Past projects

Projects 2017–2022

Event series

Zukunft Museum/Museum Futures (2022)

In a series of panel discussions, international experts address current issues and challenges that directly concern the future of the museum. The Goethe-Institut is organising this series of events together with its partners, Iwalewahaus in Bayreuth, Lenbachhaus in Munich and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

Zukunft Museum/Museum Futures © Bettina Kubanek © Bettina Kubanek

Museum management

MuseumFutures – change in African museums (2022)

The pan-African project “MuseumFutures Africa” promotes a conceptual change – away from European museology, with its partially colonial approach.

MuseumFutures Africa Vumile Mavumengwana © Goethe-Institut Vumile Mavumengwana © Goethe-Institut

Creating infrastructure

Belarus: Laboratory of Jewish Cultural Heritage

The Laboratory of Jewish Cultural Heritage contributes to the revival of Jewish cultural heritage in Belarus – with strategic planning of a museum, virtual securing of evidence at historic sites and popularisation of the Jewish culture.

Stetl © Grigorij Heifez © Grigorij Heifez

Future concepts

International Museum Conference Rio de Janeiro (2022)

The National Museum in Rio de Janeiro suffered a major fire on 2nd September 2018. Since then, the German Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut have been supporting them in their salvage work and the development of a concept for a new museum.

International Museum Conference Rio © Felipe Varanda © Felipe Varanda

Colonial heritage

Kenya: International Inventories Programme – artworks between worlds (2021-2022)

The “International Inventories Programme” (IIP) is an international research, database and exhibition project that focuses on Kenyan artefacts that have been held in museums and collections outside the country since colonial times.

Dennis Opudo, Head of the Anthropological Department of the Nairobi National Museum, in the Museum's Ethnographic Collection Photo (detail): Gioia Forster © picture alliance Photo (detail): Gioia Forster © picture alliance

Dialogue and cooperation

Sino-German Museum Conversations (2021–2022)

The Museum Conversations series between German and Chinese museums aims to establish a platform for discussion of topical issues relating to museum cooperation, with a focus on contemporary art, design and intercultural co-curation.

Sino-German Museum Conversations © Goethe-Institut China © Goethe-Institut China

Researching, preserving and developing perspectives

Cooperation Ethnological Museums Luanda – Berlin (2018-2022)

The Ethnological Museum of Berlin houses one of the world's most important and oldest collections of Angolan art. It is closely linked to the collection of the Museu Nacional de Antropologia in Luanda.

Cooperation Ethnological Museums Luanda Photo: Dralton Máquina © Goethe-Institut Angola Photo: Dralton Máquina © Goethe-Institut Angola

Networking

South-East Asia and Germany: Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories (2019-2021)

The embodiment of history/ies in the diverse social contexts of South-East Asia and the West is at the heart of “Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories”.

Collecting Entanglements and Embodied Histories © Goethe-Institut Indonesien © Goethe-Institut Indonesien

Networking

Museum Academy Belarus (2019)

The Museum Academy brought specialists from museums, associations, educational establishments and public authorities from Belarus and Germany together to encourage dialogue about current developments on the international museum scene.

Conference (Symbolic photo) Photo: varuna © Colourbox Photo: varuna © Colourbox

Colonial heritage

Museum conversations (2018-2020)

In the “Museum conversations” series the Goethe-Institut brought together international museum experts to collaborate on the development of Africa’s museums of the future.

“Museum Conversations” 2019 in Namibia Photo (detail): CreativeLab for Goethe-Institut Namibia Photo (detail): CreativeLab for Goethe-Institut Namibia

Colonial heritage

Heritage Deferred? (2018)

The symposium Heritage Deferred? with case studies from China, Latin America, Oceania, and Namibia expanded the perspectives and offered a deeper explorations of how museums and collections may deal with these diverse emerging perspectives.

Heritage Deferred? Grafik: studio stg Grafik: studio stg

Role of museums

India: Museum of the Future (2017-2019)

What meaning does education have for the wellbeing of a society? Academics, museum specialists and other experts from Germany and India joined forces to investigate this issue.

Projects before 2017

Future concepts

Museal Episode (2015-2017)

The international event series addressed the question of whether museums today continue to be appropriate spaces for presentation, documentation, mediation and archiving – or even for interaction between observer and object?

Museal Episode Photo: Marcelo Resende Photo: Marcelo Resende

Training course

MOOC Managing the Arts (2015/2016)

More than 24,000 participants from 175 countries took part in the free-of-charge online course in cultural management spanning three months, which was provided by the Goethe-Institut and the Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

MOOC Managing the Arts Photo: Loredana LaRocca Photo: Loredana LaRocca

Networking

China – Germany: Museum Experts Exchange Program (MEEP) (2014-2016)

The three-year exchange programme between German and Chinese museums gave a number of museum employees the opportunity for in-depth exploration of the other country’s culture and museum scene.

Reversing the perspective

Curvature of Events. Baroque. Romanticism. Video (2014)

Many contemporary art exhibitions in African countries are developed by German or European curators from an ethnographic perspective. The project “Curvature of Events. Baroque. Romanticism. Video” reverses this perspective.

Installation view “Curvature of Events. Baroque. Romanticism. Video (2014)” 17.10.2014 - 04.ß1.2015. Galerie Neue Meister © Dresden State Art Collections, Photo: Martin Förster © Dresden State Art Collections, Photo: Martin Förster

International symposium

Tbilisi, Georgia: Why Museums Now? (2012)

How has the museum scene developed in the post-Soviet era? What new ideas are sparking the interest of directors, managers and architects from major museums in Europe, America and Asia? How are museums changing in the 21st century in the East and West?

Past projects

Projects 2017–2022

Projects before 2017

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