Summer School
Museums, Democracy and Citizenship
Event Slider
Date
- / Cancelled / Sold out
Location
Auditorium 2 Calouste Gulbenkian FoundationThe event will be broadcast live and available on this page, except for the masterclasses on September 27.
The Calouste Gulbenkian Museum is organizing its third Summer School, with the theme ‘Museums, Democracy and Citizenship’.
This three-day event will convene researchers, museum professionals and creative minds for a stimulating discussion on the civic role of museums citizenship practices for fostering democratic values and competencies.
The Summer School programme offers a diverse range of topics. The opening day examines the impact of Artificial Intelligence on museums. The second day focuses on sharing power, and discusses new approaches to exhibiting historical art, participatory curatorship and collaborative networks. The third and final day, dedicated to sharing systems, explores digital empowerment and the role of museums in the construction and contesting of historical identities.
Speakers
-
Ana Maria Campino
With a degree in Art History from Universidade Nova de Lisboa and a Master’s in Museology from the École du Louvre (Paris), Ana Maria Campino is curator of European books and graphic documents at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. Between 2011 and 2022, she was responsible for producing exhibitions (until 2016) and editing printed and online content for the Museum’s publications, sometimes in partnership with other institutions (‘Amadeo de Souza-Cardoso (1887-1918)’, 2016, Grand Palais, Paris).
-
António Carmo Gouveia
Researcher at the Centre for Functional Ecology of the University of Coimbra and Executive Coordinator of the UNESCO Chair in Biodiversity Safeguard for Sustainable Development. He was director of the Botanic Garden of the University of Coimbra and the Serralves Foundation Park. His projects cover the history and communication of science, scientific collections, plant diversity and ecology, and citizen science initiatives. He coordinates the project and platform Cartas da Natureza
-
Aurélie Cerf
Head of the audience department and outreach programs at the BELvue Museum in Brussels, which focuses on Belgium and its history, democracy and citizenship. She studied Germanic Languages and Literatures and Cultural Management. She has worked at Tour & Taxis exhibition halls, La Monnaie opera house and the Museum for Letters and Manuscripts. In 2015 she entered the BELvue Museum and in 2023 she joined the board of Brussels Museums helping the sector to develop meaningfully and strategically.
-
Beatriz Saraiva
Beatriz holds a BA in Art History from NOVA University Lisbon and is taking a MA in Museology at the same university. Her academic and professional interests in Art History and Cinema led her to pursue career opportunities in institutions like Arpad Szenes-Vieira da Silva Foundation, the Portuguese Cinematheque and the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation, where she has worked since 2018 in the Collection’s Management and Communication departments of the Museum.
-
Cidadãos Ativos
The Active Citizens Programme advisory group is composed of 26 beneficiaries and participants in supported projects, aged between 18 and 82. The group assists the Programme in evaluating its impact and planning its closing conference. The advisory group also had a chance to contribute to a reflection on the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum.
-
Coletivo FACA
Coletivo FACA, formed in 2019, is an active citizenship and curatorship project, led by Andreia Coutinho and Maribel Mendes Sobreira. The project deals with the themes of feminism, colonialism, racism, LGBTQI+ and non-normativity in museological spaces, bringing these discussions into the Portuguese cultural debate, with specialised and non-specialised audiences. Without erasing History, Coletivo FACA combines diverse narratives, bringing the margins into the centre of the debate.
-
Diana Pereira
History of Art graduate and master in Museum Studies. She joined the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum’s Cultural Mediation Service in 2013 and has been responsible for implementing the programme for adults and participative projects since 2016. She has collaborated in several participative projects, including ‘Between Neighbours’ and ‘Power of the Word’. The involvement in artistic collectives has been an integral part of her experience and has informed her view of collaborative practices.
-
Donna Yates
Associate Professor in the Department of Criminal Law and Criminology at Maastricht University. She researches the looting, trafficking, and illicit sale of cultural objects and she has published extensively on this topic. Yates has a BA, MPhil, and PhD focused on Mesoamerican and Andean archaeology. Her current project is called ‘Trafficking Transformations: Objects as Agents in Criminal Networks’ and focuses on the criminal networks around collectable antiquities, wildlife, and fossils.
