Past Symposium

COVID-19 drastically changed our lives and limited international exchange when it swept the globe in 2019. Museums around the world were forced to close their doors to visitors. No longer able to provide spaces for people to experience art in person, museums began to question their very purpose.

Our last symposium―Creating a Global Museum Community through the Arts of Japan: Challenges in and after the Era of COVID-19―was held entirely online, with participants discussing how museums should respond to these challenging times. There is now a glimmer of hope with vaccines available throughout the world. However, the length and severity of the pandemic has forced museums to invent new strategies for providing services to the public.Our upcoming symposium will focus on online initiatives undertaken by museums during the pandemic.

Presenters from museums in the United States, Europe, and Japan will discuss their institutions’ strategies for implementing online events and other digital content, while sharing concrete examples and evaluating their effectiveness. Given how museums are geared for in-person activities, presenters will also examine how their museums have defined the purpose of online content.

Program

Download Abstracts(PDF File)