History of Art

Museums, Education and Cultural Action: Between Old and New Meanings
24 - 28 September 2018 TBILISI, GEORGIA
The conference was organized by ICOM CECA and ICOM Georgia within the frame of 2018 European Year of Cultural Heritage and Science and Innovation Festival 2018 Georgia.

Conference topic:
CECA’s name brings together two core components of a museum: education and cultural action. This conference has aim to discuss what does the expression “cultural action” stand for. In addition to that the
purpose is to consider which meanings could this concept have in different countries.
The expression “cultural action” originated as an umbrella term for actions taken to create a closer connection between the cultural and artistic community and the public, as part of the cultural policy
developed in France during 1960’s.
Nowadays, more than 50 years later, this expression seems not to be clear anymore. The reponses to CECA’s survey in 2017 showed that “cultural action” is related to non formal or informal learning, meaning learning processes not connected with school groups. Having that in mind and related with the ICOM theme for the International Museum Day 2018, Hyperconnected Museums: New Approaches, New Publics, CECA board suggests the following as a main theme for its 2018 Annual Conference: Museums, Education and Cultural Action: Between Old and New Meanings.
Sub-topics:
• Theoretical and methodological approaches to ‘cultural action’ in museums
- What does the term ‘cultural action’ refer to today?
- What is the connection to ‘education’?
- How do education and cultural action contribute to the mission of museums?
- Which kind of cultural action does a museum implement? To/for whom?
• How do museums use their spaces, collections and staff to develop cultural action?
• Museum visits for individual visitors and families;
• Education and cultural action for audiences and non- audiences;
• Working outside the museum walls;
• From visitor to user (digital audiences);
• Museums and activism;
• Museums as scenery for cultural activities.

More than 130 speakers from 37 countries have participated in the conference.

This Project was supported by Shota Rustaveli National Science Foundation of Georgia (SRNSFG) [grant number CG18_21].