The first ever joint meeting of the ICOM International Committee for University Museums and Collections (UMAC) and Universeum, the European Academic Heritage Network, will take place online from 1-3 September 2021 on the theme "New opportunities and new challenges in times of COVID-19".
It will be the 20th annual conference of UMAC and the 22nd annual meeting of Universeum. The conference will focus on 3 main themes: 1) Collections: documenting the past and the present; 2) Collections and museums closed: new ways of access; 3) Engaging with society, taking stances.
The COVID-19 pandemic poses new challenges for universities, reshaping higher education for years to come. However, university collections and museums have been confronted with difficult times before. Twenty years ago, Universeum (in 2000) and UMAC (in 2001) were created in a period of crisis and profound change for university museums and collections. How we work together as an international community, sharing problems, ideas and new perspectives in times of crisis and transition will be an underlying theme of the conference.
In 2020, we had new opportunities to share our experiences of COVID19 and its impact on our practices, our capacity to respond, survive and adapt. In UMAC-Universeum 2021, we would like to use these experiences to explore broad lessons of adaptability and resilience. Although all different, university museums and collections across the world share the need to remain relevant to contemporary higher education – particularly research and teaching –, to their communities and to society at large. This need is especially important in times of crises, which the COVID-19 pandemic has made more salient. How can we define the relevance and potential of university collections and museums in times of social, economic and cultural uncertainty?
Call for papers: Passed
Price: Free registration at website below