We would like to express our deep and sincere thanks to our hosts and partners of last year’s conference who worked tirelessly to ensure we had a vibrant and engaging conference in 2024. What an awesome event!

Here’s @TU Dresden’s reflections

And here’s the abstracts volume from the meeting that gives you an indication of just how much “Shaping Transformation” is going on:-

From the 10th to the 14th of November 2025, ICOM will hold its 27th General Conference in Dubai with the motto “The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities”.

This year UMAC will partner with three other International Committees to develop programs. We will partner with CIMUSET, ICOM’s International Committee for Museums and Collections of Science and Technology; NATHIST, ICOM’s International Committee for Museums and Collections of Natural History and CIPEG, ICOM’s International Committee for Egyptology.

More information and call for papers coming soon.

 

A University Museums Directors Forum was held on December 11 & 12 at the Qian Xuesen Library and Museum at Shanghai Jiao Tong University. The Director’s forum was a further development of the collaboration between UMAC and Shanghai Jiao Tong University.  The Director’s Forum was a specialised meeting focused on university museums and university museum leadership and was attended by professional staff, university museum leaders and university leaders from China and elsewhere. It was an opportunity to deeply investigate issues of current relevance to the university museum sector globally. The focus of the forum in 2024 was on best professional practice in leadership. This was the first face to face meeting convened with our Chinese partners (and supported by the Chinese Museums Association since the COVID pandemic.

 

The International Congress on Culture in Climate Action 2024 was held virtually on 4, 5 and 6 December. The congress was attended by more than 80 professionals from 20 different countries, including Argentina, Chile, Uruguay, Brazil, Ecuador, Peru, United States, Canada, Spain, Portugal, Ireland, England, Italy, Greece, Morocco, India, Pakistan, Australia and New Zealand, among other countries.

UMAC was an official sponsor of the congress and contributor. This event was organized by the Institute for Sustainable Urban and Territorial Development of the City of La Plata Foundation, Sustainable Heritage Forum, Heritage and Climate Change Initiative, Climate Heritage Network.

Here’s a UMAC contribution to the congress – The Unique Potential of the University Museum in the Anthropocene

We’ve been contacted by the organisers seeking our involvement in the 2025 issue of the congress. Anyone interested in participating get in touch chair.umac@icom.museum

 

Two new interviews in the Imaginations series have been posted on our YouTube site thanks to Zhao Ke the Chair of our UMAC Futures Working Group. Check them out here.

Imaginations #18 with Nigel Bond, Manager of Cultural Collections Te Tumu Herenga Libraries and Learning Services. Waipapa Taumata Rau, University of Aukland, Aotearoa / New Zealand.

Imaginations #19 with Caine Chennat, Curatorial and Cultural Collections, University of Tasmania, Australia

 

Former member of the first UMAC Board, and host of an early UMAC meeting at the Gustavianum, Ing-Marie Munktell is looking for some female colleagues who would be willing to answer some questions about work and career in academic museum settings.

Please contact Ing-Marie directly – ingmariemunktell@gmail.com

 

Is our special UMAC Journal issue entitled “Beyond Provenance Research: Restitution and Return from University Museums (eds. Steph C. Scholten, Andrew Simpson, Gina Hammond).

Being uploaded as we speak!

 

Some of the contributors to STEM in the Art Museum (UMACJ 16 -3) are participating in a webinar in the Museums Today series this Wednesday, 26^th February at 18:00 EST (US), to talk about the volume and the intersection of art and science in teaching at the university level. Please tune in if you are available and please help us spread the word about this program. Here is the link to the page where you can learn more and register.

Info and registration

Here’s the relevant thematic issue of the University Museums and Collections Journal:-

 

Date: Wednesday 12 March 2025

Time: 12.30-2.30pm (AEDT)

Location: Education Room, Chau Chak Wing Museum / Online

Presented by CAUMAC in collaboration with the Chau Chak Wing Museum, University of Sydney.

Exploring “Ways of Working” and examining the relationship between Australia’s university museums and collections and the tertiary education institutions that host them.

The event will consist of a series of lightning talks by colleagues from a range of Australian universities exploring case studies of projects and programs of collaboration. This will be followed by a panel featuring representatives of Australian university museums and collections and university administrators who will explore the role of museums and collections within the broader landscape of 21st century Australian higher education.

Further information and registration

(https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/whats-on/talks-and-events/caumac-ways-of-working.html)

 

Art as a Bridge to the Past (from Miami)

UNE’s Museum of Antiquities reopens to the public (from Armidale)

Museos y colecciones universitarios: algunas experiencias globales en relación con el patrimonio académico

Have our universities lost their social licence?

More than Museums: Care for Natural and Cultural Heritage in Australia

How the SDGs are redefining internationalisation in HE, via @uniworldnews