THE CoMUSEUM
MORE THAN A CONFERENCE
DECEMBER 7-9, 2022 ATHENS & THESSALONIKI
PROGRAM
DECEMBER 7
12:00 – 19.00 (Eastern European Time)
12:00
Welcome Remarks | Live from Benaki Museum Auditorium/Pireos 138
Welcome by
Dr George Manginis, Academic Director, Benaki Museum (GR)
Lina G. Mendoni, Minister of Culture and Sports, Hellenic Republic
Matthew Lodge, British Ambassador to the Hellenic Republic
Maria dG Olson, Deputy Chief of Mission, U.S. Embassy Greece
Anastasia Andritsou, Director, British Council in Greece and Cyprus
Teti Hadjinicolaou, President, ICOM Greece
Introduction
Dr Sophia Handaka, CoMuseum Host, Curator of World Cultures, Benaki Museum (GR)
12:30 – 12:50
Keynote | Live from the Benaki Museum/Pireos 138
Arts’ impact on health and wellbeing: A policy perspective
with
Nicolas Yatromanolakis, Deputy Minister of Culture and Sports, responsible for Contemporary Culture (GR)
Abstract
Over the past years, there has been a major increase in research into the effects of the arts on health and wellbeing. A 2019 WHO report which consolidated results from over 3000 studies, indicates that arts can play a major role in the prevention of ill health, promotion of health, and management and treatment of illness. It has been the starting point of an innovative project launched by the Greek Ministry of Culture and Sports in collaboration with the Ministry of Health, which includes research, pilot programs of cultural institutions, and the design and preparation of public health-oriented policies such as cultural prescription.
Q&A
12:50 – 13:10
Keynote | Virtual
The impacts of arts and cultural engagement: evidence from population-based surveys
with
Dr Karen Mak, Research Fellow in Quantitative Social Science, UCL (UK)
Abstract
This presentation will be showing the most recent evidence from population surveys on the health impacts of engagement in the arts and cultural activities, including museum and heritage engagement, arts & crafts, and performing arts.
Q&A
13:10 – 13:30
Keynote | Live from Benaki Museum Auditorium/Pireos 138
Museum objects, healing and well-being
with
Brenda Cowan, Professor, Exhibition & Experience Design, Fashion Institute of Technology/SUNY (U.S.)
Abstract
Gratitude, love, identity and home. Unity, spirituality and relief. A five-year international study revealed that these are just a few of the healthful and healing words people use to describe their experiences with objects in exhibitions, and how even in cases where well-being isn’t a goal, museums are spaces for wellness. Museum Objects, Healing and Well-being will share how objects and exhibition participation foster healing and health in museum participants, and how our community is and can increasingly become a place of unity, love, identity and home.
Q&A
13:30 – 13:50
Keynote | Virtual
Creative health: from surviving to thriving
with
Victoria Hume, Director of the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance (UK)
Abstract
Victoria Hume will discuss the broader context of how arts and cultural work can support health and wellbeing, touching on our potential to impact health inequalities, the complexities of social prescribing – and looking at the ways in which we might build a more sustainable sector and more inclusive workforce.
Q&A
13:50 – 14:10
Keynote | Virtual
Balancing productivity and wellbeing in cultural institutions – focusing on the employee experience
with
Catherine Devine, Global Director, Business Strategy – Libraries and Museums, Microsoft Tech for Social Impact (U.S.)
Abstract
Cultural institutions are increasingly focused on how to optimize the employee experience as they experience a challenging labor market, economic headwinds, and a fundamental shift in how the world works. Optimizing the employee experience dives into areas such as wellbeing of employees, supporting hybrid work and flexibility in work, along with insights that allow employees to focus and deliver their best work. In this keynote, we’ll look at best practices in the use of technology to support optimizing employee wellbeing and productivity.
Q&A
14:10 – 14:40
BREAK
14:40 – 15:00
Keynote | Live from Benaki Museum Auditorium/Pireos 138
Creative Agency: community empowerment through contemporary art practices
with
Prof Fiona Kearney, Director, the Glucksman, University College Cork (IE)
Abstract
How do we enable people to express their voices and views in the civic spaces of our museums and beyond? How might contemporary art and community engagement practices collaborate together to shape public discourse? Is it possible to create a sense of belonging through a shared care of the work and the world? This keynote will consider some of the strategies adopted by the Glucksman, winner of the 2022 European Art Museum award, to empower artists and communities in the context of the pandemic and its aftermath.
Q&A
15:00 – 15:35
Panel Discussion | Live from Benaki Museum Auditorium
Museums of care
with
Sebastian Cichocki, Chief Curator, Modern Art Museum in Warsaw (PL)
Dr Alessia Fassone, Curator, Egyptian Museum of Turin (ΙΤ)
Moderated by Dr Sophia Handaka, CoMuseum Host, Curator of World Cultures, Benaki Museum (GR)
Q&A
15:35 – 15:55
Keynote | Virtual
Re-imagining museums as spaces of care
with
Dr Nuala Morse, Lecturer in Museum Studies, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester (UK)
Abstract
This talk explores how we might apply ‘care thinking’ to re-imagine the museum. It draws together examples from museums that are centering community health and wellbeing programmes to examine the museum as a space of care in practice, and reflect on future orientations and possibilities.
