COMMUNITY

What professional teams do museums need in order to respond to the challenges of community participation?

How can we overcome administrative and bureaucratic rigidities in order to work across sectors with other areas involved in community well-being (health, education, youth, equality, etc.)?

What forms of exclusion do museums practise, both consciously and unconsciously, and how could they stop doing so?

What transformations in museums’ organisational structures, staff composition, management practices and decision-making processes need to be undertaken to truly place communities at the centre and become agents of social change? And to what extent can/is the museum willing to take on these transformations?

How can the museum function, beyond affirmation and celebration, by incorporating self-questioning and contradiction as the foundations of its dialogue with diverse groups?

Can and should museums become spaces for community action, promoting dialogue, social cohesion and the resolution of current collective problems?

Is it possible to deconstruct the “museum norm”? Is it possible to hack it by dismantling the idea of absolute truth so that multiple perspectives and sensibilities can coexist in the museum? Are emotions recognised as key components of museum practices?

Is it possible to imagine a new institution capable of connecting local and international communities and creating sustainable and meaningful networks? Are otherness and institutional empathy possible within the museum?