-
Emily Cain
Specialized in building community around and connections to museum collections and information. As Smithsonian Transcription Center’s Community Manager, she oversees user needs, site content, public engagement and programming, and currently serves as Project Manager for the comprehensive rebrand and redesign of the program and website. Emily is a Certified Scrum Master, holds a BA in Anthropology from Marshall University, and an MA in Museum Studies from George Washington University.
-
Helena Barranha
Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, researcher at the Institute of Art History (NOVA FCSH), where she is a member of the Museum Studies Group and coordinates the cluster Art, Museums and Digital Cultures. She was the Director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art – Museu do Chiado (2009-2012). Her research focuses on the intersection of museum architecture, contemporary art and digital technologies. In 2021, she co-edited the book Art, Museums and Digital Cultures – Rethinking Change.
-
Inês Câmara
Co-founder of Mapa das Ideias, where her activity thrives on the overlapping of different areas such as Education, Mediation, Marketing and Management for the fields of Culture, Heritage and Citizenship. Her primary focus relates to marketing and project development, being also responsible for the creative department, as well as the consultancy and research sector. Inês is a lecturer and trainer, and the Chairperson of Culture Action Europe Board.
-
Inês Fialho Brandão
Coordinator of the Cultural Mediation and Digital Strategy Service of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. She researches the representation of otherness in museum spaces, focusing on enforced migratory movements and the restitution of cultural assets. She has a PhD in History from Maynooth University and a master’s in Islamic Studies and Museology from New York University. She is part of the Scientific Advisory Council for the Observatory on History Teaching in Europe (Council of Europe).
-
Jessica Hallett
Deputy Director of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and curator of the Islamic and Chinese collections. In 2019, she organized the exhibition ‘The Rise of Islamic Art’. She has been developing the participatory project ‘Power of the Word’ which brings local knowledge inside the museum. Her publications include contributions to a diverse range of peer-reviewed academic journals, books and catalogues, including ‘Carpets from the Calouste Gulbenkian Collection’ with the curator Clara Serra (2025)
-
Joel Moreira
Born in the Bela Vista neighbourhood in Setúbal, Joel Moreira is currently studying Modern and Contemporary History after a stint at the Faculty of Fine Arts in Lisbon (2016-2019). He is interested in the metamorphoses of social control, post-colonialism, and subaltern studies. He moderates and organises the ‘Cultural Fridays’ debate series (NEA-ISCTE), and is a member of CAM’s Youth Advisory Group.
-
Marc Masurovsky
Historian specialized in the economics of plunder and more specifically cultural plunder and its aftermath. In 1997, he co-founded the Holocaust Art Restitution Project (HARP) to research and document Jewish cultural losses during the Nazi era. Since 2011, he has organized and implemented numerous provenance research training workshops in the US, Europe and Israel. He designed and managed the ERR Jeu de Paume database which documents cultural plunder in Western Europe.
-
Maria João Mota
Maria João Mota was born in Porto in 1979. She has a degree in International Relations, specialising in Cooperation and Development. Since she was a teenager, she has pursued a parallel career in performing arts education. In 2007, she co-founded PELE, a collective of national and international renown working in the field of community art practices. Since then, she has conceived and implemented artistic creation projects aimed at groups and areas not usually involved in participatory processes.
-
Mariana Abreu
Mariana has a degree in Art History from NOVA University and a postgraduate degree in Art Education from FBAUL. She has been working as an artistic and cultural mediator since 2002, collaborating on educational projects for different audiences in various museums, such as the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and CAM, as well as in different schools in Lisbon. In July 2024, she organised a meeting and workshop for the advisory board of the Active Citizens Programme at the Gulbenkian Museum.
-
Marta Branco Guerreiro
Graduate in History of Art from NOVA FCSH, post-graduate in Cultural Management in Cities from ISCTE and master in Museology from NOVA FCSH with the thesis ‘Art outside history. Exhibitions of the Museu do Chiado collection 1994-2009’. She is working on a PhD in History of Art at NOVA FCSH on the theme ‘The museum as a communal space: thinking beyond participation.’ She has worked at various museums and is a researcher at BAC – Banco de Arte Contemporânea/EGEAC. She is a member of IHA/In2Past.
