DEMOCRACY AND DEMOCRATIZATION: 

URGENT CHALLENGES TODAY 

*Spanish and Catalan translations provided for all the panels and keynote speeches.

DAY 1 | WEDNESDAY, May 3, 2023 

Arrival of participants 

9.30 — 19.00 Registration and Information desk

MUHBA Plaça del Rei, antechamber of the Tinell (Palau Reial)

Optional tours organized by MUHBA

Pre-registration necessary

More information here

19.00 — 21.00 > NOT ONLINE EVENT

Welcome reception, Barcelona City Hall, Saló de les Cròniques and rooftop

Welcome: Joan Roca, director MUHBA and EMF trustee

Music session by Laura Llaneli (rooftop Novíssim building of Barcelona City Hall)

DAY 2 | THURSDAY, May 4, 2023

MUHBA Plaça del Rei, Saló del Tinell

Coffee breaks & lunch will take place at Chapel of Santa Àgata 
& the courtyard of the Verger of the Royal Palace

9.00 — 17.00 Registration and information desk

MUHBA Plaça del Rei, antechamber of the Tinell (Palau Major)

10.00 — 10.30  Opening of EMYA 2023 

Welcome and introduction to EMYA 2023:

Jette Sandahl, European Museum Forum (EMF) chair

10.30 — 11.10  Keynote address:

Museums in the Construction of a Democratic Europe

Introduction: Vesna Marjanovic, EMF trustee

Josep Ramoneda, philosopher and writer

11.10 — 11.20  Presentation of EMYA nominees and thematic panels

Amina Krvavac, EMYA jury chair  

11.20 — 12.20 Making science meaningful for wider audiences

Museums focusing on science increasingly consider themselves as sites for public
engagement. What strategies do they employ for citizen involvement and for fostering the
exchange between science and society? How do they contribute to an understanding of
scientific practice that enables a better appreciation of the social relevance of science,
especially in times of increased challenges that scientific institutions face in various places
across Europe?

• Tartu University Museum, Estonia 
• Otar Lordkipanidze Vani Archeological Museum, Georgia
• John Amos Comenius Museum, Czechia
• Deutsches Museum Nürnberg, Germany
• Moderator: Friedrich von Bose, EMYA judge

12.20 — 12.40  Coffee break

12.40 — 13.40 Museums and Contested Histories 

Today, museums must be reflexive as they navigate complex questions of contested history.

How should they face their complicity in pas dominant narratives of oppression, including the means they acquired collections? How can they reconcile the demands for more representative displays with pressures for 'neutral' celebrations of dominant narratives? How can they bring audiences with them as they redress historic wrongs, when the oppression of many minorities continues in our own time?

• 23,5 Hrant Dink Site of Memory, Türkiye
• Documentation Center for Displacement, Expulsion and Reconciliation, Germany
• Sudeten German Museum, Germany
• Kunsthaus Zürich, Switzerland
• Moderator: Mark O'Neill, EMYA judge

13.40 — 14.40  Lunch

14.40 — 15.10 Introduction: Agnes Aljas, EMYA judge 

The Workers Museum, Denmark, Council of Europe Museum Prize Winner 2023

Building democratic confidence. A history, a challenge, and a hope for museums

Søren Baek-Jensen, director

15.10 — 16.10 Synergies between heritage and the arts: Creative potentials 

In the 21st Century, museums experiment with ways to address and involve their visitors. By creating synergies between heritage and artistic practice, they aim at engaging the surrounding society in questions like how we relate to the past and how we can improve our lives today. In the four cases of this panel, we can see different ways of engaging heritage and interlacing historical phenomena while projecting our ideas about a possible future.

• Queen Louise Adit Complex. Coal Mining, Poland
• FeliXart Museum, Belgium
• Abbey Church of Payerne, Switzerland
• Musée Cantonal des Beaux-Arts, Switzerland
• Moderator: Adriana Muñoz, EMYA judge

16.10 — 17.10  Making institutional history relevant for current contexts 

Drawing from these museums' unique institutional circumstances and context in which they
operate, the session will explore how they moved away from an organization that tells facts
to an organization that tells stories. How have their institutional models and ways of
working evolved over time and created new and effective ways to tell the story of their
institution - its core values and historical key points - in a radically changed world? 

• Police Museum, Türkiye
• Thackray Museum of Medicine, United Kingdom
• RSU Anatomy Museum, Latvia
• St. Gall Abbey Archives, Switzerland 
• Moderator: Mathieu Viau-Courville, EMYA judge

17.10 — 17.30  Coffee break    

17.30 — 18.00  Introduction: Jonas Dahl, EMF trustee 

The Museum of Footwear and Industry, Spain, Silletto Prize Winner 2022

Social museum: the transformation of Museum of Footwear and Industry

Aina Ferrero Horrach, Director

19.30 — 21.30 > NOT ONLINE EVENT

Light dinner, music and party in the Poblenou Park - MUHBA Oliva Artés

Welcome: Sharon Heal, EMF trustee

and Paolo Sustersic, Escola Elisava

Performance by MuOM Overtone Singing Choir & light dinner,
music and party with Cobla Marinada & Colla Violetes del Bosc

DAY 3 | FRIDAY, May 5, 2023

MUHBA Plaça del Rei, Saló del Tinell

Coffee breaks & lunch will take place at Chapel of Santa Àgata 
& the courtyard of the Verger of the Royal Palace

8.30 — 17.00 Registration and information desk

MUHBA Plaça del Rei, antechamber of the Tinell (Palau Major)

9.00 — 9.30  Introduction: Jouetta van der Ploeg, EMF trustee 

Museum of the Mind | Dolhuys, Netherlands, EMYA Winner 2022

The most mysterious artwork of all, the human mind

Hans Loojien, director

9.30 — 10.45  Accessibility matters: New strategies for reaching and activating audiences 

How would museums better serve their communities and new audiences? Which methods, 
challenges and successes do we find in reaching to new audiences? How do museums 
relate to contemporary issues and needs? How do the site, community and audiences 
shape the presentation of the story?

