Mhic, Sant Adrià de Besòs [Barcelona].
How have museums reacted in the last years to migration? Have they silently observed from the “outside” (if there is an outside) or taken part in the debate, invited specialists, curated exhibitions, invented new forms of mediation, re-written their texts, created space for inclusion, co-designed with the protagonists?
More and more museums are interested in the current debate about migration and its latest epiphany, the so-called “refugees crisis”: there is a proliferation of exhibitions, conferences, seminars, workshops.
Through this blog we want to document this richness, mainly at European scale (but not only). We want to question the role of museums, their agency, their activism or rather their silence. Despite our personal committment in the field, we try to do it without any parti pris or ideology.
We are open to contributions (in English, Italian, French, Portuguese and Spanish). Please use the email museumsandmigration[at]gmail.com
WHO WE ARE
ANNA CHIARA CIMOLI is an art historian and museum mediator based in Milan. She earned a diploma in Museology at the Ecole du Louvre in Paris and a Ph.D. in History of Architecture from the Polytechnic of Turin. She has worked as assistant curator at the Fondazione Arnaldo Pomodoro, Milan.
She has done research about migration museums in the framework of the MeLa* Project-European Museums in an age of migrations. She has published extensively in the fields of inclusion and accessibility of culture to diverse audiences.
An associate of ABCittà since 2001, she works as a museum mediator for several institutions (Museo del Novecento, MUDEC), and collaborates as a consultant with public and private cultural institutions.
MARIA VLACHOU is a Cultural Management and Communications consultant. Founding member and Executive Director of the association Acesso Cultura, based in Portugal. Author of the bilingual blog Musing on Culture, where she writes about culture, the arts, museums, cultural management and communication, access. She was Communications Director of São Luiz Municipal Theatre and Head of Communication of Pavilion of Knowledge – Ciência Viva (Lisbon). Board member of ICOM Portugal (2005-2014) and editor of its bulletin. Alumna of the DeVos Institute of Arts Management at the Kennedy Center in Washington (2011-2013); she has a M.A. in Museum Studies (University College London, 1993-1994) and a B.A. in History and Archaeology (University of Ioannina, Greece, 1988 – 1992).
IN THE PRESS
Center for the Future of Museums
CAMD-Council of Australasian Museum Directors
museums and migration 