-
Marta C. Lourenço
Director of the National Museum of Natural History and Science of the University of Lisbon. She teaches Material Culture of Science at the University of Lisbon and is a research member of CIUHCT. She has published 13 books and over 60 articles and chapters in books. Her research and teaching interests encompass scientific collections, history of collections and museums, and colonial collections. She is the national coordinator of the Portuguese Research Infrastructure of Scientific Collections. -
Maxence Garde
Curator in charge of the Antiquities collection at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, Maxence Garde has a degree in Classical Archaeology and a postgraduate specialisation in Ancient Egypt from the École du Louvre, in Paris. From the Metropolitan Museum of Art to the British Museum, his professional experience is centred on issues related to the history of museum collections and the protection of global cultural heritage.
-
Megan Ammari
Designer and AI researcher dedicated to making artificial intelligence accessible to all. She has conducted over 27 AI workshops with FabLab Lisboa, IAAC Barcelona, Mouraria Creative Hub, and DigitalFUTURES, focusing on innovation, entrepreneurship, ethical applications, and community engagement. Megan’s work bridges traditional craftsmanship with modern technology, inspiring communities to adopt AI and transform creative processes.
-
Nusrat Ahmed
Nusrat joined Manchester Museum in 2019 and is now the Lead Curator of the award-winning co-curated South Asia Gallery. Nusrat has fundamentally shifted who belongs in museums, and advocates for change of the wider cultural landscape. She is active in promoting social justice and is passionate about conversation around representation, inclusion and care. As a first-generation British born South Asian, Nusrat has a close attachment to her heritage.
-
Oonagh Murphy
Oonagh Murphy was awarded a PhD by Ulster University in 2014. She works closely with museums, galleries, government bodies, and funders to shape digital strategies and policies. She’s a Senior Lecturer in Digital Culture and Society at Goldsmiths, University of London, and she also advises the UK Government’s Department for Culture, Media and Sport. Her collaboration with The National Gallery and The MET led to the creation of The Museums + AI Network.
-
Pascal Hufschmid
Art historian specializing in photography. He has spearheaded multidisciplinary projects both within and outside Switzerland, drawing on his expertise in museology, the art market and international organizations. Since 2019, he has served as the Executive Director of the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum in Geneva. In that role, he has sought to foster dialogue between humanitarian action, art and research.
-
Patrícia Simões
Since 2017, Patrícia has worked as a production and curatorial assistant at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum. She was a collaborator in the project «History of Art Exhibitions of the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation». She has a BA in Art History and a MA in Contemporary Art History from NOVA University. Her thesis is dedicated to the artistic production of two contemporary Brazilian artists, Rosângela Rennó and Adriana Varejão, and their presence on the institutional exhibition circuit in Lisbon.
-
Paulo Lameiro
Ethnomusicologist and educator from Leiria. After a brief career as a solo baritone and in the choir of the São Carlos National Theatre in Lisbon, he dedicated himself to teaching and became director of the Lisbon National Conservatory, the Orfeão de Leiria, and the SAMP School of Arts in Pousos. Since 1992 he has developed education and artistic production projects for early childhood, alongside community-based artistic initiatives such as the ‘Opera in Prison’ project.
-
Raj Isar
Born in New Delhi, educated in India and France, Isar is a French citizen and lives in Portugal. His professional life has straddled different domains of cultural action: first at UNESCO, from 1973 to 2002, then as a teacher at The American University of Paris and, since 2017, with the Aga Khan Trust for Culture, as director of its Education Programme. He has been a board member of various cultural organizations across the world and continues to publish regularly in the cultural policy field.
-
Ricardo Mendes
Ricardo Mendes has a degree in Sculpture (FBAUL) and a master’s in Drawing and Printing Techniques (FBAUP). In 2016, he started working as an artistic and cultural mediator in various museums in Lisbon, including the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, the CAM – Centro de Arte Moderna Gulbenkian, the Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga and the Museu do Oriente. Since 2022, he has been in charge of the area of Schools and Workshops of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum’s Cultural Mediation Service.
-
Sandra Rodriguez
PhD, creator and producer in XR and AI, and sociologist of new technology. She has directed and produced interactive and immersive experiences that have garnered prestigious awards. Her work spans from VR to machine-learning, LLM and image generation, misusing tools from their use to explore unexpected potential and forms. Between 2017-2022, she created and led the HackingXR program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, MIT’s first course on XR production.
