Since early 2020, the COVID-19 crisis has hit the cultural sector hard, and most museums around the world have been forced to close their doors for long periods.
Issues such as funding, staff management, programming, commitment to communities, the sustainability of the sector, and a new way of communicating based on digital technology have highlighted the need, now more than ever, to exchange knowledge and resources among museum professionals to overcome this global crisis.
As part of CIMAM’s mission to be a platform for dialogue, support, sharing, connecting, learning, and encouraging cooperation between all its members, the CIMAM Board has designed a Rapid Response Webinars program to continue discussing the most urgent concerns and questions affecting the modern and contemporary art museum community at this critical time.
This Rapid Response Webinars program started in May and has held five meetings to date, with the intention of providing short capsules on issues of urgent concern for the profession throughout the year, and of supporting professionals in their practices in the face of a global crisis that has affected everyone in different ways depending on the economic, political, and social reality of each country and each museum.
Moderated by CIMAM Board Members in different time zones, invited panelists represent different professional profiles connected to contemporary art museums such as curators, museum directors, and artists, offering a holistic view of the situation in which museums operate, and emphasizing their fundamental role within their communities.
The webinars held to date have addressed relevant topics for museum professionals such as the future role of museums in society and their engagement with audiences, their sustainability, and their new management and funding models, the commitment of museums to representing and responding to social crises, and the capacity of these institutions to manage fluidly in the face of an economic, social, and environmental crisis like the one we are currently experiencing.
