.png)
The Potanin Foundation announces 2020 edition of the international Museum Guide Forum, with ICOM Russia as this year's programme partner.
The Forum will be held as part of the international Intermuseum festival and will bring together leading museum professionals, Russian and foreign experts in culture, science, art, urbanism and media. This year the event will be held from May 26 to 29 online.
Intermuseum 2020 is dedicated to the 75th anniversary of the victory in World War II and focuses on traditional culture and cultural memory, while the business programme of the Forum will focus on the actualization of the educational, social and economic role of museums and other cultural institutions in contemporary society.
Oksana Oracheva, General Director of the Vladimir Potanin Foundation: "Our annual Museum Guide Forum will be held in a new digital format. Together with our Forum partner ICOM, we decided that today, when the whole world is in a state of uncertainty and social distancing is becoming a part of our lives, it is especially important to recognize the contribution of culture in general and museums in particular to sustainable development and we have to add it to the professional agenda. How can one translate the Sustainable Development Goals into action-oriented language that is accessible to a wide range of people? How can everyday cultural practices use the Sustainable Development Goals? How can the knowledge of the past become a resource for the future? How does creativity contribute to shaping a supportive environment for people and their well-being? These issues are relevant for each of us today, and I hope that we will hear an interesting expert conversation that will establish culture as not just a uniting force for all of us, but also an important partner resource for achieving common goals and solving social problems."
Within the framework of Museum Guide Forum 2020, experts will discuss the contribution of museums and culture to the Sustainable Development Goals, which are based on the principles of equality, openness, peace and ecology conservation. Experts will discuss successful practices that are born at the intersection of various disciplines, challenges and growth areas. The Forum serves as a platform to demonstrate key cultural achievements and gather participants of all Potanin Foundation initiatives that develop the cultural sector.
The Forum speakers include: President of the ICOM International Committee for Education and Cultural Action Marie-Clarté O'Neill; General Secretary of NEMO, Network of European Museum Organisations, Julia Pagel (Germany); General Director of the Tretyakov Gallery Zelfira Tregulova; Director of Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy Tom Fleming (UK); Director of the Tsaritsyno State Museum Reserve Elizaveta Fokina; Director of the Digital Media Department at MoMA Shannon Darrow (USA); Director of the Manege Central Exhibition Hall Pavel Prigara (Saint Petersburg); Director of the Boris Yeltsyn Museum Dina Sorokina (Yekaterinburg); Εducation Curator at the National Museum of Contemporary Art Elisabeth Ioannides (Greece) and others.
The business programme will be divided into several thematic blocks. The first day of the Forum will offer a plenary session Museums and the Future We Want that will focus on the museums' potential as drivers for environmentally sustainable development. Experts will highlight the new functions of museums that are becoming relevant in times of crisis and in post-crisis times.
The second day of the Forum will include two discussions: Creative Industries and Museums — How to Survive the Crisis? and Museums as Media Opinion Leaders. The participants will discuss the museums' inclusion into the creative industries and the prospects of such inclusion, as well as museums' role in the communication space as sources of reliable information and participants of the media process.
The third day of the Forum will be dedicated to the unifying role of museums, as well as their contribution to the openness, safety and sustainability of cities in times of crisis and in post-crisis times. The Forum participants will share their expert positions on these and other issues in the flash interview Museum and City. Safety, Openness, Sustainability. Speakers of the round table Digital openness and media literacy in the sphere of culture will talk about the sustainable digital development of cultural institutions. The third day will close with a conversation about the harmonizing role of museums, that will analyse art therapy practices and the experience of discussing social trauma in museums, including the conditions of social distancing.
On the final day the Forum will host a discussion Knowledge Infrastructure: Museums as Science Communicators which will present museums as mediators between academic research and the public. It will be followed by a panel Museums: Openness with the Borders Closed devoted to new forms of cooperation during the online transition. Experts will also share their opinions on the importance of promoting the values of cultural and human diversity during the conversation Otherness and diversity: the role of cultural institutions in social inclusion and acceptance.
