Towards Liberation: Practicing Decoloniality in Museum Spaces

Session Submission Type: Roundtable

Brief Description

Decolonization is frequently employed as an epistemological tool for scrutinizing history, art, and heritage. Nevertheless, its application extends beyond academic contexts to spaces that engage a much broader audience.
At the center of our scholarly conversation lies a comprehensive examination of the Decolonization Guide, a collaborative initiative led by the Ukrainian Institute in partnership with the Museums Association (MA), ICOM UK, and ICOM Ukraine. Serving as a focal document, the guide reflects collective global and regional efforts to reassess the attribution of art, history, and heritage within museum spaces. It stands as a reference point for the round table, where critical inquiries will be explored, encompassing the identification of cultural heritage, precise assignment of location data amid historical shifts in state borders, promotion of judicious language and terminology, and equitable representation of contested heritage.
The roundtable assembles scholars and culture managers from academic and museum domains. Centering its discourse on the paradigm of liberation and moving beyond theoretical considerations, the discussion will explore the practical implications of translating theoretical constructs into operative modalities. Its overarching objective is to cultivate a reflective and actionable methodology conducive to the ongoing metamorphosis in our comprehension and portrayal of cultural heritage.

Sub Unit

• Arts I: Visual Culture, Material Culture, Applied and Fine Arts

Chair

• Oleh Kotsyuba, Harvard U

Roundtable Members

• Svitlana Biedarieva, Independent Scholar

• Maria Blyzinsky, ICOM UK - International Council of Museums, UK committee

• Tamara Hundorova, National Academy of Sciences (Ukraine)

• Linda Kaljundi, Tallinn U (Estonia)

• Volodymyr Sheiko, Ukrainian Institute (Ukraine)