Collecting with(in) the City
CAMOC – COMCOL conference 2024
From 9-11 October 2024 the CAMOC and COMCOL (ICOM International Committee for Collecting) will join forces again to revisit collecting and (re)presenting in and with the city, by investigating the fluidity of the borders between museums and cities. The conference Collecting with(in) the City will be hosted by the Amsterdam Museum in partnership with Imagine IC and will focus on what collecting with and in a city means and how the museums and cultural heritage institutions of today do this.
Early bird sale ends July 31st.
Rondleiding, datum onbekend, fotograaf: Francoise Bolechowski.
Collecting the City #4, 2024, Francoise Bolechowski
What can museums capture beyond objects?
(How) can they collect city rhythms, sounds, or smells? Can you collect the people that create and use a city? How can contemporary collecting be inspired by existing collections, and how can looking at collections with new (outside) perspectives bring new insights? What remnants of the past live in the present and how do they manifest? How should museums care for new urban narratives and for the people they concern? When working on a new balance of expertise and expectations, what inequalities and power relations emerge in (city) museums? How do shifting ideas about ownership and authority affect collecting and exhibiting practices?
For museums, these questions are becoming ever more relevant, as the balance between tangible and intangible heritage is shifting.
Foto Amsterdam Museum, Eva Bloem
Collecting stories and experiences
Museums and heritage institutions are collecting not only objects but also stories and experiences. And increasingly they do so in various participatory forms with inhabitants, who can become partners in co-creation processes and projects. Thus, as collecting cities may include contemporary urban spaces, as well as urban lives and urban narratives, these questions also touch on critical discourses on power, reciprocity, and impact. Who can/do you partner with? What does this process of collaborating with networks and communities in a city look like? What makes collaborations mutually beneficial? In other words, collaborative and participatory collecting raises various issues worth studying, from ethics and legalities to sociological and psychological questions, as well as, of course, from a museology perspective.
The conference is a space for heritage practitioners from all over the world to reflect on collecting in and within a city. We welcome anyone from any professional field who is interested in these matters to join the conference.
Conference program and accommodation
The conference is divided into two parts. October 9 will be devoted to exploring Amsterdam, including city tours and drinks at the Amsterdam Museum and activities at Imagine IC. October 10 and 11 are the conference days, which take place at Pakhuis de Zwijger. A detailed program will be shared in July.
Wednesday, October 9th
Excursions at Imagine IC & the Amsterdam Museum
09:30AM – 1PM | Breakfast at Imagine IC & excursion through Amsterdam Zuidoost
1 – 3PM | Lunch, travel & exploring the city
3 – 4:15PM | Tours at the Amsterdam Museum
4:30 – 6PM | Welcome reception at Amsterdam Museum
6PM | End of day 1
Thursday, October 10th
Conference day at Pakhuis de Zwijger
8:30 – 9AM | Walk-in with coffee and tea
9 – 9:45AM | Conference opening
9:45 – 10:15AM | Keynote Zandra Yeaman, Head of Strategy, Development and Implementation, Hunterian, Glasgow
10:15 – 10:45AM | Poster presentations, coffee & tea
10:45AM – 4PM | Parallel sessions: Presentations, workshops, dialogue sessions
4:15 – 4:30 | Artistic intervention
4:30 – 5:45PM | Closing panel with the Amsterdam Museum & Imagine IC
6PM | End of day 2
Friday, October 11th
Conference day at Pakhuis de Zwijger
9 – 9:30AM | Walk-in with coffee & tea
9:30 – 10AM | Keynote Léontine Meijer-van Mensch
10 – 10:30AM | Poster presentations, coffee & tea
10:30 – 11:45AM | Parallel sessions: Presentations & workshop
12 – 1PM | Lunch
1 – 2PM | CAMOC & COMCOL meeting (separate)
2 – 3PM | Parallel sessions: Presentations & workshop
3 – 4PM | Closing session: artistic intervention, conference round-up, closing words
4 – 5PM | Goodbye drinks
5PM | End of day 3
Accommodation
Here you can download a pdf-file with a list of possible accommodations.
Overzicht Collecting the City #4 : Ongekend Zeedijk
The Hosts and the Host City
Amsterdam Museum has been collecting the city in various ways since the founding of the museum in 1926, but in the last decades the focus has shifted more and more to the contemporary city. In 2020 they began the program ‘Collecting the City’, based on co-creation with communities. Imagine IC, a heritage organization based in Amsterdam Southeast, has been active almost 25 years in documenting current social relations through participatory heritage work. The collaboration between the two hosts is a great opportunity to share and explore how city museums and heritage institutions from all over the world deal with (contemporary) collecting and rethinking collecting practices.
Contact and Further Questions
If you seek financial support for physical attendance, the following options are available. Some ICOM’s national committees give out travel grants to attend conferences. To find out more, reach out to your national committee. There are also (limited) grants available for CAMOC and COMCOL members.
Available grants:
- Young ICOM Members Grant CAMOC 2024 – application
- Young COMCOL travel grant 2024 – application
- COMCOL travel grant 2024 - application
For questions regarding tickets, registration, or your stay in Amsterdam please email camoccomcol2024@amsterdammuseum.nl
For any questions for CAMOC, please send an email to secretary.camoc@icom.museum
For any questions for COMCOL, please send an email to secretary.comcol@icom.museum
Scientific committee on behalf of CAMOC and COMCOL: Leen Beyers, Andrea Delaplace, Danielle Kuijten, Flora Nguye Mutere, Annemarie de Wildt, Glenn Perkins, Sandra Vacca