November 18, 2024
INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM CONFERENCE “Museum Leadership in the 21st Century: Regional Challenges and Global Impacts” Highlights
INTERNATIONAL MUSEUM CONFERENCE “Museum Leadership in the 21st Century: Regional Challenges and Global Impacts” from Nov 1st-5th, 2024
LIVINGSTONE, ZAMBIA
Our deepest gratitude goes to our hosts, the National Museums Board, and the Ministry of Tourism.
This conference was co-organized by ICOM Zambia, ICOM Africa, and the ICOM International Committees INTERCOM, NATHIS, SUSTAIN, and ICR.
We would like to expressly thank Emmanuel Hamatwi – President of ICOM Zambia, Terry Nyambe – Vice President of ICOM Zambia, Betty Karanja – General Secretary of ICOM Africa, Victoria Chitungu as Director of the Livingstone Museum, and the Minister Hon. Rodney Sikumba who attended in person.
We had a very rich program over four days with museum leaders from all over the world coming to share their experiences and recent challenges.
It attracted 90 participants, including 30 non-ICOM members, from 25 countries: Mexico, Seychelles, Russia, Croatia, Slovenia, the Netherlands, Greece, Morocco, Portugal, Egypt, Kenya, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Montenegro, New Zealand, Scotland, Israël, Italy, South Africa, Switzerland, the UK. We were also joined by about 15 participants remotely. Together we addressed digitalization, climate change, strategic planning, and museum management. It was a great opportunity to reinforce cross-collaboration among ICOM members.
We had the chance to further engage during some workshops:
“Provenance Research on Objects of the Colonial Era” led by Hans van de Bunte
“Museum Management” led by Goranka Horjan
“Strategic Planning” led by Jane Legget
“Digital Transformation with Web3” led by Anthony Azekwoh and Héloïse Amez-Droz
ICOM Sustain also coordinated a workshop on “Building an Action Plan for Sustainability,” which addressed the SDGs and climate justice.
We had a panel composed of Lizzy Moriarty, Anne-Marie Gilis, Samba Yonga, Jess Castellote, Noel Lwoga, and Limpo Malama, who discussed the research findings entitled “Taking the Pulse of Museum Leadership”.
One of the key takeaways is the increasing importance for museum leaders to own skills related to project management, including the management of fundraising and the development of partnerships.
A heartfelt thank you for the wonderful hospitality and the amazing activities that led us to discover this beautiful region; the Livingstone Museum, the Victoria/Mosi O-Tunya Falls, the Jewish Railway Museum, the Mosi O-Tunya Park, the Wayi Wayi art gallery. We all left behind us a little bit of our heart in this beautiful nation! Until next time we meet in person, we hope to maintain our exchanges and collaborations.
