Global Links
How Museums Can Contribute to the SDGs and Be Inclusive Spaces: Best Practice Examples by ICOM Austria
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Doris Rothauer, Bettina Leidl
In 2021, ICOM Austria invited 17 Museums Austrianwide to contribute with specific activities and projects to the 17 SDGs. Due to the success of “17x17” the initiative continued in 2022 with 10 Museums from Vienna. The paper highlights insights on the working process, the methods, the challenges, the outcomes and the impact. Another initiative, the Museum Guide on Inclusion & Accessibility, showcases 130 Austrian Museums on what they offer to make their museums inclusive spaces. The project started as a printed guide in 2023 and will continue to grow with an extended edition in 2024 and as an online platform. Learnings from both initiatives should encourage and inspire others to take similar steps.
Can Local Museums Create Global Awareness?
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session Nancy Rocio Rueda Esteban
The role of small local museums in Colombia usually only focuses as indirect education institutions on specific topics such as history, geography, and natural history, among others; dedicated only to the past and to be a reservoir of collections. Nonetheless, these small museums should go beyond the past and start creating discussions and awareness on global social, economic, and environmental issues. Using the past as a lever to introduce modern topics and help to generate knowledge in local communities and young people on important subjects for today’s society such as black lives matter, global warming, modern colonization, modern slavery, feminism, conflicts, economic crisis, and so on. Internationally a museum in Hiroshima helps awareness on the use of atomic weapons, another in Nottingham about the death penalty worldwide, and in Curaçao, a small museum introduces the fight against racism. Given the new role of museums nowadays, the only museums called to be active actors in everyday lives should not be the nationally and internationally renowned ones. Local institutions, called to create awareness and knowledge of local history should also go beyond the past and bring the important topics closer to local communities, given that in many cases it is the only place where these discussions can be created. The research is a comparative analysis of five international small museums that develop modern social subjects with five small local museums in Colombia, and study how they can develop exhibitions and open spaces for discussions with local communities.
