TEHRAN – A 12-member team of Iranian experts is scheduled to attend the second part of the International Virtual Conference on Museums, which will be jointly hosted by the ICOM Pakistan & ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Archaeology and History.

The Iranian professionals, who are affiliated with the Association of Iran Museum Experts (AIME), along with their international fellows, will be delivering lectures at the event scheduled to take place from September to February 2022, ILNA reported.

Furthermore, senior curators and specialists from Arab and African countries and Latin America have been invited to join the event, which will be revolving around the theme “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine”.

The International Council of Museums selects each year for International Museum Day a theme that is at the heart of the concerns of society. With the cited theme, International Museum Day 2021 invited museums, their professionals, and communities to create, imagine and share new practices of (co-)creation of value, new business models for cultural institutions, and innovative solutions for the social, economic and environmental challenges of the present.

As of 2020, the COVID-19 crisis has swept the whole world abruptly, affecting every aspect of our lives Some already pressing issues have been exacerbated, questioning the very structure of our societies: the call for equality is stronger than ever.

“This is a pivotal moment for our society, and we call museums to embrace it and lead the change. The time is now to rethink our relationship with the communities we serve, to experiment with new and hybrid models of cultural fruition, and to strongly reaffirm the essential value of museums for the construction of a just and sustainable future,” ICOM says.

According to the council, museums are no exception to these changes, and the cultural sector is among the most affected, with serious economic, social, and psychological repercussions in the short and long term alike. But this crisis also catalyzed crucial innovations that were already underway, notably an increased focus on digitization and the creation of new forms of cultural experience and dissemination.

AFM