The 2025 ICOM UK conference “Regenerative Museums for Sustainable Futures” will take place on 1 and 2 May 2025 in Liverpool, UK. This conference aims to discuss ideas, share inspirational projects, and reflect on challenges related to climate and social emergencies through sustainability, sustainable development, and regenerative design frameworks. Practical examples from around the world, shared through presentations, debates, workshops, and roundtables will support and inspire the conference delegates to develop creative ways of implementing regenerative development in their own institutions.
ICOM UK is now looking for speakers to come forward with ideas for a presentation, a workshop or discussion. We are looking specifically for speakers with practical experience of implementing regenerative development in their own communities. Given the international scope of ICOM’s work, we are distinctly looking for speakers from outside of the UK.
If you would like to contribute to this conference, please get in touch with ICOM UK via email uk.icom.museum@gmail.com by October 25th with your proposal. Please let us know in less than 100 words what your contribution would be, whether this would be a presentation, discussion or workshop, and whether you would like to attend in person or via video link. We will have a small number of bursaries available to cover speaker expenses should you wish to travel to the conference.
What do we mean by Regenerative Development & museums?
Given the escalating impact of climate change, museums are being urged to go beyond aiming for net-zero emissions and increasing resilience by preparing for severe climate events. Museums now also need to develop new solutions and positive responses that align with their unique qualities and public value, benefiting society as a whole.
Sustainability can help reduce damage, and sustainable development can add value to systems by integrating social and environmental actions. But the extent, scale, and urgency of the damage caused to the natural world is so significant that we now need to concentrate on restoring, relinquishing, and learning how to regenerate the territories for which museums share responsibility. This is necessary to rebalance the systems and revitalize places, lands, nature, and value systems, aligning with a way of living capable of sustaining life.
Regenerative development emerges as a new paradigm for museums to learn how to restore places through collections, narratives, educational programs, and curatorship developed to direct their audiences to develop regenerative patterns in their own lives and public spaces. How can museums become regenerative forces within their communities? How can museums serve as climate action hubs through experimentation and incubation of initiatives that respond to environmental collapse and climate injustice involving the wisdom embodied in cultural heritage and ancestral knowledge?
The Deadline for proposal submissions is October 25th 2024.
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