Museums and Communities. The Heritage of Belonging

Rotterdam, The Netherlands | NAi Netherlands Architecture Institute

This conference focuses on the relation between museums, heritage and communities.
In times of mobility and change, history museums play an important role in societal questions of social cohesion, identity and belonging. In search of their roots, people turn to heritage. History is popular as never before and it surfaces in all contemporary media. At the same time, the communication era offers new possibilities for communities based on common interests and preferences, or popular and corporate culture. Museums in general, as part of the public sphere, are an important tool in this dynamic process of heritage formation and the performance of community.
 

To address these topics, the Erasmus University Rotterdam organises an international three-day conference in Rotterdam, the Netherlands. We would welcome presentations on community building, performativity and the dynamics of cultural heritage, as well as presentations on new practices of engaging communities in museums and representing communities in exhibition display.

Subjects may include, but are not limited to:

Theory 

• Community building
• Museums and performativity
• Museums and identity
• Heritage ownership
• Popular culture, fan communities and their heritage
• Corporate heritage

• Engaging communities
• Outreach programmes
• Heritage projects
• Crowdsourcing
• Social media / New media
• Exhibition design 

We are honoured to announce two keynote speakers: 

• Richard Sandell of Leicester University will discuss the relation between museums and human rights.
• Kevin Moore – director at National Football Museum in Manchester – will be talking about the museum and popular culture. 

• 300 words (max.) abstract.
• 100 words bio (affiliation, line of research).

This conference concludes the Community Museums Past and Present project, which is part of the NWO programme Cultural Dynamics (http://www.nwo.nl/nwohome.nsf/pages/NWOA_6J8FRJ_Eng).
The Community Museums Past and Present project is financed by the VSB foundation.

» link to the Conference