-
Stefan Weber
Currently directing the re-conceptualisation of Museum for Islamic Art at the Pergamon in Berlin, which explores new grounds in communicating art and archaeology of the Islamic Middle East. He started several nationwide community programs; the project ‘Multaka’, on refugees as guides for newcomers, won several awards. He initiated the Syrian Heritage Archive Project, focused on the heritage for the reconstruction of Aleppo. He is a member of the Academy of the Kingdom of Morocco and of ICOMOS.
-
Susana Gomes da Silva
With degrees in History, Museums and Education, and Museum Studies, Susana Gomes da Silva is a programmer, cultural mediator, teacher and consultant in the field of museum education. She is head of education, mediation, participation, and educational programming at the Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation’s Modern Art Centre (whose educational service she founded in 2002). From 2016 to 2021 she was head of Educational Programming at the Gulbenkian Museum (Modern Collection and Founder’s Collection).
-
Vânia Carvalho
Technical coordinator of Museu de Leiria, Centro de Interpretação do Abrigo do Lagar Velho and Centro de Diálogo Intercultural de Leiria. She has an undergraduate degree in History (Archaeology), a master’s in Human Evolution and Biology, and a postgraduate degree in Tourism, Leisure, and Culture. She believes that museums need to work with, listen to, and give a voice to diverse communities, both within and around them, in order to become participatory, free, and authentic spaces.
-
Vera Mariz
Research curator at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, with a PhD in Art History and specialized in Collecting and Art Markets. As a researcher at ARTIS – Institute of Art History, she has developed postdoctoral projects in these fields, funded by the Foundation for Science and Technology, in addition to coordinating and collaborating on Digital Humanities projects. She regularly contributes to international scientific publications and conferences, as well as exhibition catalogues.
Programme
17:30 / Registration
18:00 / Welcome
Artificial Intelligence: the end of museums?
The explosion in popularity of advanced content-generation tools and models has sparked lively debate on the future of museums and the viability of professions related to them in the fields of thought and knowledge production. At the inaugural session of the 2024 Summer School, the keynote speaker will reflect on the potential and limitations of A.I. as a whole in museum work.
18:30 / Digital dilemmas: purpose-driven digital leadership in museums
The International Red Cross and Red Crescent Museum operates at the intersection of everyday life, humanitarian action and art, focusing on the issues and values of humanitarianism – past, present and future. It lives these values by producing innovative, interdisciplinary content that sparks critical conversations and inspires us to imagine possible new futures.
For 2023–2024, the Museum selected “digital dilemmas” as the focus of its public engagement efforts. Through this theme, the museum aimed to initiate a discourse on the transformative impact of digital technologies on the human experience.
The Museum used the “digital dilemmas” theme as a platform for interdisciplinary enquiry and public dialogue. That platform served as the foundation of a broad programme of events that included lectures, panel discussions, workshops and late-night opening hours. Participants from diverse backgrounds – including artists, educators, humanitarian practitioners, museum professionals and members of the public – were invited to debate, discuss, consider and re-think how we might respond to emerging digital challenges in a progressive and civic-minded way. In this talk we explore some of the key lessons that other museums can learn from our work in this area, and invite museum professionals and students to think about the museum as a space were ideas are created, not just displayed.
19:00 / Reframing myths, reshaping futures: innovating with, for or through AI
In current experimentations with applications for AI, the opportunities of replacing creative roles and processes is quickly put forward. Pundits, creators, scholars and major cultural institutions alike are faced with a sudden need to justify their roles: What is an artist? What is creativity in the age of AI? Can a set of algorithms be creative? Is creativity overrated? In the turmoil of hubris and fears, many raise due caution: industries’ applications of large language models (LLM) and generative AI bring with them a swarm of ethical, political, environmental and social concerns, which get obfuscated behind philosophical debates on AI creativity. This presentation suggests the metaphors, myths and hyped-up imaginaries we create around AI, point to the very value we give, today, to the role of creativity, imagination and innovation in our lives.
Moderation:
SHARING POWER
09:30 / Registration
Panel 1 – Revolutionised museums: yesterday’s art, today
Today’s social debates require us to rethink the ways of presenting museum collections. From permanent exhibitions to temporary installations, from the priority given to the museum’s voice to the polyphonic interpretations in the exhibition room, multiple strategies have been employed by European museums. This panel presents recent case studies that stand out for their innovative approaches and for demonstrating the risks taken by institutions with over a hundred years of history.
