The 85th South African Museums Association 2021 National Conference will be held online on 7- 8 September 2021 from 10:00 – 16:00 daily. The theme is: “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine.” Click here to book.

This ICOM 2021 theme became a perfect fit, considering that the world has changed and museums need to recover and reimagine business processes going forward.

The year 2020 has been like no other. The Covid-19 crisis has swept the whole world abruptly, affecting every aspect of our lives, from interactions with our loved ones, to the way we perceive our homes and cities, to our work and its organisation.

Museums are no exceptions to these changes, and the cultural sector is among the most affected: surveys conducted by ICOM and other international organisations present a dire situation for museums and their professionals, with serious economic, social and psychological repercussions in the short and long term alike.

This crisis has served as a catalyst for crucial innovations that are already underway, notably an increased focus on digitisation and the creation of new forms of cultural experience and dissemination.

This is a pivotal moment for our society, and we call museums to embrace it and lead the change. The time is now to rethink our relationship with the communities we serve, to experiment with new and hybrid models of cultural fruition and to strongly reaffirm the essential value of museums for the construction of a just and sustainable future. We must advocate for the creative potential of culture as a driver for recovery and innovation in the post-Covid era.

The theme: “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine”, invites museums, their professionals, students of heritage management and communities to create, and share new practices of (co-)creation of value, new business models for cultural institutions and innovative solutions for social, economic and environmental challenges of the present.

For enquiries: Lemohang Zincume 0764188324 and Talita Fourie: 0761079988.

• The registration fee from 20 August 2021 is free. Registration closes on 27 August 2021
• Click here to book.
• Manual registration via the form below. Please complete and send to Melissa Lindeque - Melissal@tshwane.gov.za