Logo Goethe-Institut

Past projects

Projects 2017–2022

  • Online events

    REOPENING MUSEUMS: live on YouTube

    Follow the monthly discussions and videos of the project “Collecting Entanglements & Embodied Histories” on this channel.

    Collecting Entanglements & Embodied Histories © Cecil Mariani © Cecil Mariani

  • Event series

    Zukunft Museum/Museum Futures (2022)

    In a series of panel discussions, international experts address current issues and challenges that directly concern the future of the museum. The Goethe-Institut is organising this series of events together with its partners, Iwalewahaus in Bayreuth, Lenbachhaus in Munich and the Staatliche Kunstsammlungen Dresden.

    Zukunft Museum/Museum Futures © Bettina Kubanek © Bettina Kubanek

  • Museum management

    MuseumFutures – change in African museums (2022)

    The pan-African project “MuseumFutures Africa” promotes a conceptual change – away from European museology, with its partially colonial approach.

    MuseumFutures Africa Vumile Mavumengwana © Goethe-Institut Vumile Mavumengwana © Goethe-Institut

  • Creating infrastructure

    Belarus: Laboratory of Jewish Cultural Heritage

    The Laboratory of Jewish Cultural Heritage contributes to the revival of Jewish cultural heritage in Belarus – with strategic planning of a museum, virtual securing of evidence at historic sites and popularisation of the Jewish culture.

    Stetl © Grigorij Heifez © Grigorij Heifez

  • Future concepts

    International Museum Conference Rio de Janeiro (2022)

    The National Museum in Rio de Janeiro suffered a major fire on 2nd September 2018. Since then, the German Foreign Office and the Goethe-Institut have been supporting them in their salvage work and the development of a concept for a new museum.

    International Museum Conference Rio © Felipe Varanda © Felipe Varanda

  • Colonial heritage

    Kenya: International Inventories Programme – artworks between worlds (2021-2022)

    The “International Inventories Programme” (IIP) is an international research, database and exhibition project that focuses on Kenyan artefacts that have been held in museums and collections outside the country since colonial times.

    Dennis Opudo, Head of the Anthropological Department of the Nairobi National Museum, in the Museum's Ethnographic Collection Photo (detail): Gioia Forster © picture alliance Photo (detail): Gioia Forster © picture alliance

  • Dialogue and cooperation

    Sino-German Museum Conversations (2021–2022)

    The Museum Conversations series between German and Chinese museums aims to establish a platform for discussion of topical issues relating to museum cooperation, with a focus on contemporary art, design and intercultural co-curation.

    Sino-German Museum Conversations © Goethe-Institut China © Goethe-Institut China

  • Researching, preserving and developing perspectives

    Cooperation Ethnological Museums Luanda – Berlin (2018-2022)

    The Ethnological Museum of Berlin houses one of the world's most important and oldest collections of Angolan art. It is closely linked to the collection of the Museu Nacional de Antropologia in Luanda.

    Cooperation Ethnological Museums Luanda Photo: Dralton Máquina © Goethe-Institut Angola Photo: Dralton Máquina © Goethe-Institut Angola

  • Networking

    Museum Academy Belarus (2019)

    The Museum Academy brought specialists from museums, associations, educational establishments and public authorities from Belarus and Germany together to encourage dialogue about current developments on the international museum scene.

    Conference (Symbolic photo) Photo: varuna © Colourbox Photo: varuna © Colourbox

  • Colonial heritage

    Museum conversations (2018-2020)

    In the “Museum conversations” series the Goethe-Institut brought together international museum experts to collaborate on the development of Africa’s museums of the future.

    “Museum Conversations” 2019 in Namibia Photo (detail): CreativeLab for Goethe-Institut Namibia Photo (detail): CreativeLab for Goethe-Institut Namibia

  • Colonial heritage

    Heritage Deferred? (2018)

    The symposium Heritage Deferred? with case studies from China, Latin America, Oceania, and Namibia expanded the perspectives and offered a deeper explorations of how museums and collections may deal with these diverse emerging perspectives.

    Heritage Deferred? Grafik: studio stg Grafik: studio stg

  • Role of museums

    India: Museum of the Future (2017-2019)

    What meaning does education have for the wellbeing of a society? Academics, museum specialists and other experts from Germany and India joined forces to investigate this issue.

    Museum of the Future © Goethe-Institut / Aarushi Surana © Goethe-Institut / Aarushi Surana

Projects before 2017

  • Future concepts

    Museal Episode (2015-2017)

    The international event series addressed the question of whether museums today continue to be appropriate spaces for presentation, documentation, mediation and archiving – or even for interaction between observer and object?

    Museal Episode Photo: Marcelo Resende Photo: Marcelo Resende

  • Training course

    MOOC Managing the Arts (2015/2016)

    More than 24,000 participants from 175 countries took part in the free-of-charge online course in cultural management spanning three months, which was provided by the Goethe-Institut and the Leuphana University of Lüneburg.

    MOOC Managing the Arts Photo: Loredana LaRocca Photo: Loredana LaRocca

  • Reversing the perspective

    Curvature of Events. Baroque. Romanticism. Video (2014)

    Many contemporary art exhibitions in African countries are developed by German or European curators from an ethnographic perspective. The project “Curvature of Events. Baroque. Romanticism. Video” reverses this perspective.

    Installation view “Curvature of Events. Baroque. Romanticism. Video (2014)” 17.10.2014 - 04.ß1.2015. Galerie Neue Meister © Dresden State Art Collections, Photo: Martin Förster © Dresden State Art Collections, Photo: Martin Förster

  • International symposium

    Tbilisi, Georgia: Why Museums Now? (2012)

    How has the museum scene developed in the post-Soviet era? What new ideas are sparking the interest of directors, managers and architects from major museums in Europe, America and Asia? How are museums changing in the 21st century in the East and West?

    Why Museums Now? © Goethe-Institut Georgien / Gocha Nemsadze © Goethe-Institut Georgien / Gocha Nemsadze

Follow us