Sandro Debono
Pensatore del museo e stratega culturale. Insegna museologia all'Università di Malta, è membro del comitato scientifico dell’Anchorage Museum (Alaska) oltre che membro della European Museum Academy. Curatore di svariate mostre internazionali, autore di svariati libri. Scrive spesso sui futuri del museo ed ha il suo blog: The Humanist Museum. Recentemente è stato riconosciuto dalla Presidenza della Repubblica Italiana cavaliere dell’Ordine della Stella d’Italia e dal Ministero della Cultura Francese Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres per il suo contributo nel campo della cultura.
A participatory museum site. The case of the MAR - Regional Archaeological Museum of Aosta.
Imagine a museum that is easy to understand, engaging for you and yours, requiring no specialized skills to interact with objects and content. Imagine a museum where you would feel comfortable, where you could find answers to varied questions that ar...Read more...
Podcasts, audio guides, radio, music: what audio tools for the museum
The pandemic of COVID-19 now seems to be a thing of the past, but if there is one thing museums can safely take as a moral of those unprecedented times, it is the fact that digital matters. Indeed, we might add that the potential that digital holds i...Read more...
What is a museum? Thoughts on the new definition
Last week ICOM announced a new definition of museum to replace the one in place since 2007. The process was no stranger to controversy, not to mention resignation, with a definition with a dual purpose proposed in 2019 and sent backto the discussion ...Read more...
Phygital: what does it mean? And what is a phygital museum?
Let's get straight to the point. Linguistically, the word phygital is a combination of the words physical ("physical") and digital ("digital") to indicate the ever-increasing experiential intersection and fusion between these two worlds. In...Read more...
Artworks in the age of virtual between digital twins and NFT Phygital
Not surprisingly, the editorial in the latest issue of The Burlington Magazine (March 2022) is devoted to art in the age of digital reproduction. Taking a cue from Walter Benjamin's 1936 essay The Work of Art in the Age of Mechanical Reprodu...Read more...
Museums and the hype around NFTs
I have been thinking about this article for some time as I observed the ways and means by which museums have jumped on the hype bandwagon for NFTs. Some of this has probably been influenced by circumstances, particularly the hard-hit revenue ...Read more...
Will museums have enough money to stay open?
This article has been in the works for some time since my first piece on this very fascinating topic in September 2020. For that article, I had chosen one question as the title. I am again choosing one question as the title, however, this t...Read more...
Closed with open doors. Reflections on the immediate future of museums
A few months ago, as museums around the world ajar their doors waiting for the public to visit again, this phrase from Maira Kalman resonated even louder: "a museum visit is a search for beauty, truth and meaning in our lives. Go to the museum ...Read more...
An Italian museum summit? Yes!
It was held last July, and I had the pleasure and honor of contributing. A project led by Michele Da Rold, entrepreneur as well as author of the book Ogni Maledetto Museo, which also takes the form of a video podcast. Michele holds a bachelor's d...Read more...
Where should museums get their money from? The sustainability of museums post-Covid
A museum is a nonprofit institution serving society. We know this because that is how the definition of "museum" still reads, the one that has recently been questioned and is still being debated (or so it would seem). Should we therefore stop he...Read more...
Is there such a thing as a "non-museum"? The challenge to abandon stereotypes
The following statements are an intentional contradiction, of which I am fully aware. There is much truth in contradictions, I dare say. But how can something, especially an institution, be a contradiction of itself and of its own raison d'&eci...Read more...
Museum thinking. A definition of the work of "museum thinker"
In early January, my friend David Vuillaume, president of NEMO (Network of European Museum Organizations) posted a link to a study on museum professionals published by the German Museum Association. The study is helpful in confirming, once agai...Read more...
Can you fix it? Of course! Museums and the "Fix-it Bob" mentality.
Of course we can! This is the mindset I have shared with museum colleagues on social media and beyond. There are certainly things in museums that need fixing, now more than ever. And the tools are there, ready, available and at hand. Equipped wit...Read more...
The empty museum. Museum landscapes in the post-pandemic.
