Amsterdam Museum and Imagine IC organise international ICOM event

Employees of city museums around the world come to Amsterdam

This year, the Amsterdam Museum, together with Imagine IC, is organising the International Conference of City Museums and Contemporary Heritage Practice. This event is initiated from ICOM, the International Council of Museums. Each year, a different museum gets the honour of hosting the event. After Moscow (2015), Mexico City (2017), Kyoto (2020), Recife (2022), Taipei (2023) and New York (2023), among others, it is now Amsterdam's turn.

The conference, titled "Collecting With(in) the City", will take place on 9, 10 and 11 October 2024 at various locations around the city. The event is expected to attract 200 to 250 museum and heritage professionals and academics from around the world.

Theme and Expertise

The theme of the conference is collecting in and with the city. The Amsterdam Museum has extensive experience in co-creation and involving people and institutions from all over the city in their exhibitions. Projects such as Collecting the City (now four editions), Women of Southeast, Women of North and Women of Nieuw-West, among others, demonstrate this approach.

Imagine IC, a regular partner of the Amsterdam Museum in the field of participatory heritage work, will also share its expertise. Their projects such as "I know where your house lives", "Remembering and Healing" and "Black Deliberation" have been well received both at home and abroad.

Quotes from the Leadership

Judikje Kiers, director of the Amsterdam Museum, says: "It is an honour to organise this international event, especially around this theme, which is so close to our hearts: collecting from and with the city. It is great that here in Amsterdam we can share our experiences with museum colleagues from all over the world and learn from each other."

Danielle Kuijten, director of Imagine IC, added: "It is very special that together with the Amsterdam Museum we can offer a stage to national and international colleagues. To make the most of it in the spirit of co-creation by learning from each other, exchanging our achievements and doubts and jointly setting the course for a new balance for the future of our collecting practice."

Programme Highlights

The conference is organised in close cooperation with two ICOM committees: CAMOC (International Committee for the Collections and Activities of Museums of Cities) and COMCOL (International Committee for Collecting). This is the second time, after Berlin in 2011, that these committees have organised a joint conference.

Speakers will be professionals from various cultural institutions worldwide, including South Korea, Australia, Turkey, Thailand, England, Argentina, China, the United States, Egypt, Japan, Poland, Serbia, Morocco and many other countries.

Key speakers include:

• Zandra Yeaman, Curator of Discomfort at the Hunterian Museum in Glasgow, Scotland
• Gonca Yalçıner, head of Education & Participation at the Amsterdam Museum
• Imara Limon, head curators of the Amsterdam Museum
• Jules Rijssen, collection networker at Imagine IC

[Link to full programme]

ICOM Museum definition and Collecting the City

The conference aligns with ICOM's new museum definition, adopted in August 2022, which emphasises ethical conduct, professionalism and community participation. The Amsterdam Museum's Collecting the City programme is an example of this approach, focusing on co-creation with city residents to collect and present current or underexposed urban stories.

Extra Day at Imagine IC

On 12 October 2024, Imagine IC is organising an extra day focused on collecting ethics for participants still in Amsterdam. This session will explore the importance of rebalancing heritage work, addressing inequalities, power relations and shifting ideas of ownership and authority in collecting and exhibition practices.

About the Amsterdam Museum

The Amsterdam Museum, founded in 1926, is Amsterdam's official city museum and manages a collection of more than 100,000 objects. While the main location is being renovated until 2028, the museum operates from a temporary location at 51 Amstel, where it displays its masterpieces and organises exhibitions and events.

About Imagine IC

Imagine IC is a conversation place for heritage democracy, hosting discussions on everyday objects that can be added to urban and national collections as heritage. They will celebrate their 25th anniversary on 12 October 2024, following the conference, with an inspiring programme.