Athens Masterclasses 2024

Masterclasses

MUSEUMS AND TRUST

5 DECEMBER 2024, BENAKI MUSEUM/PIREOS 138

PROGRAM

DECEMBER 5

10:00 – 13:30 (Eastern European Time)

10:00 – 11:30

Masterclass #1 | Benaki Museum/Pireos 138

Curator of Community Histories: Help me write my job’s description!

with

Monxo López, Curator of Community Histories, Museum of the City of New York, U.S.

Two years ago, Monxo López had the rare opportunity to shape his own evolving curatorial role as the Museum of the City of New York’s Curator of Community Histories. As part of this position, he was tasked with periodically reflecting on the lessons learned during his tenure. This collaborative workshop aims to collectively draft a job description for his own position (Curator of Community Histories). Let’s explore what comes to mind when you hear that title. Does it make sense? Why aren’t all curators actively engaging with communities? What exactly is a community?

Our goal is to emerge from this workshop with an outline and an elevator pitch that effectively communicates the role and responsibilities of the position.

10:00 – 11:30

Masterclass #2 | Benaki Museum/Pireos 138

Museums Are Not Neutral – What does that mean in practice?
A crash course in museum activism for emerging professionals

with

Charis Ann Gullickson, Senior Curator, Nordnorsk Kunstmuseum, Norway

Folks have contested what role a museum plays in society for decades. In day-to-day practices museum staff members do not consciously reflect upon “museum neutrality” – it acts as a hidden paradigm manifested in “business-as-usual” practices. In Norway, the Ethical Guidelines for Museums in Norway states on page 14: “Museums are not neutral. They are in a position to define, influence, and contribute to the basis of our understanding and interpretation of the past and the present.”

Public (art) museums have the potential to act as critical social actors. As a museum practitioner I am interested in examples of museums that challenge status quo and “business-as-usual” practices, museums that transgress in their practices. What happens when art museums assume the role of activists? In this workshop, I’ll share a couple concrete examples from the museum where I work.

10:00 – 11:30

Masterclass #3 | Benaki Museum/Pireos 138

ULYSSES European Odyssey 2022-2024: themes of justice for daily life.

with

Liam Browne, Co-Creator/Lead Artistic Partner ULYSSES European Odyssey, Ireland
Seán Doran, Co-Creator/Lead Artistic Partner ULYSSES European Odyssey, Ireland
Gülen Güler, Artist, ULYSSES ULYSSES European Odyssey, Turkey

ULYSSES European Odyssey is an epic project across 18 cities in 16 countries, producing multi-arts responses in public spaces to social and cultural themes identified in the 18 episodes of James Joyce’s Ulysses. At the same time, a cycle of 18 public symposia were held in each city to produce 309 questions (inspired by Ulysses, Episode 17) towards creating a new arts and society pamphlet for Europe, Will You Answer? 309 Questions from Europe. The project has also had 30 emerging artist exchanges between the cities, some of which contributed to a new book, ULYSSES European Odyssey, featuring 18 new writing commissions, one writer from each city.

The originators of UEO, Seán Doran and Liam Browne of Arts over Borders, and the Istanbul city partner, film-maker Gülen Güler, discuss how the the project has engaged with issues around justice and community and on how we interpret, experience and seek justice in diverse contexts – whether within families, workplaces, communities, streets or public spaces.

12:00 – 13:30

Masterclass #4
Future(s) Scenarios and Museums and Art Institutions through 2050

with Katarzyna Filgiel, Foresight Specialist, 4CF The Futures Literacy Company, Poland (online)

with Bartosz Frąckowiak, Foresight Consultant and Art Curator, 4CF The Futures Literacy Company, Poland (in person), Benaki Museum/Pireos 138

As part of the British Council’s Museums Revisited program 4CF The Futures Literacy Company and UK partner FutureEverything have conducted workshops exploring four future scenarios for art institutions through 2050. Using artifacts from the future and narratives, representatives of Poland’s leading art institutions have developed solutions for crucial anticipated museum challenges.

Participants of the Masterclass will have the opportunity to gain knowledge about the outcomes of the process and learn how strategic foresight and design fiction methods could help define institutional missions, enhance organizational resilience, and plan for future opportunities and threats. Through interactive methods, they will examine implications for the arts and culture sector while relating the content to their specific institutional and research contexts.

12:00 – 13:30

Masterclass #5 | Benaki Museum/Pireos 138
Museum Audiences in a Changing World: Research Strategies, Inclusive Practice, and Credibility

with

Susie Wilkening, Principal and Founder, Wilkening Consulting, U.S.

In this workshop, we’ll dive deeper into research that explores museum audiences and how their values, attitudes, and beliefs shape their museum experiences, including: how we field the Annual Survey of Museum-Goers and other research; more extensive research insights on audience attitudes towards DEAI, climate change and action, civics and our civil society, and more; and primers and how-tos for sharing content credibly with increasingly skeptical … and politicized … audiences. We’ll wrap things up by discussing new research questions we’ll be putting into the field in 2025 on trust and disinformation, shared community values, and social experiences in museums.

12:00 – 13:30

Masterclass #6 | Benaki Museum/Pireos 138
Empathy, the source of inclusion

with

Paraskevi Salavgia, Creator of the self-help Documentary “Two sides of the same world”, Disability counselor, Greece

From empathy to action. Creating a world for all. The human brain has the unique ability to adapt and evolve according to the stimuli presented to it. Through this flexibility, it can revise beliefs, broaden its perceptions and understand different realities from those it experiences every day.

This workshop offers a unique opportunity to develop empathy and social understanding through a series of original and interactive activities. Through role-playing, cooperative exercises and problem-solving games, participants are encouraged to develop skills that strengthen acceptance of diversity and promote solidarity and understanding towards people with difficulties.