Q&A
15:55 – 16:15
Keynote | Live from Benaki Museum Auditorium/Pireos 138
“Let them finally be heard!” How integrating a multiplicity of voices may lead to more inclusive, peaceful and sustainable societies
with
Kathrin Pabst, Project Leader Identity on the Line (I-ON), Head of the Scientific Department, Vest-Agder-museet IKS (ΝΟ)
Abstract
More and more museums worldwide are addressing the yet untold, topics that are lying under the surface, within individuals, families and societies. The work is demanding for all involved, especially when the Untold is related to unpleasant, traumatic experiences of a troubled past. Integrating a multiplicity of voices in a larger picture of historical events can, nevertheless, contribute to healing processes within individuals and disturbed societies, and in this lecture, I will explain why – and how. I will take my starting point from the findings of more than 200 in-depth interviews that my colleagues and I have conducted in seven European countries, with three generations of people who have experiences of war and forced migration within their families.
Q&A
16:15 – 16:30
BREAK
16:30 – 16:50
Keynote | VIRTUAL
Culture and health, museums responsibilities towards society. Impact: new public, new partners, new power
with
Hans Looijen, Director, Museum van de Geest (NL)
Abstract
This year the Museum of the Mind was awarded the European Museum of the Year Award, the museum is very honored with this prestigious bestowal. From the jury rapport of the EMYA Conference and Award Ceremony: “While many museums are exploring programmes for mental health improvement as well as catering for neurodiversity, the Museum of the Mind stands out as a centre of excellence in this field, in terms of its governance scheme, with links to national mental health foundations and agencies, its content and conceptual exhibition making, its contemporary relevance both for its personnel and its diverse audiences. The Museum of the Mind is a uniquely humane, interactive, empowering, activist museum based on a ground-breaking project that develops the museum concept as school of life with a very open mind, and does so within a building that carries a heavy past with multiple layers of memory of illness but also of great resilience. A visit to this museum is an experience focused on the wonder and versatility of the mind. Really wonderful and outstanding.”
Q&A
16:50 – 17:25
Panel Discussion | Live from Benaki Museum Auditorium/Pireos 138
Culture – Society – Health
with
Dr Marlen Mouliou, Assistant Professor of Museology, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens (NKUA) (GR)
Dr Lida Tsene, Founder, Athens Comics Library (GR)
Dimitris Trikas, Journalist, Museologist (GR)
Moderated by Mary Adamopoulou, Journalist, TA NEA newspaper (GR)
Q&A
17:25 – 18:05
Panel Discussion | Live from Benaki Museum Auditorium/Pireos 138
Care – Healing
with
Haroula Hadjinicolaou, Art Historian, Project leader It’s Museum Time, Educational Department, Benaki Museum (GR)
Maria Kokorotskou, Curator of Education, MOMus-Thessaloniki Museum of Photography (GR)
Denise Nikolakou, Integrative Psychotherapist, Head Programmer of Cinematherapy – Drama International Short Film Festival (GR)
Paraskevi Sakka, Neurologist – Psychiatrist, Alzheimer Athens, National Observatory for Dementia and Alzheimer Disease (GR)
Moderated by Mary Adamopoulou, Journalist, TA NEA newspaper (GR)
Q&A
18:05 – 18:25
Keynote | Live from Benaki Museum Auditorium/Pireos 138
On the Museum as Refuge
with
Angela Lombardi, Director of Outreach and Audience Engagement at North Carolina Museum of Art (U.S.)
Abstract
What happens when a museum steps back from its traditional didactic role and becomes a mindful place of healing and community?
18:25 – 18:45
Keynote | VIRTUAL
Museotherapy: For a museum that does good
with
Nathalie Bondil, Director of Museum and Exhibitions, Institut du monde arabe, Paris (FR)
Abstract
The pandemic crisis that we have been going through since the spring of 2020 is sanitary, social and psychological. The need for benevolence, conviviality and human ties for “better well-being” appears more than ever essential. In order to accomplish their public missions, museums have already played this role to offer a space of comfort, hospitality, empathy and reciprocity. Humanist or caring museum, health projects or slow mediation, art therapy and even “museotherapy”, it is time for museums that take care, soothes and even heals… Beyond the words, what realities does those concepts cover and how are they implemented in museums from the reception of visitors to the actions deployed?
Q&A
18:45 – 19:00
Closing Remarks | Live from Benaki Museum Auditorium/Pireos 138
with
Dr Tom Fleming, Director, Tom Fleming Creative Consultancy | Expert on Creative Economy, Cultural and Arts Policy (UK)
Dr Sophia Handaka, CoMuseum Host, Curator of World Cultures, Benaki Museum (GR)
Adam Rozan, Museum Professional, CoMuseum International Advisory Committee Member (U.S.)
19:00 – 21:00
Networking Event | Benaki Museum/Pireos 138
ORGANISED BY
IN COLLABORATION WITH
UNDER THE AUSPICES
MAJOR SPONSOR
BENAKI MUSEUM OFFICIAL HOSPITALITY SPONSOR
BENAKI MUSEUM OFFICIAL AIR CARRIER SPONSOR
ORGANISED BY
IN COLLABORATION WITH
UNDER THE AUSPICES
MAJOR SPONSOR
BENAKI MUSEUM OFFICIAL HOSPITALITY SPONSOR
BENAKI MUSEUM OFFICIAL AIR CARRIER SPONSOR
