Kick-off event for International Museum Day 2024

The nationwide kick-off event for International Museum Day 2024 will be celebrated this year at the Museum of Sepulchral Culture in Kassel. The occasion is the opening of the special exhibition in between. You, life and finiteness. The opening of the exhibition will be accompanied by a moderated panel discussion to draw attention to the special situation of museums that are undergoing upheaval and change in the face of multiple crises. The aim of the event is to raise public awareness of museum work in order to emphasize the social relevance of museums, especially in times of multiple crises. In the context of the processual exhibition in between, the collective and democratic tasks performed by museums in all their complexity will be discussed.

Procedure

11 a.m.
Welcome
Dr. Dirk Pörschmann, Managing Director of Arbeitsgemeinschaft Friedhof und Denkmal e.V. and Director of the Museum and Central Institute for Sepulchral Culture

Greetings
Christoph Degen, State Secretary for Science and Research, Art and Culture
Dr. Sven Schoeller, Lord Mayor of the City of Kassel
Dr. Birgit Kümmel, Chairwoman of the Museumsverband Hessen e. V.

11.30 - 12.30
Panel discussion "Museums in transition"

Museums contribute to the cohesion of a society through discourse and cultural education. Especially in times in which strong tendencies towards polarization and the resulting dualistic divisions are developing, culture plays an important role: it and its professional mediation have the special ability to make the world visible and tolerable in its ambivalences. To achieve this, institutions must be enabled by society: on the one hand through public funding, sponsorship and patronage, and on the other through the willingness of the public to engage in contemporary and historical debates in order to participate in them. A constructive engagement with culture arises from the willingness to engage with the foreign, the unknown and the unexperienced. This requires a fundamental openness on the part of museums to turn to the public with their didactic possibilities and to consider this work as an integral part of every (re)orientation of content. In a moderated panel discussion, these aspects of the work of museums that have embarked on a reorientation and new conception will be discussed. The Museum for Sepulchral Culture sees itself challenged in all existential questions of dealing with life and death to involve its audience in such a way that both visitors and the museum can benefit in many ways through processes of cognition. In connection with the processual exhibition in between, the collective and democratic tasks performed by museums in all their complexity will be discussed in an exemplary manner.

Panel guests are:

Dr. Silke Feldhoff
Silke Feldhoff is a participation expert specializing in education and mediation in museums and exhibitions. Since April 2024, she has been head of the museum department at the Bundesakademie für Kulturelle Bildung Wolfenbüttel e.V. Until 2016, she worked as a curator and author for the Berlin Biennales #6 to #8 (2009-2014) and the Deutsche Guggenheim/Deutsche Bank KunstHalle, among others.

Prof. Dr. Eckart Köhne
Prof. Dr. Eckart Köhne is Director of the Badisches Landesmuseum in Karlsruhe. He previously headed the Rheinisches Landesmuseum Trier and the Historisches Museum der Pfalz Speyer. He was President of the German Museums Association from 2014 to 2022.

Carmela Thiele
Carmela Thiele launched the online magazine debattemuseum.de in 2017 to critically accompany the structural change in museums. The journalist and art historian addresses topics such as dealing with German colonial history, questions of mediation, digitalization, internal communication processes and media change.

The panel discussion will be moderated by journalist Amira El-Ahl.