Start of new ANCB collaborative enquiry project

Museum of the 21st Century - Content - Form - Impact

After more than a year of intensive research in this field the Aedes Metropolitan Laboratory announces the start of the new long-term project „Museum of the 21stCentury“ to be conducted over the course of the next three years. In various formats such as exhibitions, symposia, workshops and collateral events this interdisciplinary project is focusing on the role of the museum and cultural spaces in the globalised and digital age in view of current socio-political and cultural debates and opens the dialogue to experts, architects, artists, curators, collectors, urban planners and the public.

Background and Challenges

The last thirty years have seen an unparalleled rise of new museum buildings all over the world with many more being planned right now. Next to their important role of conservation/presentation/discussion of cultural values and acting as local social centres for education and citizenship, museums continuously are enlarging their impact from national to global scale. In turn, the value of culture itself is in need of a clarifying debate:

  • Who and what defines the content, shape and impact of museums and to what purpose?
  • What does this mean for the future?

A new focus on the role of the museum was identified as one of cultural “storytelling” and situating that story in the context of a physical place while also integrating entertaining aspects (‘edu-tainment’). “The Museum of the 21st Century” works like a lens that focalizes crucial questions:

  • How is our local and national identity defined, now and for the future?
  • And how does the museum serve as a public educator and collective archive, within the context of its local environment, its adjacent buildings, the city?

Methodology and Format

ANCB continuously questions in its programmes the accessibility of knowledge and the mutual influence between cultural and curatorial practice on the one hand and space generation and design practice on the other hand – as well as their impact on the surrounding urban scape. The project will include exhibitions of contemporary museum projects, interdisciplinary and international symposia, workshops, interviews with public and private stakeholders, design studios with international universities working on specific museum projects and knowledge generation to serve as an accessible research/data base archive.

The first significant exhibition project in this context is ">more< New Museums in China - The Changing Role of a Traditional Institution" to be presented in Summer 2016. ANCB is glad to announce Zumtobel Group as a first Research Partner in this exhibition project.

ANCB would like to hear from you about your perspective on the cultural, economic and socio-political contexts of new museums in order to enrich the debate. We are interested to receive a broad range of information on current research, projects, designs and concepts from all over the world to create a knowledge pool and tools for analysing and envisioning the museum of the future in sync with its direct environment and in view of local and global cultural discourses.

In this context, ANCB is also welcoming supporting project partners to increase the project relevance and intensify the impact on a public and expert level.

Information and contact: Dunya Bouchi (db[at]ancb.de)