Keynote speech

Museum is a verb! The changing nature of museum work; New challenges and new skills in a shifting scenario

Museums today face a rapidly evolving landscape, shaped by a number of different challenges from shifting demographics and international migration to green transition and sustainability issues, from digital transformation and technological advancements to changing cultural expectations and the rise of new audiences.

Against this backdrop and in addition to these factors, museum professionals experience themselves and their institutions as part of a paradigm shift, where heritage is seen as value-based and people-centred, as a common good, which is co-curated, participative and interconnected with other areas of work.

Being at the crossroads of diverse sectors has huge implications for the museum profession. Museum professionals need to actively engage in an ongoing process of upskilling and reskilling in order to be able to integrate diverse perspectives and approaches, to embrace and shape change, using experimental and creative approaches. They need to learn, as well as unlearn.

Margherita Sani

NEMO

Margherita Sani is an adjunct professor at the University of Bologna, where she teaches in the Master’s program AMaC – Arts, Museums, and Curatorship. She is also a project coordinator at NEMO – the Network of European Museum Organisations, where she leads the Working Group LEM on museum education.

From 1985 to 2021, she worked at the Institute for Artistic, Cultural, and Natural Heritage of the Emilia-Romagna Region, focusing on museums, capacity building for museum professionals, and European projects. Throughout her career, Margherita has designed and managed several projects funded by the European Union, particularly in the areas of museum education, lifelong learning, and intercultural dialogue.

She is an active member of various associations and professional museum networks, including NEMO, ICOM, and the European Museum Academy. She served on the Board of NEMO from 2010 to 2019, was a member of the jury for the Children in Museums Award from 2014 to 2021, and has been a member of the Board of Europeana Education since 2019. Since December 2022, she has also been a member of the executive committee of ICOM Italy.