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.

© 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.

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.

© 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.

© 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.

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.

© 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.

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”.

© 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.

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.

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.

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.

© Goethe-Institut / Aarushi Surana

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?

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.

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.

© Goethe-Institut China
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.

© 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?

© Goethe-Institut Georgien / Gocha Nemsadze

Past projects

Projects 2017–2022

Event series Zukunft Museum/Museum Futures (2022)

Museum management MuseumFutures – change in African museums (2022)

Creating infrastructure Belarus: Laboratory of Jewish Cultural Heritage

Future concepts International Museum Conference Rio de Janeiro (2022)

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

Dialogue and cooperation Sino-German Museum Conversations (2021–2022)

Researching, preserving and developing perspectives Cooperation Ethnological Museums Luanda – Berlin (2018-2022)

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

Networking Museum Academy Belarus (2019)

Colonial heritage Museum conversations (2018-2020)

Colonial heritage Heritage Deferred? (2018)

Role of museums India: Museum of the Future (2017-2019)

Projects before 2017

Future concepts Museal Episode (2015-2017)

Training course MOOC Managing the Arts (2015/2016)

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

Reversing the perspective Curvature of Events. Baroque. Romanticism. Video (2014)

International symposium Tbilisi, Georgia: Why Museums Now? (2012)

Follow us

Event series
Zukunft Museum/Museum Futures (2022)

Museum management
MuseumFutures – change in African museums (2022)

Creating infrastructure
Belarus: Laboratory of Jewish Cultural Heritage

Future concepts
International Museum Conference Rio de Janeiro (2022)

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

Dialogue and cooperation
Sino-German Museum Conversations (2021–2022)

Researching, preserving and developing perspectives
Cooperation Ethnological Museums Luanda – Berlin (2018-2022)

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

Networking
Museum Academy Belarus (2019)

Colonial heritage
Museum conversations (2018-2020)

Colonial heritage
Heritage Deferred? (2018)

Role of museums
India: Museum of the Future (2017-2019)

Future concepts
Museal Episode (2015-2017)

Training course
MOOC Managing the Arts (2015/2016)

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

Reversing the perspective
Curvature of Events. Baroque. Romanticism. Video (2014)

International symposium
Tbilisi, Georgia: Why Museums Now? (2012)