Expanding Horizons

In recent years, many city, state, and national museums have undergone a process of renewal with consequences for the institutional identity, collection concepts, and programmes for the audience. This reorganisation of social history museums can be seen, for instance, in contemporary permanent exhibitions and displays of collections that follow different trends: from chronological, full narratives with interspersed excurses on specific topics to partial narratives based on individual exhibits arranged by association to object presentations with an abundance of materials in the manner of display repositories. Most museum experts in the German-speaking world are familiar with more or less successful attempts at such new permanent exhibitions. They have viewed them, analysed them (if they are planning their own exhibition project), discussed them with their colleagues – and spent most of their time in the German-speaking and Central European region. The planned event should give participants the chance to expand their horizons: invited speakers will present and lead discussions on a wide range of ambitious and successful permanent collections from less visited regions of Europe and locations outside Europe.