The difficult and gigantic challenges museums are facing right now, all over the world, are making headlines. Covid-19 kept museums in every corner of the globe closed and, as expected, left them with nothing but their online presence. Now more...Read more...
The keyhole view. The experience of museum audiences during COVID-19
Stuck in our homes as never before, and forced to learn to live much more within confined spaces, we tried hard to become much more familiar with keyhole views. I have chosen to describe the views that cameras and screens offered us, and still offer ...Read more...
Fragile beauty. What trends are emerging for post-Covid museums.
"The apocalypse we've been waiting for." This statement by American activist Aja Taylor was impressive enough to make me think. How can this be so? That is, how can an apocalypse that disrupts our way of life be welcomed and even benefic...Read more...
The R index for museums: the compass for these difficult times
Thoughts and reflections presented at the international online conference "Museums and Covid-19 - Challenges, Re-evaluation and Future Perspectives," organized as part of the Be Museumer project. We have been hearing about it for days, weeks, ...Read more...
The museum pandemic: why transmedia thinking can be a solution
What does the word "pandemic" really mean? Scanning official dictionaries, pandemic is an epidemic that occurs over a large geographic area and affects a high percentage of the population. And so far so good. What we are experiencing, however, goes...Read more...
Three questions museums should ask themselves after Covid-19
In May, while doing research for my webinar Museum Lives in Post-Pandemicforthe Network of European Museums Organizations, I had the pleasure of a conversation among colleagues about the future of museums. At one point I couldn't help but be inspir...Read more...
Museums should use Harry Potter glasses. Talk about convergent culture
With this article I am going to get straight to the point. What really matters today, even more than before, is not digital. I think what will matter most is the careful choice of engagement tools that each museum will best use to communicate its e...Read more...
Material culture and negative space: acquisitions and narratives in museums in the era of Black Lives Matter
The museum world's view of the fate of monuments in the aftermath of the Black Lives Matter protests could be described as pure outrage. But even so, I would choose Julia Rindleman 's photograph as evidence of material culture on the Black Lives Ma...Read more...
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Austria, in the Saalfelden Leogang region nature, traditions, music and adventurous experiences
Redazione - 23/04/2024 -
The treasures of Sant'Agnese in Agone, a sumptuous baroque temple in Rome
Andrea Fusani - 21/04/2024 -
Entrepreneurs and art patrons of today's Tuscany: who they are and what they do
Federico Giannini, Ilaria Baratta - 16/04/2024 -
On the Tiber floodplain in Valtiberina, in the landscapes beloved by Pliny the Younger
Redazione - 14/04/2024 -
Rome, the route to discover ten of Gian Lorenzo Bernini's most famous works
Redazione - 11/04/2024 -
Portrait of a patron between Rome and the Apuan Alps: cardinal Alderano Cybo
Fabrizio Federici - 05/04/2024
Most read of the month
- Miart 2024: how much do the works cost? Our selection of 15 works, with prices
By Ilaria Baratta - published on 12/04/2024 alle 20:25:56 - 0 Commenti - In the beginning was the egg
By Noemi Capoccia - published on 31/03/2024 alle 11:51:52 - 0 Commenti - Journey through the workshops of the Opificio delle Pietre Dure in Florence
By Federico Giannini - published on 07/04/2024 alle 11:58:18 - 0 Commenti - On the maternity sculpture in Milan: a technical committee should give technical opinions
By Federico Giannini - published on 10/04/2024 alle 21:14:55 - 0 Commenti - Venice Biennale 2024, the top 10 best national pavilions in our opinion
By Redazione - published on 19/04/2024 alle 21:40:29 - 0 Commenti - "This is how we will transform the Imperial Forums." Labics interview on the new promenade
By Noemi Capoccia - published on 04/04/2024 alle 16:45:01 - 0 Commenti - Masolino's Year at the Dawn of the Renaissance. What the Empoli exhibition looks like
By Federico Giannini - published on 14/04/2024 alle 16:23:04 - 0 Commenti - The Franceschini reforms: a review ten years later
By Adriano La Regina - published on 27/03/2024 alle 00:22:52 - 0 Commenti
