Expanding Art Museums is dedicated to questions and practices of organizational change within the museum field.

The project seeks to identify the key dimensions of institutional and organizational transformation that affect the museum field, to share reflections, practices and cases, and to develop a knowledge base for the participating museums, scientists, students  and the wider public. The project´s main topics engage with both, the "frontstage" practices of art museums and their "backstage" organization. This doubling of frontstage and backstage turns art museums into key organizational sites for the negotiation of cultural change.

The project includes four main elements:

  1. Joint focus group meetings, workshops and roundtables with the participating museums, researchers and guests aiming mutual learning about key themes of organizational change.

  2. On-site visits, observations, and interviews to gather and analyze site-specific knowledge about organizational change.

  3. Ongoing documentation, knowledge transfer and analysis of results, which are made available to participating museums, the public, and the sceintific community.

  4. On-site seminars on organizational transformation themes with students from Leuphana University Lüneburg and the University of St.Gallen.

Project Partners:

  • Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel (CH)

  • Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Humlebaek (DK)

  • MUDAM - The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg, Luxembourg (LU)

  • Munch Museum, Oslo (NO)

  • The Belvedere, Vienna (AT)

  • The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York (US)

  • The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Munich (DE)

  • Zentrum Paul Klee / Kunstmuseum Bern (CH)

  • Haniel Foundation (Learning Labs)

Core Group of researchers and participants:

  • Mirjam Baitsch, Kunstmuseum Basel, Head of Marketing & Development

  • Timon Beyes, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Head of Project

  • Inka Drögemüller, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, Deputy Director for Audience Engagement

  • Tone Hansen, Munch Museum, Director

  • Robin Kuchar, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Project Manager

  • Matthias Mühling, The Städtische Galerie im Lenbachhaus, Director

  • Duygu Oers-Illdiz, Leuphana University Lüneburg, affiliated Researcher

  • Stella Rollig, The Belvedere, General Director

  • Maximilian Schellmann, Leuphana University Lüneburg, Principal Researcher

  • Jörg Schulze, Consultant, Barberini Museum

  • Mathias Ussig Seeberg, Louisiana Museum of Modern Art, Curator & Head of Research

  • Thomas Soraperra, Kunstmuseum Bern / Zentrum Paul Klee, Commercial Director

  • Bettina Steinbrügge, MUDAM - The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg, Director

  • Chris Steyaert, University St.Gallen, affiliated Researcher

  • Nina Zimmer, Kunstmuseum Bern / Zentrum Paul Klee, Director

The Leuphana Innovation Communities are established within the project "TrICo" and funded by the Federal Ministry of Research, Technology and Space and Joint Science Conference | GWK within the initiative "Innovative Hochschule”.