EXPANDING
ART MUSEUMS
Investigating and shaping organizational transformations in the museum field
Expanding Art Museums is dedicated to questions and practices of organizational change within the museum field.
Art museums are key sites of cultural reflection of societal continuity and transformation, of conflicts, fissures and resistances to change. Yet these developments shape museums themselves: Museums are also organizational places of negotiating and enacting the interplay of continuity and change. The research project identifies key themes, practices, and technologies of organizational transformation and investigates how such transformation takes place. It provides a framework for sharing and developing insights by bringing together practitioners and researchers.
The project is driven by four key activities
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These serve as key exchange platforms where project partners from participating museums and researchers meet regularly to discuss key themes and practices of reorganizing art museums. This format enables mutual learning, idea development, and knowledge generation through open discussions.
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Researchers of Leuphana University conduct interviews, participant observations, and document analyses with partnering institutions and stakeholders, both on-site and online. The gathered material is analyzed and shared with participating museums, forming the basis for focus group workshops.
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The project platform and a Handbook will present key insights to the museum sphere and the public. Research results will be presented at international conferences and published in leading journals. A project conference is planned for May 2027.
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This project brings together students and faculty from various European universities to investigate key aspects of expanding art museums. Through hands-on learning laboratories held at the participating museums, the students explore, analyze and present organizational challenges and site-specific practices and responses.
THE MUSEUMS
Kunstmuseum Basel (Switzerland)
Österreichische Galerie Belvedere (Vienna, Austria)
Lenbachhaus (Munich, Germany)
Louisiana Museum of Modern Art (Humlebæk, Denmark)
The Metropolitan Museum of Art (New York, US)
The Contemporary Art Museum of Luxembourg (MUDAM)
Munch Museum (Oslo, Norway)
Zentrum Paul Klee (Bern, Switzerland)
FOCUS GROUP WORKSHOPS
September 9–10, 2024
Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (CH)
Expanding Art Museums
February 24–25, 2025
Lenbachhaus, Munich (GER)
Dimensions of sustainability in the everyday operations
November 10–11, 2025
Belvedere, Vienna (AT)
Organizing heterogenous communities
LEARNING LABORATORIES
November 7–12, 2021
Zentrum Paul Klee, Bern (CH)
#1
Organizing Museums in Digital Cultures
April 11–15, 2023
Kunstmuseum Basel, Basel (CH)
#2
Investigating organizational challenges
November 5–9, 2024
MUDAM, Luxembourg (LUX)
#3
Expanding Art Museums
November 3–11, 2025
Lenbachhaus, Munich (DE)
#4
Behind the Scenes
Themes & Focus
The project focuses on dimensions of organizational transformations for and within art museums. Representatives of the participating museums discuss and share their thoughts, reflections and impressions on current challenges and future orientated questions. Accompanying research activities tackle these concerns, for example around questions of sustainability, audience development and community work, as well as the particular embeddedness of art museums in specific socio-spatial environments.