums and finding out more about their communities.
The conference is under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, as well as the City of Athens.
Invited speakers:
Katy Ashton, Director, People’s History Museum (PHM), UK
Christos Carras, Executive Director – Music Program Curator, Onassis Cultural Center, Greece
Catherine Devine, Business Strategy Leader – Libraries and Museums, Microsoft, United States
Cécile Dumoulin, Responsible of Publics and Cultural Programs, Musée des Civilisations de l’ Europe et de la Méditerranée (Mucem), France
Kimon Frangakis, Journalist, Founder, Sophisticated Media, Greece
Despina Geroulanou, Member of the Board of Trustees, Benaki Museum, Greece
Akis Goumas, Jewellery Maker, Greece
Sophie Lamprou, Co-founder, Impact Hub Athens, Greece
Essam Makhlouf, Regional Business Manager (EMEA region), Libraries and Museums, Microsoft, United States
Marlen Mouliou, Assistant Professor of Museology, Faculty of History and Archaeology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Greece
Meriç Öner, Director of Research and Programs, SALT, Turkey
Irini Papageorgiou, Curator of Prehistoric, Ancient Greek and Roman Collections, Benaki Museum, Greece
Kristin Prestegaard, Chief Engagement Officer, Minneapolis Institute of Art (Mia), United States
Marcelo Rezende, Co-director, Archiv der Avantgarden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden, Germany
Katrina A. Stacy, Curator of Education and Interpretation, Georgia O’Keeffe Museum, United States
Maria Tsantsanoglou, Executive General Director, Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki (MOMus) – Creative Director MOMus-Museum of Modern Art-Costakis Collection, Greece
Amalia Zepou, Social Innovation Expert – Founder synAthina, Greece
As well as the groups Anticlastics and MeToo
Conference speakers will explore how museums and cultural organizations can become safe spaces for knowledge exchange, multicultural dialogue, self-discovery, and entertainment by offering new and expanded experiences that place these spaces at the center of their visitors’ daily lives and transform them into the living rooms of society.
Registration for the conference will be available on October 29 on the conference’s website, www.thecomuseum.org. Regular tickets are 15 euro, and student tickets are 7 euro. There will be simultaneous interpretation into Greek and English, as well as in Greek Sign Language. Certificates of attendance will be provided upon request.
The conference will be recorded by the Bodossakis Foundation Lectures on Demand (blod.gr) and will be available online. The conference will also be live streamed through DIAVLOS.
A series of workshops will be available as part of the conference in Athens on November 20 and 21. The workshops are addressed to professionals in the cultural field and will require a separate registration on the conference’s website, starting on October 25. The workshops will be conducted in English without interpretation.
On November 22, the conference will be presented in Thessaloniki, at the Maurice Saltiel Hall of the Thessaloniki Concert Hall (Megaron Mousikis) from 9:30-17:30. The conference in Thessaloniki is organized by the U.S. Consulate General, the Benaki Museum, and the British Council, with the collaboration of the Metropolitan Organization of Museums of Visual Arts of Thessaloniki, the Goethe-Institut Athen and the Organisation of Thessaloniki Concert Hall. It is under the auspices of the Hellenic Ministry of Culture and Sports, the Region of Central Macedonia, and the Municipality of Thessaloniki. There will be simultaneous interpretation into Greek and English, as well as in Greek Sign Language. Registration will be available on October 29, on the conference’s website, www.thecomuseum.org. Tickets are 5 euro. Certificates of attendance will be given via e-mail after the event following electronic registration.
For more information visit: www.thecomuseum.org or contact:
Katerina Galani (British Council): [email protected]
Athina Isaia (Benaki Museum): [email protected]
