The Balkan Museum Network was established in April 2006 in Gustavianum Museum in Uppsala, Sweden. The original network has been facilitated by the foundation Cultural Heritage without Borders. The first BMN members have been museum directors and key staff from eleven museums in the Western Balkans region (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia). At the time, a special network for female museum directors was also established, in order to address the specific needs of this group.

The regional museum cooperation aimed at enhancing cultural understanding, developing staff competences, facilitating exchange of ideas and exhibitions and making the museums more inviting to the public. Several workshops and seminars have been organized on a wide variety of topics, such as museum management, strategic planning, exhibitions, communication, conservation and education. A series of major projects around access for disabled people had lead to improvements in museum access.

Eleven museums curated jointly “1+1:Life & Love” simultaneous and traveling exhibition as a ground breaking and peacebuilding exhibition.