A Message from Amanda de la Garza, CIMAM President (2026-28)

Dear Members and Patrons of CIMAM,

It is a great honor to address you as President of CIMAM – International Committee for Museums and Collections of Modern Art. I am deeply grateful for the trust placed in me to assume this role, and I would like to acknowledge with respect and appreciation the committed leadership of Suhanya Raffel over the past three years.

My appointment marks the beginning of a new three-year term and the start of a renewed Board. I am pleased to welcome the fourteen Board members who will accompany me over the next three years – museum directors and artistic directors from across the world, bringing diverse institutional experiences, perspectives, and contexts. Together, we will continue to position CIMAM as a truly global platform: diverse, representative, and attentive to the multiple voices shaping the role, value, and relevance of modern and contemporary art museums in our societies.

I am convinced that the collective work of the Board, through CIMAM’s working groups and programs, together with the knowledge, experience, and commitment of our members, will allow CIMAM to remain a professional space that supports those working – often in complex and challenging conditions – to affirm the museum as an institution that actively contributes to the cultural and social development of our communities. One of our main goals will be to enhance membership engagement through different programs and formats, which can produce a more constant dialogue among members and focus on those topics and networks needed by our membership. This collective engagement is essential to shaping and sustaining CIMAM’s shared vision.

At the core of CIMAM’s mission is a commitment to provide an open and inclusive platform for dialogue – one that enables collective and critical reflection on what we expect from our institutions as public-facing, ethical, and socially engaged spaces, and as art and museum professionals. I warmly encourage you to participate actively in CIMAM’s programs and resources, both by sharing your perspectives and by drawing on these collective frameworks to inspire ethical standards and best practices across the sector.

The objectives for the coming term will focus on strengthening CIMAM’s role as a platform for encounter, dialogue, and reflection, fostering critical exchange and collective learning among its members. Amid growing social fragmentation and increasing pressure on cultural institutions, CIMAM will continue to invest in building networks of collaboration, support, and professional solidarity, promoting a culture of care and shared responsibility within our institutions and across the ecosystem. Initiatives such as Museum Watch will remain central as spaces for accompaniment, visibility, and action in situations of crisis, conflict, or institutional vulnerability. Our goal will be to continue giving our support to professionals and institutions that face critical situations across the art museum field, and at the same time to build bridges between different organizations and allies so we collectively face the challenges of the present. Not only by responding through urgency but by creating the frameworks that can guide our work.

At the same time, CIMAM will continue to expand the diversity and representativeness of its community, ensuring that a plurality of voices, contexts, and professional trajectories inform its debates, programs, and structures. We will seek to expand the membership in underrepresented regions and to increase institutional affiliation. Our commitment is to plurality and diversity and to the values that accompany this vision. For this goal to be achieved, we should also promote and guarantee the sustainability of its programs and of the organization itself. Therefore, through the newly created Development Working Group, we will create a strategy that can help us achieve our goals in partnership with individuals and organizations that share our vision.

The organization will continue developing relevant and practical resources – such as ethical frameworks, guidelines, and position papers – that address the real needs of professionals and support both their daily practice, as well as reflections that can help us shape a vision for the future of art museums, as part of broader social ecosystems. Through this work, CIMAM seeks to care for and sustain its community, while contributing critically and responsibly to ongoing discussions about the role of museums and cultural institutions in contemporary society, grounded in ethical, public, and democratic values.

The current times pose enormous challenges for institutions, in certain contexts, institutions are facing precariousness, isolation and direct political intervention, whilst in other places in the world, we see the emergence of art institutions and the development of new artistic scenes. Therefore, this combined context requires open reflection and dialogue on notions such as reparation, care, equality, and new and existing museum models. CIMAM should become the space where a conversation about institutional models and new formats of leadership should take place, considering cultural diversity and geopolitical disparities as a point of departure. We can no longer have a single model for cultural institutions, but rather diverse ways of being a museum.

As a Board, we will strive to preserve and strengthen CIMAM’s core values: diversity, solidarity, and collective critical thinking. At a time when art museums and cultural ecosystems face profound challenges and threats, CIMAM must continue to be a place where professionals can reflect on the present and future of institutions through imagination, commitment, and ethical principles. We come from a complex history, crossed by inequalities in the art world, and, at the same time, our institutions are being shaped by contemporary critical discourses. Like any other social institution, we face limitations, contradictions, and fragilities, but we are also one of the few spaces left where complexity still can exist through the myriad of art.

I would also like to extend, on behalf of the Board of CIMAM, our sincere thanks to CIMAM’s Patrons – Benefactors and Major Patrons, Patrons, and Supporters – as well as to all the partners and collaborators who support specific CIMAM programs. Their commitment and generosity are essential to sustaining the work carried out by the CIMAM Board and the Executive Office. Without their support, much of what we seek to achieve as an organization would not be possible. We are deeply grateful for the trust they place in CIMAM and in its governance, and we hope to continue strengthening this relationship over the coming three years, while welcoming new organizations and individuals who wish to contribute to this shared vision of museums as active agents in the social and cultural development of our communities.

I look forward to this shared journey and to working closely with you in the years ahead.

With kind regards,

Amanda de la Garza
President of CIMAM
Deputy Artistic Director
Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofía (MNCARS), Madrid, Spain