Museums have no borders,
they have a network

ICOM-IMREC

The ICOM International Museum Research and Exchange Centre (ICOM-IMREC) is an international research and exchange platform concerning the museum field and its related areas.

The idea was born after ICOM General Conference, Kyoto 2019, between ICOM and the Shanghai University in China, to implement Resolution 2 of the General Assembly to integrate Asia into the ICOM Community.

It is a partnership created to encourage museums all over the world to engage in a more diverse, inclusive, and democratic cultural dialogue and collaboration among ICOM and the global museum community.

ICOM-IMREC also provides research and exchange knowledge opportunities for ICOM members from all around the world, especially those young museum leaders from the emerging countries.

ICOM-IMREC’s objective are, in accordance with ICOM’s missions:

  • to stimulate a global think tank and an international network;
  • to address critical theoretical and practical issues that the international museum community is facing;
  • to promote cross-geographical and interdisciplinary collaborations for scientific research on current and emerging issues commonly shared by the museum community;
  • to publish data analysis and research reports.

SEMINAR: Museums, decolonisation and restitution: A global conversation

On the 20th and 21st of March 2023 ICOM-IMREC will organize a hybrid seminar on “Museums, decolonisation and restitution: A global conversation”.

The seminar will be hosted by the Shanghai University, and it will be accessible to all via a streaming platform.

Day 1 will focus on the concept of decolonisation, touching on the museum paradigm and its decolonisation process, exploring the various ways in which the museum can be reimagined and to which extent. Processes of decolonisation in the context of the intellectual infrastructure of museums and museum practice through language, collections, workforce will be analysed. The session will conclude with the presentation of the working title ‘Decolonisation: difficult histories and national identity’.

Day 2 will investigate the question of restitution and its different impacts on communities. Restitution law and policy and innovation will be discussed and, to end the session, restitution case studies will be presented by different speakers.

More information on the seminar program and access to the live streaming platform here.