Museums have no borders,
they have a network
May 14, 2025
Suzanne Cotter
Director, Museum of Contemporary Art Australia, Sydney, Australia, CIMAM Board Member and founding Chair of the OMPA Steering Committee
Keywords: Museum Practices, Inclusion, Diversity, Sustainability, Indigenous Perspectives, Culture, Gender Equality, Resilience, Ethics, Communities, Social Justice.
The Outstanding Museum Practice Award: Recognizing the sustaining values at the core of museum practices
Launched in 2021 during the global COVID-19 pandemic, the Outstanding Museum Practice Award (OMPA), presented by CIMAM (International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art), was initially conceived as an effective response from modern and contemporary art museums to a situation of crisis. At a time when museums were forced to reevaluate their purposes and ways of operating, and to defend their contribution to society, the OMPA emerged with a clear intention: to recognize and elevate museum practices that embody ethical and sustainable values, those that prioritize cultural and social relevance, inclusion and care for communities.
From the beginning, the OMPA has been more than just a recognition. An affirmation of museums and their role in communities and in society, the award offers a space for sharing, reflecting and inspiring institutional transformation. It highlights modern and contemporary art museums that choose to be responsive rather than static; that prioritize long-term social impact over short-term visibility; and that align their actions with values such as equity, diversity, inclusion, transparency and good governance, accessibility and education, community empowerment and environmental awareness. These values are not ornamental; they are structural principles that redefine the function and meaning of modern and contemporary art museums in the 21st century.
Outstanding museum practices begin with acknowledging the lived realities of the communities a museum serves to guide its vision and strategic decision-making. It also requires institutions to be self-critical as part of institutional growth. These actions are not easy. They require from museum professionals and their governing bodies courage, consistency and a commitment to ethical principles as well as the ability to adapt and to respond to changing conditions for museums in the world – qualities which are essential if museums are to remain relevant, reliable and sustainable.
The eight museum practices to receive the Outstanding Museum Practice Award over the four years since its inception offer concrete examples of these values in action. Each of the awardees illustrates how clarity of purpose and an ethical commitment to inclusion and sustainable practices are integrated into institutional structures and strategies for public participation:
Queens Museum, New York, USA (2021)
The Queens Museum radically redefined its mission to focus on hospitality, co-creation and community care. This transformation emphasized inclusion, accessibility and accountability, recognizing the museum’s responsibility not only to preserve culture, but to serve as a space for support and relevance in times of social uncertainty such as the Covid pandemic.
MAIIAM Museum of Contemporary Art, Chiang Mai, Thailand (2022)
MAIIAM actively connects local and global cultural ecosystems by supporting underrepresented Thai artists and fostering international partnerships. Its model illustrates how a museum can be a responsive cultural node, deeply rooted in a place but open to the world, a balance that strengthens community identity and artistic exchange. The combination of a professional attitude and a strong community spirit has led to MAIIM developing a leadership role in Southeast Asia by initiating interdisciplinary projects that encompass digital connectivity and sustainability agendas.
Kokama Museums, Manaus, Brazil (2022)
Created by the Kokama community, these museums are not external impositions, but expressions of indigenous knowledge, memory and self-determination. They embody sustainability through continuity, ensuring the transmission of language, craftsmanship and worldview through the generations, representing a model distinct from Western and non-indigenous models. The recognition of museums as places that can enable the transmission of cultural practices and cultural thought is a model from which many museums can learn.
Provincial Museum of Fine Arts, Santa Fe, Argentina (2022)
With the “Museo Tomado” initiative, the museum opened its collections to public reinterpretation, focusing on restoring and remodeling the museum’s reserves to activate the archives and the library and allow the now expanded collection to be present throughout the museum building, inside and out, breaking down the historical separation between storage and exhibition. This act of transparency rebuilds trust, challenges institutional opacity and transforms the museum into a participatory space for civic engagement.
Museum of Contemporary Art, Panama City, Panama (2023)
Through its “Nomadic Residency Program,” in collaboration with the Emberá Drúa community, the museum demonstrated its commitment to cultural equity and what it describes as “horizontal” collaboration. With the intention of questioning the boundaries drawn between art and craftsmanship, the project creates spaces for dialogue between artists and artisans that address issues related to contemporary artistic practices, the dignity of traditional craftsmanship, the reconnection with ancestral knowledge, the rescue of the cultural heritage of indigenous peoples and the visibility and representation of these art forms that resist the hegemonic and canonical currents of Western art.
The Bohdan and Varvara Khanenko National Museum of Arts (The Khanenko Museum), Kyiv, Ukraine (2024)
In the context of armed conflict, the museum became a sanctuary for cultural continuity and collective well-being. Its use of contemporary art to support mental health and social cohesion is a profound statement about the role of museums, and it has demonstrated its ability to adapt to crisis by adopting the languages and tools of contemporary art, enabling it to provide a public space that fosters care, solidarity, resilience, protection and cultural connection in the midst of war.
Museu de Arte Moderna do Río de Janeiro (MAM Rio), Rio de Janeiro, Brazil (2024)
The museum’s “Inclusion” residency program brings people with disabilities into decision-making positions, reshaping the institution from within. This residency program invites participants with disabilities to experience, evaluate, and report on museum practices, ensuring that accessibility is not just an add-on, but an integral institutional priority. This approach demonstrates that accessibility is not an afterthought but is structurally integrated into the way the museum thinks, plans and acts.
Istanbul Museum of Modern Art, Istanbul, Turkey (2024)
“Following a Dream” is a sustainable educational model that empowers young women who aspire to pursue a career in art by putting them in touch with established artists and art professionals. The program fosters long-term empowerment, addressing gender inequality by creating networks of support and visibility for future cultural leaders. It underlines the role of the museum in reshaping social narratives around gender.
Each of these practices is an invitation: a way of imagining how museums can work differently. When institutions share not only their successes, but also their methods, doubts and failures, they create a culture of mutual learning and collective care.
In this sense, ICOM’s spirit of “Sharing is caring” finds a powerful embodiment in the OMPA. The act of sharing exemplary practices —rooted in values— becomes a form of care: for the public, for professionals, for heritage and for the future of museum work. The visibility of these practices generates a domino effect, encouraging other institutions to reflect on their own purpose, relevance and responsibilities.
Suzanne Cotter, founding Chair of the OMPA Steering Committee, emphasizes that the award recognizes museums that go beyond innovation for its own sake. It celebrates those that redefine sustainability in the broadest sense, not only environmentally, but also institutionally, socially and ethically. In this context, sustainability means practices that nurture people, communities and ecosystems reinforcing the important contributions of museums to the social and economic wellbeing of communities.
In a world marked by multiple crises (climate change, political instability, growing inequality), museums can actively contribute to a more equitable, inclusive and sustainable society. Their contribution begins with values: not as rhetoric, but as guiding principles for action.
Looking to the future, the OMPA stands as a growing archive of meaningful responses to the dynamic contexts in which museums exist. The OMPA holds up a mirror to what is possible and can be a tool for institutional transformation. For museum professionals, it offers tangible ideas to adopt or adapt. For communities, it affirms that museums can be a vital civic space in which to share their struggles and their celebrations.
More information and case studies of successful practices can be found on the CIMAM website. Institutions interested in contributing to this ongoing dialogue are encouraged to engage with these examples, reflect on their own values and consider how their work can be part of a broader movement towards sustainable museum practices.
Nominate an Outstanding Museum Practice for the 2025 edition
October 15, 2024
March 21, 2024
