Symposium: Hosting Futures

AzW – Architekturzentrum Wien, mumok - Museum moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien, MuseumsQuartier Wien, Tanzquartier Wien, ZOOM Kindermuseum, Kunsthalle Wien

13:00 – 13:30: Welcome remarks

13:30 – 14:30: Panel 1 und Q & A

Cultural Institutions as Sites of Participatory Democracy
Panel hosted by MuseumsQuartier Wien

Today more than ever, cultural institutions face the challenge of not only preserving and communicating culture but also positioning themselves as active social actors. While museums are emphasizing their role as places of cultural exchange, education, and reflection, they are increasingly affected by government intervention—whether through attempts to exert political influence over content, the restructuring of management, or budget cuts. In increasingly repressive and polarized times, what responsibilities and exemplary role do cultural spaces—as “third places”—play in fostering civic participation? How do we remain places where democracy is lived out and continually renegotiated? Against the backdrop of the climate crisis and growing societal polarization, the contribution and role of cultural institutions in fostering sustainable social transformation become even more important.

Stefan Charles, Head of the Department of Culture, City of Cologne
Kathrin Dellantonio, Executive Director, Museumsquartier Bern
Nikolaus Hirsch, Artistic Director, KANAL Architecture Brussels
Bettina Leidl, Director, MuseumsQuartier Vienna

Moderation: Doris Rothauer, Cultural manager and author

14:30 – 15:30: Panel 2 und Q & A

A space for Almost Everyone
Panel hosted by mumok

Assemblies, participation, play, care, hospitality, unlearning, committees, collective experimentation: how do art institutions become spaces of the civic? Drawing on twenty years of projects across curating and instituting, and his role as Curator-at-large and Head of Commoning at Kanal-Centre Pompidou (Brussels), Grégory Castéra reflects on current curatorial and institutional efforts to extend the notion of education and engagement, redefining who counts as a public and

Grégory Castéra, Curator-at-large and Head of Commoning, KANAL Centre Pompidou Brussels
Fatima Hellberg, Director General, mumok museum of modern art ludwig foundation vienna

Panel 2 will be held in English.

15:30 – 16:00: Break

16:00 – 17:00: Panel 3 und Q & A

Spaces of Care
Museum Practice Between Well-being and Social Responsibility
Panel hosted by AzW and ZOOM

Visitors no longer perceive museums exclusively as places of presentation, preservation, and education, but also as spaces for social and individual well-being. Future concepts must therefore address how museums can actively contribute to mental health, social resilience, and the sustainable shaping of the future, as well as how to foster dialogue and build community. Particular attention should be paid to children and adolescents, for whom museums serve as transformative spaces that create emotional accessibility through participatory formats, inclusive educational programs, and visitor-centered design. As active co-creators, they experience self-efficacy and a sense of social belonging. A panel of experts from the fields of academia, medical humanities, and child and adolescent psychiatry will discuss current research findings and visionary concepts for the museums of the future—with a focus on sustainable, audience-oriented museum work in which well-being and resilience are integral components of institutional practice.

Angelika Fitz, Director, Architekturzentrum Wien
Paulus Hochgatterer, former Head of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry at Tulln University Hospital
Rebekka Rinner, Curator, Hygiene Museum Dresden

Moderation:
Lene Benz, Curator of Public Programmes, Architekturzentrum Wien
Andrea Zsutty, Director, ZOOM Children’s Museum

17:00 – 17:15: Break

17:15 – 18:15: Panel 4 und Q & A

Terms of Engagement: Live programming and new forms of institutional encounter
Panel hosted by Tanzquartier Wien und der Kunsthalle Wien

Participation has become a central value in contemporary cultural institutions. Through live programming, performance, discourse, and participatory formats, museums and arts organizations increasingly seek to create spaces of engagement, encounter, and collective experience. But how are participation and engagement actually structured? What assumptions about bodies, behavior, attention, accessibility, and sociability are embedded within institutional formats?

Bringing together curators working at the intersection of exhibition-making and live programming, this conversation explores how institutions consciously or unconsciously shape the experience of their publics, and how museums and performing arts institutions might learn from one another in developing more conscious, plural, and embodied forms of engagement in times of increasing social fragmentation and precarity.

Andrea Lissoni, Artistic Director, Haus der Kunst, Munich
Nora-Swantje Almes, Curator of Live Programme and Outreach, Gropius Bau, Berlin, and Curator of the Austrian Pavilion at the 2026 Venice Biennale
Elvira Dyangani Ose Artistic Director, Zeitz MOCAA (Museum of Contemporary Art Africa), Cape Town

Moderation: Isabel Lewis, Co-Director, Tanzquartier Wien

Panel 4 will be held in English.

from 18:15: Closing remarks and reception

• Language: German and English
• Free entry with a free ticket!