Museums and the Challenge of Contemporaneity: New Narratives between Sensitivity and Rhetoric
Museums and the Challenge of Contemporaneity: New Narratives between Sensitivity and Rhetoric
Friday, 11 July 2025: 11:45
Location: FSE022 (Faculty of Education Sciences (FSE))
Oral Presentation
The relationship with community and society is a constitutive aspect of the museum. This is a dynamic relationship that, albeit in a discontinuous way, reflects and accompanies sociocultural and sociopolitical change, allowing museums to maintain a central role in the life of the communities at a local, regional, national and even supranational level.
The gradual decolonization of collections and narratives reflects a new, more inclusive and post-national concept of heritage, which simultaneously mirrors new dynamics of globalization and international balances, as well as new awareness within the local community.
The increasing focus on sustainability shows the assimilation of a significant cultural and economic paradigm shift, necessary to maintain a connection with younger generations and to respond to their demands. Similarly, attention to issues related to the role of women in society and art, and more broadly to gender identities, highlights the museum's adapting to a transforming society. Participatory dynamics, increasingly valued, reflect a renewed dynamism from the community and an interesting bottom-up process of re-appropriation of museums and heritage.
However, let's not forget that museums are still part of more complex territorial dynamics related to urban policies, tourism and gentrification (including iconic buildings by star-architects, blockbuster exhibitions, Michelin-starred restaurants inside museums, etc.), which reveals their dependence on financial and political mechanisms.
Does the attention to new sociocultural demands truly reflect the assimilation of ongoing sociocultural change? Or is it a sophisticated (not necessarily conscious) form of exploitation and commodification of new sensibilities, through which museums reassert their centrality in community mechanisms and regain an increasingly fragmented and hard-to-reach audience? With these practices are museums responding to the needs of powerful stakeholders and adapting to institutional and territorial processes, where museums represent a tool for urban competition, territorial and tourist marketing, and place-branding aimed at enhancing the attractiveness of territories?
The gradual decolonization of collections and narratives reflects a new, more inclusive and post-national concept of heritage, which simultaneously mirrors new dynamics of globalization and international balances, as well as new awareness within the local community.
The increasing focus on sustainability shows the assimilation of a significant cultural and economic paradigm shift, necessary to maintain a connection with younger generations and to respond to their demands. Similarly, attention to issues related to the role of women in society and art, and more broadly to gender identities, highlights the museum's adapting to a transforming society. Participatory dynamics, increasingly valued, reflect a renewed dynamism from the community and an interesting bottom-up process of re-appropriation of museums and heritage.
However, let's not forget that museums are still part of more complex territorial dynamics related to urban policies, tourism and gentrification (including iconic buildings by star-architects, blockbuster exhibitions, Michelin-starred restaurants inside museums, etc.), which reveals their dependence on financial and political mechanisms.
Does the attention to new sociocultural demands truly reflect the assimilation of ongoing sociocultural change? Or is it a sophisticated (not necessarily conscious) form of exploitation and commodification of new sensibilities, through which museums reassert their centrality in community mechanisms and regain an increasingly fragmented and hard-to-reach audience? With these practices are museums responding to the needs of powerful stakeholders and adapting to institutional and territorial processes, where museums represent a tool for urban competition, territorial and tourist marketing, and place-branding aimed at enhancing the attractiveness of territories?