CALL FOR PAPERS
Museum Why? Practice, Agency and Knowledge in the Art Museum
Conference at University of Copenhagen 22-24 May 2024
Art museums stand at a crossroads, grappling with dynamic challenges and transformative demands that emanate both from within and beyond their traditional confines. In the current landscape, external political and economic pressures are reshaping the objectives of these institutions. Simultaneously, the ever-evolving landscape of artistic production is prompting the reevaluation and reorientation of established museum practices.
As we witness new research agendas emerge within art history, museology, cultural studies, and related fields, it becomes apparent that Western hegemonic ideas of art, culture, and knowledge, which have historically defined the structure and self-understanding of museums, are undergoing a profound shift. The motivations for this shift are twofold – questioning the foundation of art museums and fuelling internal aspirations for the creation of more impactful, inclusive, and relevant institutions.
Against this backdrop, the conference, "Museum Why? Practice, Agency and Knowledge in the Art Museum," seeks to deepen our understanding of the constellation of art production, audience commitment, and museum operations. We invite contributions that delve into these practices as a heterogeneous yet entangled set, characterized by numerous, often overlapping, competing, and sometimes contradictory interests, agencies, and power relations.
Key questions
How can we rethink knowledge production in the art museums of the future?
How do artistic practices navigate, challenge, and change institutional infrastructures?
How can increasingly diverse publics be reflected in and by museum practices?
How can we rethink the unifying logics of preservation, archive, and collection?
How can museum dissemination reflect contemporary ideas of representation?
How can museums become critical, relevant, and significant actors in their communities?
How can we diversify knowledges, historical analyses, and creative thinking?
How can we co-create and integrate museum knowledge and academic scholarship?
Proposals
Please submit your abstract proposal (max 250 words) and a short bio (max 50 words) to pass@hum.ku.dk no later than March 8, 2024. We welcome academic papers and artists’ and practitioners’ presentations (20 mins), as well as group panels (90 mins). Notification of acceptance no later than March 22, 2024.
Museum Why? is a creative learning network formed by the four art museums; Malmö Konstmuseum (SE), Trondheim Kunstmuseum (NO), Museet for Samtidskunst (DK) and Nykytaiteen museo Kiasma (FI) in collaboration with Copenhagen University’s Research Centre Art as Forum (DK). Rooted within a Nordic tradition, the network questions and experiments with the art museum as an institution.