close-ups silk embroidered scene, 8th century
© 出典: 国立博物館所蔵品統合検索システム Integrated Collection Database of the National Museums, Japan
Museums as Hubs of Contemporary Collecting: The Future of Collecting and its Traditions
This coming year it is the 25th General Conference of ICOM which will be held from 1-7 September in Kyoto, Japan. During these days COMCOL will hold its annual conference. On September 3rd it will be a joint meeting together with the International Committee for Egyptology (CIPEG) and September 4th we will partner up with the International Committee for Documentation (CIDOC). From 29-31 August there will be a pre-conference in Nara.
The theme of the annual conference is related to the theme of the General Conference. Within the context of “Museums as Cultural Hubs: The Future of Tradition” the committees focus will be on “Museums as Hubs of Collecting: The Future of Collecting and its Traditions”.
What will the future of collecting look like in a globalized world concerning the global and local museum? How will we handle the problematic provenances in museum collections? The turmoil of discussions in the media concerning museums and their collections frequent in the newspaper and on social media. Think of the recent report on the status of African objects in French museums, the re-opening of the Africa Museum in Tervuren Belgium, or the organized meetups of activists taking over galleries at places like the British Museum in London and the Brooklyn Museum in New York. How to engage with communities close by that demand involvement or those that are far away in time and location. How can we share our collections in the future, and what about repatriation?
What collecting practices will evolve? We see a growing interest of museums in rapid response collecting, where museum staff goes out on the street to collect and document societal phenomena on the spot or via social media. What effect have a changing engagement with objects on collections management systems will be needed and emerge in the future? In the context of the general theme of 2019, COMCOL and its collaborators would like to explore these perspectives further together with you.
For review purposes the Call for Paper can be downloaded here. Deadline for proposals was February 25th, 2019.
More details on the program can be downloaded here. For registrations of the general conference please visit the ICOM Kyoto website.
We look forward seeing you in Nara and/or Kyoto!
COMCOL board: Åsa Stenström, Danielle Kuijten, Helene Vollgraaff, Tanya Rozenbergar, Riitta Kela, Claudia Porto, Kiprop Lagat