CIMAM Webinar. Learning from Others: Towards a Visitor-Centered Museum

Diversity, equity, accessibility, and inclusion are pillars of the museum’s present and future social practices. However, embracing these concepts in the museum environment is not a guarantee of meaningful and progressive structural transformations in an increasingly polarized and fractured world. As a trusted institution and agent of constructive social change, museums have to learn to navigate complex and diverse social, political and cultural contexts. This involves identifying problems, inventing new languages and implementing relevant policies for museums to realize the potential for social good. Generous sharing and listening to best practices using specific cases studies is crucial towards a visitor-centered museum that learns from each other to engage with the diversity of audience groups with multiple perspectives and lived experiences.

A CIMAM rapid-response webinar held in November 2024 as part of the committee's online programme on museum practice. Hiuwai Chu joined as a guest panelist alongside the artists Zheng Bo and Candice Breitz, with Yu Jin Seng (National Gallery Singapore) and Amanda de la Garza (Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía) moderating. The session addressed how museums can act as visitor-centered institutions while navigating diverse social, political and cultural contexts.