10:00 / Engaging the modern visitor: strategies for contemporary relevance in BELvue Museum
In an ever-evolving cultural landscape, museums must continually adapt to maintain their relevance. This presentation explores the innovative strategies employed by BELvue Museum, in Brussels, to engage modern visitors and enhance their experience. In this presentation will be discussed the integration of interactive technologies, inclusive programming, and dynamic storytelling methods that resonate with diverse audiences and foster citizenship education. By examining case studies, successful initiatives will be highlighted, such as participatory projects, interactive exhibits, and educational workshops. This session aims to provide museum professionals with actionable insights and practical tools to apply in their own institutions, ensuring that museums fulfill a civic role, remain vibrant, safe and relevant spaces for all visitors.
10:20 / Pulling the past into the present: Islamic art and the museum today
We are political - whether we want or not. Museums are public institutions, facing automatically issues of participation and representation as a basic element of democracies, and of culturalism in times of racism and extremism. The Museum of Islamic Art in Berlin has reoriented its work in this direction.
In terms of program work, projects such as ‘Multaka’, with refugees as guides in museums, enable social participation. This opened the doors of the Museum Island for many thousands of new citizens. Our nationwide ‘Tamam’ program with mosque communities’ addresses marginalized but established groups instead.
However, most important: which stories do we tell? Closed cultural images of 'others’ or culture as an expression of exchange, entanglement, migration of ideas and people, and plurality? We try to strengthen open cultural identities online on our new portal, on-sight with the redevelopment of our permanent exhibition, or outside in schools, youth clubs and with educational publishers
Moderation:
10:40 / Debate
— Intermission 20 MIN —Panel 2 – Participatory curatorship: democracy in action?
The participatory projects carried out in art museums are rooted in community museums and/or those relating to History and memory. By nature, they demand a share of power and of the stage. How do art museums benefit from the introduction of participative methodologies in their processes? The philosophies and methodologies chosen for the projects under discussion in this panel clearly demonstrate the need to take risks to create new paths.
11:20 / Who wrote that word?
‘Power of the Word’ is a participatory curatorial project that invites citizens of Lisbon to investigate the Islamic art collection of the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum, together with the curatorial and mediation teams of the Museum and invited scholars. It began as a pilot, in 2019, and is now in its sixth edition, with increasing reach and impact. Each version embarks from a keyword (Pilgrimage; Fables; Women) and crosses diverse methodologies to define a path for promoting engagement, widening knowledge, and democratizing the process of creating exhibitions.
Words in the form of poetry, epic literature and learning, as well as the Word of the Quran, have a powerful resonance in Islamic cultures. Hence, the project began with reading inscriptions, with speakers of Arabic, Persian and Turkish breathing life into the medieval written word, breaking the silence around these ‘talking objects’. Quickly, words came to be understood as more than language, as culture, as heritage, and the project shifted from the act of translation to knowledge creation, through shared investigation and individual and group interpretation and storytelling.
This talk takes a critical approach to these experiences to examine how the participatory process has evolved. Words are powerful. And who speaks and writes them inside a museum holds power. Where is that power today after six collaborations?
11:40 / Policies and poetics of collective creation: questions based on PELE's experience in the field of community artistic practices
12:00 / Youth Advisory Group: participatory processes for listening and change
Over the last year, CAM has endeavoured to make room for the integration of young people's voices into its future activity. One of the fundamental steps in this direction has been the creation of a Youth Advisory Group, made up of nine young people who, over a year, reflected with the CAM team on the needs of new generations and have led processes of change from their perspective, contributed with ideas and suggestions, and participated in the action and design of CAM's programming. This communication seeks to share this process and its challenges, as well as the effects of generating a space for listening and for opening CAM's strategic decision-making to the participation of young people in the areas of programming, curation, collection, dissemination, communication, and education.
12:20 / Co-curating Manchester Museum’s South Asia Gallery: inclusive participatory practice
This presentation will explore the experience of co-curation spanning over a 5-year period, with a collective group of 30 members. Nusrat Ahmed will reflect on the approach taken and share the lessons learned in this project of participatory work with communities.
