Evening Keynote

Prof. Dr. Wayne Modest

“Where Theory Meets Practice, or, Every Museum Should Be a University Museum”

Date and Time
Friday, September 27th, 2024, 6:30 pm

Location
TUD Dresden University of Technology, Heinz-Schönfeld-Hörsaal, Georg-Schumann-Str. 13, 01069 Dresden
See the location in TUD's Campus Navigator

Livestream via Zoom
https://tu-dresden.zoom-x.de/j/68193933334?pwd=qnniyvTBT0Tzq9c0HC4imhbbOjN0MN.1
Meeting ID: 681 9393 3334
Passcode: nrbM^60f

What challenges do university collections and museums face today? How do they position themselves in the ongoing discourse between theory and practice? And can they serve as models for the broader museum landscape, despite or precisely because of their special characteristics?

The renowned anthropologist and curator Prof. Dr. Wayne Modest will explore these questions in a public evening lecture on September 27, 2024 at 6:30 pm at TUD Dresden University of Technology (TUD). His lecture, held in English under the title “Where Theory Meets Practice, or, Every Museum Should Be a University Museum”, will focus on the enormous potential and the special position of university collections between research, teaching and society. Against the background of his many years of experience in both the museum world and academia, Wayne Modest draws the concept of a museum that, beyond visitor numbers and blockbuster exhibitions, dares to place critical discourse at the center of its work.

With Wayne Modest, the TUD welcomes one of the most renowned personalities in the European museum landscape. As Director of Content at the Dutch Wereldmuseum (Amsterdam/ Leiden/Rotterdam) and Professor of Material Culture and Critical Heritage Studies at the Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, he is responsible for major exhibitions and is the author of groundbreaking specialist publications. His research interests include the history of ethnographic collecting and exhibiting, theories of material and visual culture, and questions of heritage and memory culture.

The evening lecture, which can also be followed via Zoom livestream, is embedded in the first joint annual meeting of the two major international professional associations ICOM-UMAC (International Council of Museums - Committee for University Museums and Collections) and UNIVERSEUM European Academic Heritage Network, hosted by the Office for Academic Heritage, Scientific and Art Collections at TU Dresden. Under the title “Shaping Transformation. University Collections in a Changing World”, international experts will discuss the effects of transformation processes on university collections during the five-day conference. Workshops and working groups will offer the opportunity for professional exchange, while collection tours and excursions will present the extensive university collection landscape of Dresden and Saxony to an international audience of experts. During the conference, the Kustodie will also open two exhibitions. In the Oktogon, the art gallery of the Dresden University of Fine Arts, “Depth and Surface. Scientific Tableaux in Dialogue with Olaf Holzapfel”, works by the renowned artist Olaf Holzapfel and unique historical objects from the collections of TU Dresden meet. In the Gallery of the Office for Academic Heritage at TU Dresden, the exhibition “Ground Truth” by Lena von Goedeke, Artist in Residence at the Schaufler Lab@TU Dresden, demonstrates the close links between art and science.

High-profile cooperation partners from the academic world and culture underline the supra-regional significance and international appeal of the event, which, as a lighthouse project, offers a platform for networking across disciplines and borders and advocates a cosmopolitan Saxony. The conference is funded by the Excellence Strategy of the federal and state governments and the German Research Foundation, among others.