In an effort to raise its global profile and promote international collaboration, New York’s Metropolitan Museum of Art will launch the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium in spring 2014. In this program, executives from art institutions worldwide will meet for two weeks during April at the Met to discuss museum management and collections care. The participants will include from 12 to 15 directors from Asian, African and Latin American museums ranging in focus from archeological and historic artifacts to contemporary art. Invitees will be announced in November. The Met hopes to reinforce open dialogue among museums worldwide in this time of scarce resources.
The Metropolitan’s initiative follows similar efforts at global outreach by museums such as New York’s Guggenheim Museum, which announced a program in March to commission works by Chinese artists.
Another stated goal of the program is to give participants an overview of the various practices and operations of a modern museum, from curatorial work to education, fundraising and digital communications. Workshops will explore solutions to the challenges facing their institutions, using the Metropolitan Museum’s experts as a sounding board. Site visits to cultural institutions in New York and Washington, D.C., are also planned.
Writer and arts consultant Andr·s Sz·ntÛ has advised the museum on the development of the Global Museum Leaders Colloquium and will serve as its moderator. There is a “surprising lack of opportunity” for museum directors to exchange ideas and expertise, he states in a press release, especially for those from the developing regions.