Manchester Museum’s South Asia Gallery, a landmark partnership with The British Museum is the first permanent gallery in the UK dedicated to exploring the heritage, histories, experiences and culture of the South Asia diaspora. The gallery was built on the spirit of collaboration and co-production with a unique collective of educators, community leaders, artists, historians, journalists, scientists, musicians, students, and others from the South Asian diaspora. The South Asia Gallery has become an award-winning, ground-breaking achievement, opening to global acclaim in February 2023.
By centring the voices, perspectives, experiences, and knowledge of diasporic lenses, the gallery has become an example sector-wide and presents a compelling, contemporary take on South Asian and British Asian culture. Since its opening, the gallery has become a space for emotional connections and new narratives, where lived experiences and collections come together.
Moderation:
12:40 / Debate
— Intermission 90 MIN —Panel 3 – Networks and partnerships: the multiplying effect
For museums, choosing to operate as a network does not always appear to be the most appealing route. There is a need to manage different agendas, different speeds, different timelines. What, then, are the advantages of networks? The case studies presented here demonstrate the multiplying power of working in networks and partnerships, identifying common methodologies in diverse territories.
14:30 / You and I are more than 26: Museu na Aldeia
It was early in the morning. Some municipal technicians and artists who were passing by sat down at a table. They didn't seem to have any subject or interest in common. Actually, they did have something in common: the desire to discover a new way forward together. A museologist spoke, but it was musicians used to other rhythms who listened to her. As if the diversity of languages wasn't enough, someone put 26 maps on the table, a small number compared to 26 mayors and another 26 councillors for culture. What they wove together was a larger mantle that tore down the walls of museums and artists, fertilised new works and created new places. This is how ‘Museu na Aldeia’ was born, an artistic and social intervention project focused on the elderly population in rural and isolated areas, in which 13 museums and 13 villages from 26 Portuguese municipalities came together in a larger network. Communities interacted with museum professionals, artists, and local organisations to share their cultural heritage and to revive traditions.
14:50 / ‘Azimute’: a new frontier of cultural citizenship
The pilot project ‘Azimute,’ an initiative by the Aga Khan Trust for Culture – Education Programme, was created to promote knowledge and celebrate Portuguese Islamic heritage, with a focus on diversity as the key to understanding and internalising History. Developed by the cultural organisation Mapa das Ideias, it involves students and teachers in activities related to curating and civic reflection, fostering partnership networks to amplify its impact. Its methodology values pluralism by encouraging collaborations between school communities and cultural institutions, generating a multiplying effect that empowers dialogue, empathy and inclusion in a culturally diverse society.
15:10 / DES/CODIFICAR BELÉM: art and activism in the streets and inside the museum
How do we get museums involved in activism and processes of collective critical thinking about local and material history?
‘DES/CODIFICAR BELÉM’ is an active citizenship laboratory developed by Coletivo FACA, that questions hegemonic narratives and dissensions in the public space. This curatorship, mediation and artistic production project adopts a critical and intersectional approach to the public space and its colonial heritage in Lisbon, specifically in the Belém area. The project is supported by two contemporary art museums: the Museu Coleção Berardo (now MAC/CCB) and the MAAT: Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, due to their proximity to and relationship with the space in question.
In this presentation, we will discuss the aims of the project, the involvement of guest artists, processes of thought/co-creation with young people, and the role played by the partner museums throughout the process.
15:30 / Museums as laboratories for democratic competencies
The museum/school relationship is the main focus of this presentation, which introduces ‘Desafio de Projetos’, the partnership between the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum and the Rede de Bibliotecas Escolares (School Libraries Network). This programme demonstrates how museums can become effective laboratories for the development of democratic skills, reaching even audiences who are oblivious to the everyday workings of a museum, particularly those in peripheral or remote areas. Developing collaborative and interactive creative and/or research projects, ‘Desafio de Projetos’ fosters the active participation of students, teachers and school librarians, promoting critical thought, creativity, empathy and dialogue. By providing access to high-quality cultural and educational resources, the programme contributes to engendering citizens with stronger links to their community and greater awareness of the importance of cultural heritage. A mix of key partnerships and pedagogical and technological approaches that improve accessibility and inclusion of school audiences, this type of project demonstrates the fundamental role that museums play in democratising access to culture and knowledge.
Moderation:
15:50 / Debate
— Intermission 20 MIN —16:30 / Round table: what is this museum for?
