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Museum: the present and the future

The Vladimir Potanin Foundation will hold an annual forum “Museum Guide” online

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The Forum will take place as a part of the international festival “Intermuseum” and bring together leading museum experts, Russian and international professionals in culture, science, art, urban studies and the media. This year the event will be held on 26th – 29th May in a digital format.

The festival «Intermuseum – 2020» is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War and focused on traditional culture and cultural memory. At the same time, the business program will be aimed at actualization of educational, social and economic role of museums and other cultural institutions in modern society.

Oksana Oracheva, General Director: «This time our annual forum “Museum Guide” will take place in an unusual digital format. Together with our partner ICOM we decided that in the period of uncertainty and social isolation as a part of our life, it is crucial to discuss the role of culture and museums in ensuring sustainable development. How can we make the language of the Sustainable Development Goals accessible to a wide audience? How can we connect our routine cultural practices with the Sustainable Development Goals? In what way can our knowledge about the past become a source for the future? In what way does creativity shape the human-centered environment aimed at human well-being? These are today’s critical questions and I hope that we are looking forward to an interesting expert discussion giving us confidence that culture does not only connect us but also serves as an essential tool to achieve common goals and resolve social issues”.

Within the forum “Museum Guide 2020”, experts will examine contributions of museums and culture in achieving the concrete Sustainable Development Goals based on equality, transparency, peace and eco-friendliness. The experts will discuss best practices emerging at the intersection of disciplines, problem and growth areas. The forum platform is an opportunity to demonstrate the key cultural achievements and connect the participants of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation’s cultural initiatives.

Marie-Clarté O’Neill, President of the International Committee for Education and Cultural Action of the International Council of Museums (ICOM); Julia Pagel, the Secretary General of the Network of European Museum Organizations (Germany); Zelfira Tregulova, the Director of the State Tretyakov Gallery; Tom Fleming, the Director of the International Consultancy Agency Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy (The United Kingdom); Elizaveta Fokina, the Director of the Tsaritsyno Museum; Shannon Darrough, the Director of the Digital Media, MoMA (USA); Pavel Prigara the Director of the Manege Exhibition Hall (Saint Petersburg); Dina Sorokina, the Director of the Yeltsin Museum (Ekaterinburg); Elisabeth Ioannides, Εducation Curator & Art Psychotherapist of National Museum of Contemporary Art (Greece) and others are among the speakers of the forum.

The “Museum Guide” business program will be divided into several thematic sections. The plenary session «Museums and the Desired Future» will take place on the first day of the forum. This session will focus on a museum’s potential as a driver for sustainable development. The experts will identify new museum functions that will become relevant in crisis and post-crisis period.

Two discussions “Creative Industries and Museums - How to Survive in Crisis” and “Museums, the Leaders in the Media Space” will be held on the second day. The participants will discuss the involvement of museums in creative industries in terms of opening new opportunities and the role of museums in communications where a museum serves as a source of reliable information and participate in the media process.

The third day of the forum will be dedicated to a unifying role of museums and their contribution to transparency, safety and sustainability of cities during crisis and in post-crisis period. The forum participants will share their expert opinion discussing these questions at a blitz interview “Museum and City. Safety, Transparency and Sustainability” and at a round table “Museums as a Source for Inclusive and Accessible Education: Online and Offline Formats”. The discussion on a harmonizing role of museums where the participants will analyze practices of art therapy programs in museums and conversations about social trauma including social distancing will finish the third day of the forum.

The discussion “Knowledge Infrastructure: Museums as Scientific Communicators” where museums will be presented as mediators between research and audience and the dialogue “Museums: Stay Open under Closed Borders” dedicated to museums’ collaboration while working online will take place on the final day of the forum. The experts will also share their opinions on developing a centralized museum platform for education purposes “Museums and Digital Technologies: Innovative Solutions for Sustainable Development”.

The schedule and program can be viewed here.

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