Globally, museums are important cultural institutions. They are guardians of our history and keepers of our collective memory. Museums are places of learning, discovery, reflection, discourse, exploration and they have the potential to be powerful agents of change. However, in order to achieve this potential, museums must undergo a significant shift in their approach to their visitors and their employees.
Joana Schröder, 2022
Everything is constantly changing. Whether you like it or not. Are you open for change and/or scared? Do you like to keep it ‘the traditional way’? Or are you brave in testing new things – even if they can fail or not go the way you planned? Change is inevitable and we are all effected by it.
People not only can change museums. Museums can change lives too.
Being open to change itself is, in my point of view, an integral aspect of constructive self-reflection, where established practices are carried out consciously rather than out of mere habit. However, I acknowledge that change also entails significant risks. It is a leap into the unknown, where failure could prevent one from returning to the starting point. Sometimes we fear losing what we have without certainty about what awaits us on the other side. It is this fear of the unknown that holds many of us back from embracing change.
Senya Khudyakov, 2022
When I visited the Berlin Global exhibition at the Humboldt Forum with SAWA, I was constantly pushed to make decisions. Moving from one exhibition hall to another, I always had to choose between two passages. Each passage represented two opposing statements, revolving around topics like security and openness, collectivity and individuality, pleasure and responsibility. And every time before entering another exhibit, I would pause and ask myself which statement I felt closer to the most. Among many others, there was one specific pair of signs that particularly stood out to me, as the statements resonated with me both personally and professionally. The two signs positioned above the passages read: "I’m ready for change" and "I protect what we have".
In my opinion, the resistance to change that is often seen in a conservative mindset is merely an illusion, a battle against time that has been lost from the very beginning. To remain relevant, museums cannot stay the same, but must adapt and change accordingly.