Annual Conferences since 1962

The first CIMAM Annual Conference took place on July 5th 1962 in The Hague. Since then the Committee has celebrated over 50 conferences that have been held in over 30 different cities around the globe. CIMAM’s Annual Conference has become an important meeting point for contemporary art professionals and an essential resource for the collaboration between museums, visual art professionals, artists and other institutions concerned with modern and contemporary art.

2023 — Buenos Aires, Argentina. The Co-Creative Museum: Social Agency, Ethics, and Heritage

2022 — Palma, Mallorca (the Balearic Islands), Spain. The Attentive Museum. Permeable Practices for a Common Ground

2021 — Lódz and Gdansk, Poland. Under Pressure. Museums in Times of Xenophobia and Climate Emergency

2020 — Postponed to 2021. Rapid Response Webinars

2019 — Sydney, Australia. The 21st Century Art Museum: Is Context Everything?

2018 — Stockholm, Sweden. The Museum in Transition

2017 — Singpaore. The Roles and Responsibilities of Museums in Civil Society

2016 — Barcelona, Spain. The Museum and Its Responsibilities

2015 — Tokyo, Japan. How Global can Museums Be?

2014 — Doha, Qatar. Museums in Progress: Public interest, private resources?

2013 — Río de Janeiro, Brazil. New Dynamics in Museums: Curator, Artwork, Public, Governance

2012 — Istanbul, Turkey. Museums Beyond the Crises

2011 — Ljubljana, Slovenia and Zagreb, Croatia. Museums and the City

2010 — Shanghai, China. Common Ground for Museums in a Global Society

2009 — Mexico City, Mexico. Fair Trade: The Institution of Art on the New Economy

2008 — New York, USA. The Shape of Memory: The Museum and It’s Collections

2007 — Vienna, Austria. Museums and Universal Heritage: Contemporary Institutions as Producers in Late Capitalism

2006 — London, United Kingdom. Contemporary Institutions: Between Public and Private

2005 — Sao Paulo, Brazil. Museums: Intersections in a Global Scene

2004 — Seoul, Republic of Korea. The Shifting Landscape of Contemporary Art and Asia

2003 — San Francisco, USA. Articulate Museums In a Digital Age; Games, Pirates, Communes: Digital Technology’s Impact on Art and Material Culture; When Art Meets Genetics: Challenges and Innovations; Moving Images: From Theater to Gallery and Back

2002 — Berlin, Germany. The Museum as a Statement. The Erosion of the Public Role of the Museum

2001 — Barcelona, Spain. The Role of the Museum & How It is Affected by Changes in the XXI Century

2000 — Budapest, Hungary. Does Contemporary Art Need Museums Anymore?

1999 — Jerusalem, Israel. Art in Divided Communities

1998 — Melbourne, Canberra, Sydney, Australia. Museums and Cultural Diversity: Ancient Cultures – New Worlds

1997 — Barcelona, Spain. Shifting Visions

1996 — Houston, Texas. Texans Talk; Surfs Up!: Museums on the Internet; Regionalism/Racism: Geography, Ethnicity and the Museum Agenda

1995 — Oslo and Stavanger, Norway. Dialects in Contemporary Art - The Norwegian Contemporary Art Situation

1994 — Tokyo, Japan. The Museum of the 21st Century – New Possibilities and Prospects

1993 — Antwerp, Brugge and Ghent, Belgium. Towards an Ethical Code; Ghent, Problems of Working Relations Between Museums; Brugge, Museum Collections and De-accessioning

1992 — Montreal and Quebec City, Canada. Defining the Territory of Art and of the Modern Art Museum

1991 — Havana, Cuba. Primer Encuentro de Investigaciones Sobre el Arte del Tercer Mundo

1990 — Los Angeles, USA. Perspectives on the State of Culture at the end of the 20th Century; Realities of the California Scene; Enlightened Sponsorship; Present Day Developments.

1989 — The Hague, The Netherlands. Power, Money and Museums

1988 — Helsinki, Finland. Problems Concerning Exhibition Making

1987 — Dubrovnik, Croatia. Being Between

1986 — Buenos Aires and Rosario, Argentina. Museums and the Future of Our Heritage: Emergency Call

1983 — London, United Kingdom. Tradition and Innovation: Interaction Between Traditional and Contemporary Art in a Developing World

1982 — Humlebaek, Denmark. The Future of Large International Exhibitions

1981 — Dusseldorf, Germany. Post-Modern or Contemporary? Modernity in 20th Century Art

1980 — Mexico City, Mexico. The Museums and Their Responsibility Towards The World Patrimony

1979 — Paris, France. Towards an Architecture for Modern Art Museums

1978 — Oslo, Norway. The Work of Art and its Context

1977 — Moscow and Leningrad, Russia. Museums and Cultural Exchange

1976 — Prato-Bologna, Italy. Centralization / Decentralization / Noncentralization

1975 — Amsterdam and Rotterdam, Netherlands

1974 — New York, USA. Museums of Modern Art and Their Public

1972 — Warsaw, Lodz and Crakow, Poland. The Modern Art Museum and the Artist

1971 — Paris and Grenoble, France. The Museum in the Service of Man Today and Tomorrow

1969 — Brussels, Belgium. The Museum of Modern Art and Contemporary Society

1968 — Cologne and Munich, Germany

1965 — New York, USA

1964 — Paris, France

1963 — Paris, France. Problems of Museums of Modern Art

1962 — The Hague, Netherlands

Follow the links below to watch CIMAM's conference video recordings since 2013 and read CIMAM's edited speakers presentations since 2005 in PDF.