Day 2: Saturday, 21 November 2026

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DAY 2 - Saturday, 21 November 2026 at Harare International School (HIS)

Tools of Transformation

Museums are not only custodians of the past; they are laboratories for social and ecological transformation. This session foregrounds the tools, technologies, and strategies that enable museums to act as catalysts for change. From digital innovation to participatory co-creation, from new material practices to curatorial activism, we ask: how can museums operate transformation rather than simply represent it? By centering African and Global South methodologies of making, storytelling, and adaptation, this day explores transformation as both process and practice, rooted in the local but resonant across the globe.

Keynote Speaker: Hou Hanru, Independent Curator and Writer, Paris, France / Rome, Italy.

Conference delegates will take part in Breakout Sessions exploring the following themes:

  • Theme 1: Ethics of Machine Knowledge and Cultural Memory: Whose Data Shapes Our Heritage?
  • Theme 2: Museum Partnerships, Community and Pedagogies
  • Theme 3: Designing for Tomorrow’s Audiences: New Languages for the Future

Invited Speakers will address the themes from the breakout sessions.

  • Neema Githere, Writer, Artist, Relational Architect, Studio Nkisi, Nairobi, Kenya, will address Theme 1.
  • Inga Lāce, Curator, Almaty Museum of Arts, Almaty, Kazakhstan, will address Theme 2.

Panel Discussion moderated by: Fadzai Muchemwa & Stephanie Rosenthal, members of the 2026 Content Steering Committee.

Chronist: Esther Chipashu, Curator of Ethnography, National Museums and Monuments of Zimbabwe, Harare, Zimbabwe.

The Chronist will offer an interpretative reading of the day’s key discussions and insights, weaving together reflections from the keynote lectures, breakout sessions, and panel discussions.

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