The Great Hall, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York. Source: Wikimedia Commons.

Museum Leaders named, Mice BTN, 30 January 2015

Thomas Campbell, director and CEO of The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, USA has named 15 participants for the second annual Global Museum Leaders Colloquium, to be held at the museum April 13–23, 2015.

The Metropolitan Museum hosts the colloquium to broaden international dialogue about museum management among directors from collecting institutions.

“Last year’s inaugural GMLC established a significant new venue for deeper dialogue among museum leaders and a growing network of institutions and directors world wide,” said Campbell.

The 2015 GMLC participants include directors of national, municipal, private, and academic museums. They oversee museums with a total annual attendance of more than five million visitors and collections of nearly six million objects.

The participants include:

• China, Shaanxi Provincial Institute of Archaeology, Xi’an – director Wang Weilin
• Egypt, Museums of Upper Egypt, Cairo – director Sanaa Aly
• India, The National Museum, New Delhi – director Venu Vasudevan
• New Zealand, Auckland Art Gallery Toi o Tāmaki, Auckland – director Rhana Devenport
• Philippines, The National Museum of the Philippines, Manila – director Jeremy Barns
• United Kingdom, Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology, Oxford – director Alexander Sturgis
• Vietnam, Da Nang Museum of Cham Sculpture, Da Nang – director Vo Van Thang

“One of the assumptions behind the GMLC is that, despite their varied circumstances, museums share many common challenges,” said András Szántó, a museum analyst and writer on arts institutions who oversees the Colloquium and serves as its moderator. “As we add another group of museum leaders from more than a dozen new countries, the global reach and impact of the GMLC network are certain to increase exponentially.”

Over 11 days, the GMLC provides a 360-degree view of current museum practices worldwide, placing a strong emphasis on institutional leadership and strategic problem solving. A significant portion of the program is reserved for open dialogue among the invited directors, who present case studies on their institutions and meet in group workshops to address timely issues confronting museums and propose new models for collaboration. The GMLC participants will work with Metropolitan Museum experts across all departments and make group site visits to cultural institutions in New York and Washington, DC.