1st Webinar Art, Museums and Digital Cultures
A collaboration between maat and IHA/NOVA FCSH, Lisbon

The digital transition process at cultural institutions has quickened in recent months. It is, thus, important to reflect on what has been made available and the difference between the digitalisation of artworks or contents in physical formats and the development of art and curatorial projects specifically designed for digital and network media.

At a time when access to physical spaces has been placed on hold, the transfer of some museum activities to digital formats has allowed us to maintain communication with regular visitors, as well as to capture new audiences. However, and paradoxically, this process has accentuated the geographical, social and cultural discrepancies in the access to information technologies. According to a UNESCO report published in May 2020, in the first few months of the pandemic, huge disparities were seen internationally in institutions’ capacity to respond.

In this context, the fact that most museums are online is not enough. It is necessary to discuss what content, activities, institutions and audiences coexist in these new online cultural circuits and what forms of segregation are emerging or worsening. These issues are the starting point for the first webinar on Art, Museums and Digital Cultures, promoted by maat and the Institute of Art History, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, which anticipates the international conference to be held in Abril 2021.

Coordination:
Helena Barranha
Professor at Instituto Superior Técnico, Universidade de Lisboa and Researcher at the Institute of Art History, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal.

Joana Simões Henriques
Head of Education and Public Programmes at the Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon, Portugal.

Programme

15:00 – Presentation
Helena Barranha and Joana Simões Henriques

 15:15 - Art museums and digital challenges (debate)
Ana Carvalho
Museologist and Researcher at the Interdisciplinary Centre for History, Cultures and Societies, Universidade de Évora, Portugal.  

Emília Ferreira
Art Historian, Curator and Author. Director of the National Museum of Contemporary Art - Museu do Chiado, Lisbon. Researcher at the Institute of Art History, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal.

 Merete Sanderhoff
Curator and Senior Advisor in the field of Digital Museum Practice, SMK – Statens Museum for Kunst, Copenhagen, Denmark. 

 Moderator: Rita Macedo
Professor at the School of Science and Technology and Researcher at the Institute of Art History, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa, Portugal.

16:15 – Break

16:30 – Curating Digital Art (debate)

Enrique Salmoiraghi
Cultural Manager and Curator. Founder and Director of Espacio Byte - Digital Art Museum, Argentina
 

José Ramón Alcalá
Artist, Curator and Author. Professor of Art and New Media at the University of Castilla-La Mancha, Spain. 

Luís Fernandes
Musician, Sound Artist and Cultural Programmer. Founder and Artistic Director of the Semibreve Festival. Artistic Director of gnration and Index / Braga Media Arts, Portugal.

Pablo Gobira
Curator, Researcher and Professor at Guignard Fine Arts School, Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais and the School of
Information Science, Universidade Federal de Minas Gerais, Belo Horizonte, Brasil.

Moderator: Elsa Garcia
Journalist. Founder and Director of Umbigo Magazine and UmbigoLAB Platform, Portugal.

17:30 - Closing of the Webinar and launch of the Call for Papers for the International Conference on Art, Museums and Digital Cultures to be held in April 2021.

Organisation
Museum of Art, Architecture and Technology, Lisbon.
Institute of Art History, School of Social Sciences and Humanities, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa.