Since Erasmus opened the program to adult education and included museology, I had the opportunity to participate in an extraordinary exchange. In 2022, MUSIS — the Styrian Museums Association — initiated the Erasmus+ project “Rethinking Museums — The Concept of Sustainability.” It invites museums to engage with three sustainability goals, expand their networks, and implement these goals in line with their social responsibility as cultural-heritage institutions. Within this project, my focus was on exchange, networking, and learning from and with other museums.

Our host was the EMST, the National Museum of Contemporary Art in Athens — an institution with a beacon effect: it not only fulfills the classic role of a museum, but also courageously implements projects that have an immediate impact. From art psychotherapy for people with mental illness to modern, interactive school programs and integration initiatives for immigrants: here, the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) are put into practice, making EMST a reference point far beyond Greece.

I also got to know five other museums and discussed their methods and visions. I am returning with a head full of ideas — and with the decision to build bridges in our museum: between art and everyday life, education and participation, inspiration and energy.

 

Dr. Ingrid Kammerer

Coordination of the Museum of Questions, Graz