MUSEUMS
AND JUSTICE

with
Anastasiia Cherednychenko, Museologist, Historian, Chair of the ICOM Ukraine (UA)

In the context of the military actions carried out by Russia against Ukraine, distinct signs of genocide are manifested, according to the UN Convention of 1948 and the definition of Raphael Lemkin, including “cultural genocide”. The world community faced the need to review the existing architecture of cultural heritage protection during military conflicts due to its insufficient effectiveness, as it became clear during previous conflicts, in particular in Syria.

Museum experts also face the question of how to respond to such manifestations of genocide when representatives of the Russian Federation, with the participation of Russian museum professionals appropriate Ukrainian cultural heritage, from the looted museum collections to the rewriting of historical narratives and the creation of propaganda exhibitions using items that were looted, as in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine as well as on the territory of Russia.

Thus, how should international networks, associations of museum professionals, national associations, and individual museums react if Russian museum professionals participate in war crimes that violate the norms of the international community?

This issue is extremely important since the war in Ukraine has become a massive and vivid example of cultural genocide, which, at the same time, is not the only one, but shows how the lack of reaction creates a sense of impunity and contributes to the commission of more and more crimes against cultural heritage.

Diversity-Equity-Inclusion-Accessibility in Cultural Leadership

with
Micah Parzen, CEO Museum of Us, San Diego (U.S.A.)
Skinder Hundal MBE, Director of Arts, British Council (UK)
Annie Fletcher, Director of the Irish Museum of Modern Art (IE)
Iro Katsaridou, Director, MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (GR)

Moderated by
Lizzy Moriarty, Independent Museum Consultant – Museum Expert, Museums Revisited, British Council (UK)

Q&A

Diversity-Equity-Inclusion-Accessibility and the City

with
Dr Kyriaki Oudatzi, Director/ CEO, Olympic Museum of Thessaloniki, Member/ F. Vice President of Hellenic Olympic Academy (GR)
Christos Galilleas, Artistic Director, Thessaloniki Concert Hall (GR)
Aggeliki Giannakidou, Founder & President of Ethnological Museum of Thrace (GR)
Vicky Papadimitriou, Vice President, Thessaloniki Convention Bureau – Managing Director, SYMVOLI Conference & Cultural Management (GR)

Moderated by
Epaminondas Christophilopoulos, Head, UNESCO Chair on Futures Research–FORTH | President of the Board of Administration, MOMus (GR)

Q&A

with
Giovanna Brambilla, Art Historian, Consultant in Pedagogies for Cultural Heritage, Member of the Knowledge Community of CCW (Cultural Welfare Center-Turin) (IT)

Can Museums become places to mediate conflict and not just contents related to works of art? The talk will retrace six steps through which was born the formulation and implementation of a project that sees restorative justice finding a primary place in cultural institutions. This happened thanks to a collaboration between heritage education experts and art historians, on the one hand, and humanistic mediators, linked to the thought of Jacqueline Morineau, on the other. The concept of the project has its roots in the perspective of an anthropocentric museum, a museum that qualifies as a place that cares equally for people and objects by investing in the relationship between the two. In such a museum, works-precisely by virtue of their real significance in art history-become a device capable of giving substance to possible new points of view, providing a space where the offender, the victim, and the community can work together.

Q&A