Symposium The New Custodians - The choices they make, the knowledge they need

The symposium is a collaboration between the Rijksdienst voor de Cultureel Erfgoed and the Van Abbemuseum and is a conclusion of the knowledge program Heritage of Modern Times.

For four years, together with dozens of partners from the heritage field, we searched for answers to pressing questions about the meaning of collections and new forms of presentation at a time when society is changing, and with that the role of the museum. Contemporary technology and new forms of presentation create space for a different experience of objects from the collection. Sometimes this shifts the attention of the authentic art object to the story behind it, sometimes technology offers the opportunity to get to know the object down to the smallest details. What choices do museums make and what knowledge do they need?

During the symposium The New Custodians these questions will be discussed and attention will be paid to the theme of 'reconstruction': as a way of reconstructing the past of objects and their stories, as support for scientific research, as a catalyst for questions about materiality and authenticity .

Day chairman Arnoud Odding, director of the Rijksmuseum Twenthe, will take you through the following lectures:

• Alistair Hudson, director of the Manchester Art Gallery and initiator of the Grizedale Arts project, in which the relationship between craft, creativity and society is redefined (in English);
• Deirdre Carasso, director of the Stedelijk Museum Schiedam, talks to him from her vision on collection presentations (in English);
• Other speakers reflect on the theme of 'reconstruction' and present the considerations that were made in reconstructions of artworks by Theo van Doesburg, El Lissitzky, and Vincent van Gogh (in Dutch);
• Designer Maaike Roozenburg shows how design, technology and heritage objects come together and generate new meanings (in Dutch).

Sign Up

Participation is free. You can register via this form.

The symposium will take place during the Dutch Design Week in Eindhoven.