During the summer of 2024, the advisory board of the Active Citizens Fund looked at the Calouste Gulbenkian Museum's permanent exhibition and assessed how it challenges its visitors: in what ways does it promote well-being, knowledge, inclusion, and citizenship? In this round table discussion with members of the advisory board, we discuss the main conclusions of this diagnosis and the good practices related to the civic consultation model of advisory boards.
Moderation:
SHARING SYSTEMS
09:30 / Registration
09:30 / Policies and poetics of collective creation: methodologies and devices for mediation, participation and creation in a community context
Art invites us to experience the unknown; it enables other – often unknown – ways of looking at, recognising, and provoking realities. Its poetic and political dimension provides a fertile space for questioning, projecting and collectively constructing new futures. It allows us to unveil and rewrite individual and collective narratives, and proposes an exchange of roles. It allows us to rediscover our bodies and other bodies, new movements, sounds, perspectives... An exercise in decolonising the senses, in imagination and in radical tenderness, a rediscovery and reconstruction of personal and collective poetics and power: a common body as a political subject.
This ‘common place of art,’ in its physical and symbolic dimension, is the meeting place for this masterclass, which invites participants to an immersive, sensory, emotional and playful creative experience. It also proposes a critical reflection on the practices of desire and risk in the context of cultural institutions and structures, and their potential for creating spaces of re-signification, resistance and social transformation.
Masterclass with Maria João Mota, Room 1 (without streaming)
Introduction:
10:00 / Disrupt, create, democratize: artists and citizens misusing tech to reshape futures
Artificial Intelligence, like other emerging media (XR, VR, MR), is increasingly proclaimed for the opportunities it brings to specific creative tasks, managing workflows, speeding up rendering processes or supporting new forms of audience engagement. Stuck between a fear of missing out on the AI goldrush and the fear of falling for its obvious traps, cultural institutions, artists and citizens get bobbed in between promises for AI applications, hype over tech new versions, and the constant redefining of their creative roles. Yet, if AI is quickly proclaimed an easy-fix solution for problems yet to be defined, it is not a panacea - nor a replacement for human endeavours. It is not one, but an umbrella of technologies that are the aftermaths of political, social, economic choices. Shedding light into the black-box of AI, this masterclass draws on past work by artist Sandra Rodriguez that misuses tech, big data and AI to demystify their potential.
Masterclass with Sandra Rodriguez, Auditorium 2 (without streaming)
Introduction:
Panel 4 – The museum as citizen: difficult histories, contested identities
Museums and their collections become the subject of discussion and debate in the context of the construction of historical and identity-related narratives, as well as ethical questions of ownership and conflict. This panel presents case studies at varying levels of maturity in the research, identification of stakeholders, and negotiation these difficult processes require.
11:20 / Crime in museum collections: finding patterns towards hidden histories
Provenance research in museums has traditionally been reactive, focusing on individual objects with questionable histories. But what if the crime we expect to find limits us from seeing the bigger picture across museum collections? Are there ways to reveal broader patterns of unethical or criminal behaviour embedded in the relationships behind museum collections? In this talk, Donna Yates presents what was discovered by using a computer-assisted model that predicts plausible patterns and connections—'leads' or 'hot tips'—from a dataset of unstructured texts related to the antiquities trade. The findings suggest a possible multi-decade scheme involving the donation of low-value antiquities to museums as a form of ‘reputation laundering,’ potentially preceding criminal fraud. This work highlights the need for innovative tools that consider the complex networks in which museum objects exist.
11:40 / Ethics, provenance research, and museums: a critical overview
From being an optional and circumscribed activity reserved for art historians and curators, provenance research has developed since 1998 into an international niche industry mostly practiced in North America and Europe. In many instance, it has redefined the priorities of dozens of cultural institutions and forced governments to take the practice seriously. Provenance research is touted as a highly recommended exercise for auction houses, galleries and museums, as well as individual collectors and dealers to thwart any eventual legal issues arising out of their questionable ownership of objects under their care. Provenance research also lifts the ethical footprint of any institution that subscribes to it and makes it part of its regular practice of stewardship of their collections and future acquisitions.
