How should museums approach and communicate their own history? The museum’s (hi)stories are many. They go from the history of the institution to that of the collectors, the collections and the architecture of the buildings that house them. Some of these (hi)stories are omitted from the museum discourse by accident – others on purpose. 

To what extent should these (hi)stories, diverse in their origins and in their contents, feature in the itinerary of a visit, enhancing the visitor's experience?  

By their very nature, museums are de-contextualising institutions in the sense that they transform the status of objects and often disconnect them from information relating to the condition of these objects prior to musealisation. Some new museological strategies have sought to reverse this trend, offering approaches based on the creation/production of objects and the recontextualisation of their original functionality and meaning. 

Whether in situ or on digital platforms, some research processes seek to reveal this transformation to non-specialist visitors, disseminating the broader task of conservation and restoration in their communication. 

The pandemic and its aftermath have accelerated the discussion surrounding the dissemination of research findings through the publication of exhibition and collection catalogues. 

How can these traditional publications survive in a world of social media and disposable information? How to compete with faster, more direct forms of easily updatable information accessible online? 

To what extent, in modern-day museums, are the time and cost of producing such publications justified when these publications are by their nature directed at a more restricted public?   

As museums increasingly find themselves taking on the role of agents of change, the contents and methods of their communication have required a critical reappraisal. Nowhere is this more obvious than in museums with historical collections of the so-called ‘other’ (from the Global). While speaking on behalf of ‘other’ artists was once the norm, today diaspora communities are demanding a voice in how their heritage is shared in the places they reside and call home. 

This panel brings together the perspectives of which have been innovating the communication with the Local, by opening spaces for reflection, dialogue, and debate to promote tolerance, knowledge, and mutual understanding. Listening is key, but how are these values communicated in gallery displays, digital content, and programming?  

Nowadays, marketing is inseparable from museum life. For many art museums, image plays a central role in the communication of its collection. Starting from the premise that good marketing rests on effective communication, it is important for museums to understand what messages and images should be shared with audiences, in what way, with what frequency, and through what kind of content.

The issue of 'brand', widely debated among museums today, is a relevant aspect in this discussion insofar as it invites constant reflection on the quality that a museum seeks to associate itself with as a 'product' of dissemination and democratization of knowledge.

We live in an age where technology is everywhere, in work and leisure, putting at our disposal - through, for instance, a simple portable phone – a powerful communication tool with enormous potentialities. In the field of Museums, technology can support, as an aid, the visit, providing all the complementary information to that which is physically available to the public in the Museum, and can do it either helping the preparation of the visit or providing the relevant contents during the visit. The role and format of the information physically available to the public in the museum also deserves some reflection: what is too little or too much?  

On the other hand, there are aspects of the relationship with the authentic in museum collections that are challenged today: is the need of the new cultural ‘pilgrimages’ to be in front of the unique in the physical visit to the Museum still as relevant today, in the age of NFTs? Ambiguities and contradictions of the public, which often oscillates between seeing the unique and authentic, or being in front of it: discovery or vanity? 

Within the last decade, museums as institutions have been called to address moments of change, whether at local, national or international. Whether the welcome result of ‘the arc bending towards justice’ or the unexpected conclusion of sudden and overwhelming circumstances, moments of change present unique demands in terms of agency, language and tone.  

Is communication in various, possibly discrepant tones and vocabularies preferable to coherent and unidirectional institutional communication?  

This panel will bring together museums who have been called to address these moments of change and not only to respond with hope, but to model change itself.