• Depot Boijmans Van Beuningen, Netherlands
• Chillida Leku, Spain
• Casa Batlló, Spain 
• Musée Atelier Audemars Piguet, Switzerland
• Olive Museum Klis, Croatia
• Moderator: Agnes Aljas, EMYA judge

10.45 — 11.15  Coffee break

11.15 — 11.55  Keynote address:

A possible museum

Introduction: Sharon Heal, EMF trustee

Elvira Dyangani Ose, director, MACBA

11.55 — 12.55  Making historical protagonists relevant for today’s –and tomorrow’s– society 

Every present claims to be learning from history. To actually do so requires a broad debate in society.

What does this means for museums that want to make history relevant for today? Why is their history relevant? How does it become relevant? What influence does this have on the institution of the museum, its staff, its audiences?

• Museu de Lagos / Dr. José Formosinho, Portugal
• Casa Fernando Pessoa, Portugal
• Ilia Chavchavadze Literary-Memorial Museum. Museum of the Tbilisi Museum Union, Georgia
• Espace Muséal d'Andenne, Belgium
• Moderator: Beat Hächler, EMYA judge

12.55 — 13.55  Lunch

13.55 — 14.25 Introduction: Mathieu Viau-Courville, EMYA judge  

Bergen University Museum, Norway, Portimao Museum Prize Winner 2022

Museums can change the world - encouraging critical thinking and curiosity

Eli Kristine Hausken, Head of Departement of Research and Science Communication

14.25 — 15.10 Community engagement through city museums 

Museums of cities are core cultural and participatory institutions for local communities.

They have a unique position to create a sense of belonging and pride in cultural identity.

How cam museums empower their residents? How to embrace the groups excluded from 
their cultural offer because of their education, mental or physical disabilities? How do newcomers 
like refugees, immigrants or expatriates become vital local community members?

• City Museum of Rijeka, Croatia
• Graz Museum Schlossberg, Austria
• Olympic Museum Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina
• Moderator: Dominika Mroczkowska-Rusiniak, EMYA judge

15.10 — 15.40 Coffee break

15.40 — 17.00 Museums as hubs for civic engagement 

Museums continuously rank among the most trusted institutions, providing their audiences with both trustworthy information and a safe space to engage in different societal issues. Often referred to as incubators of change, museums also carry great responsibility to serve their communities responsibly and proactively. In which way do museums enable and empower people to take action on issues important to them? What are novel, relevant and impactful ways in which museums can foster civic participation?

• L’Etno. Valencian Museum of Ethnology, Spain
• Workers Museum, Denmark
• Swiss Museum of Agriculture, Switzerland
• Museo di Val Verzasca, Switzerland
• Les Franciscains, France
• Moderator: Amina Krvavac, EMYA judge

19.00 — 21.00 > NOT ONLINE EVENT

Visit, music and light dinner in Cosmocaixa Science Museum

Welcome: Representative from Chargeurs Museum Studio

and Valentí Farràs, director, CosmoCaixa

DAY 4 | SATURDAY, May 6, 2023

MUHBA Plaça del Rei, Saló del Tinell

Coffee breaks & lunch will take place at Chapel of Santa Àgata 
& the courtyard of the Verger of the Royal Palace

8.30 — 17.00 Registration and information desk

MUHBA Plaça del Rei, antechamber of the Tinell (Palau Major)

9.00 — 9.50 Keynote address:

"Staying with the trouble"

Introduction: Adriana Muñoz, EMYA judge

Nanette Snoep, Kenneth Hudson Prize winner 2022 and director, Rautenstrauch-Joest-Museum

9.50 — 11.10  Discussion Panel:

No democratizing without decolonizing: intervening (in) museum practices

Introduction: Friedrich von Bose, EMYA judge

• Imara Limon, curator, Amsterdam Museum
• Mahret Ifeoma Kupka, curator, Museum Angewandte Kunst, Frankfurt/Main
• Zandra Yeaman, curator of discomfort, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

11.10 — 11.40  Coffee break

11.40 — 11.50  Presentation of EMYA 2024 in Portimao

Jose Gameiro, representing the Municipality of Portimao, Portugal
 

11.50 — 12:45 Certificates ceremony and group photograph of all nominated museums

Liv Ramskaer, EMF national correspondent

Dominika Mroczkowska-Rusiniak, EMYA judge

12:45 — 13.45 Lunch

13.45  — 15.00 > NOT ONLINE EVENT

Workshops by former award winners and guided tours of MUHBA

Participants sign up on site and choose between:

Workshop 1: Museum of the Mind | Dolhuys, Netherlands, EMYA Winner 2022

Hans Looijen, Jessica Belles, Judith de Laat

Failure is the mother of success

Workshop 2: The Museum of Footwear and Industry, Spain, Silletto Prize Winner 2022

Aina Ferrero Horrach

How to design more effective participatory projects? Learning from successful experiences and failures in museums. Knowledge co-creation workshop

Workshop 3: Bergen University Museum, Norway, Portimao Museum Prize Winner 2022

Marit Kjeksrud Amundsen and Åshild Sunde Feyling Thorsen

Science literacy as museological method

Workshop 4: The Workers Museum, Denmark, Council of Europe Museum Prize Winner 2023

Søren Bak-Jensen and Linda Nørgaard Andersen

What’s your connection? - How to make relations the foundation of museum development