After 26 years, we are well-positioned to assess to what extent the art world and cultural heritage fields, writ large, have adopted provenance research as an essential component of due diligence. Private and public cultural institutions have different priorities due to their organizational structures but they do have this in common: they hold works and objects of art, they have regular visitors from far afield who expect to be wowed and educated, if at all possible. They acquire, borrow, lend objects and stage exhibits that show off their permanent collections or the artistic production of artists and creative producers of all epochs for their public to discover. Provenance research helps these institutions shape the narrative that they use to explain the objects in their collections.
This presentation aims to examine how provenance research is used (or not) in public and private institutions and if the research leads these institutions to decide the fate of objects in their collections. We will briefly examine the tools at everyone’s disposal on how to conduct such research as well as the challenges faced by most museums in adopting provenance research as a regular practice.
12:00 / In the shadow of Science: the case of the colonial collections of the National Museum of Natural History and Science, University of Lisbon
In August 2015, the National Museum of Natural History and Science received from the Portuguese government the scientific collections of the former Tropical Research Institute. The collections – totalling 2.5 million objects and 5 km of documentation – are the result of 118 cartographic, archaeological, zoological, botanic, geological and anthropological missions conducted between the 1880s and 1974 to Portuguese former colonies in Africa and Asia. Although highly documented, these collections had barely been accessible to external researchers, let alone the general public. Moreover, the prevailing institutional narrative was one that highlighted Portugal as a ‘good coloniser’ and science as an instrument of economic development and cooperation.
Since then, the Museum has been conducting an extensive ‘decolonisation’ program, researching the history of these collections, establishing criteria to identify objects of extreme sensitivity, presenting exhibitions, working with communities of origin and museums in Africa and recovering hidden data and voices. The working values, methods and results of the National Museum of Natural History and Science will be discussed in this presentation, with a focus on the main challenges and dilemmas, particularly the evidence of extreme violence and suffering, death and memorials, the role of the performing arts in public interpretation, ‘out of time’ scientific research questions and the legacy of colonialism in present-day Portugal and Europe
Moderation:
12:20 / Debate
— Intermission 90 MIN —Panel 5 – Digital-something: citizenship and knowledge
Digital practices in museums oftentimes question the authorship, voice and the centrality of the technical and specialised knowledge that the museum possesses. This panel presents projects that resolved this conflict effectively, reformulating the museum’s role as not only a producer of knowledge, but also a mediator of the resulting information and creation.
14:30 / 'Plant Letters' to museums: experiences and practices in citizen science
Citizen science is part of many effective research and education strategies for its importance in terms of knowledge production and what it means for the openness, transparency and understanding of scientific processes. In the natural sciences, volunteer citizens play an important role in biodiversity data collection and conservation, from simply recording the presence of plants, insects, birds or mammals around them, to detecting illegal logging or mapping marine pollution. These citizen science practices have significant impacts on citizens themselves, who have reported positive outcomes in terms of knowledge and skills acquisition, interest in science, and behavioural changes towards the environment. The project ‘Plant Letters’ combined the uncovering of historical biodiversity data with the collaborative transcription of thousands of handwritten documents, virtually connecting hundreds of citizens with the archives of a university department. Drawing on this experience, we will consider the opportunities and challenges of participatory science initiatives, looking at actual and potential applications in museum settings and the joys of engaging people with our institutions.
14:50 / Miradouro do futuro: XR approaches to cultural heritage interpretation
This presentation explores how AI and XR technologies can shape the future of cultural heritage interpretation by balancing technological innovation with human values. Drawing on her design background and expertise in AI, Megan Ammari discusses how these technologies can empower museums and cultural institutions to create immersive, interactive experiences that engage the public in new ways. The presentation highlights the potential for digital cultural libraries and XR experiences to democratize access to heritage, fostering collaboration and debate among cultural professionals. Megan advocates for a collaborative approach, where AI and the humanities work together to create a future that honours our past while embracing new possibilities.v
15:10 / An open invitation: building knowledge and networks through digital engagement
15:30 / Museobot. Artificial processes for natural curatorships
Moderation:
15:40 / Debate
— Intermission 20 MIN —16:20 / Round table: is the future today?
Moderation:
16:40 / Closing
The Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation reserves the right to collect and keep records of images, sounds and voice for the diffusion and preservation of the memory of its cultural and artistic activity. For further information, please contact us through the Information Request form.
Related
No results were found for your criteria.