Between 8 and 12 June 2022, an international group of nearly 60 cultural leaders from museums of the future and science centres from 14 countries met in Barcelona and the Pyrenees to collectively develop projects and collaborate with the aim of advancing the UN’s 2030 Agenda within the framework of the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in the field of museums. The meeting is organized by FORMS (Futures-Oriented Museum Synergies), a community of cultural leaders reflecting on the future, an initiative promoted by the Museum of Tomorrow in Rio de Janeiro in collaboration with MOTI New Planetary Narratives (Amsterdam) and with the support of the leading Brazilian philanthropic organization Instituto Humanize, the BMW Foundation and the Fundesplai.
The meeting was located on Wednesday 8 and Thursday 9 June in the afternoon at the headquarters of Fundesplai (El Prat de Llobregat), where participants had the opportunity to visit the innovative 1,500m2 exhibition “Menja. Actua. Impacta” on sustainable and healthy food. There was also a session where those responsible for the Museum of Tomorrow (Rio de Janeiro, Brazil), the Climate Museum (New York, USA), the Futurium (Berlin, Germany), Miraikan Science Museum (Tokyo, Japan), NEMO Science Museum (Amsterdam, Netherlands) or Fundesplai (Barcelona, Spain), Among others, they shared experiences on how to reimagine the future through coexistence and sustainability as fundamental values.
In the afternoon of the 9th, the group developed a workshop of narratives about the future of museums and what their interaction with visitors should be to promote changes. The days of the 10th, 11th and 12th were of internal work.
Josep Gassó, president of Fundesplai, stressed the importance of this meeting for the promotion of new projects: “We welcome experts also to learn from them and their experience, because Fundesplai also has its Museum project, which it wants to promote, from the seed represented by the exhibition ‘Menja. Actua. Impacta’ currently active.”
Museums as spaces for social transformation
One of the premises of FORMS is that future-oriented museums do more than just invite their audience to imagine futures. Future-oriented museums are also those that explore, expand and diversify their functions in society, aware of their potential as places to bring about transformation within communities and for the general public. More than disseminating content and information, future-oriented museums are very aware of the need to rethink narratives and offer meaningful experiences, thus reaching the public inside and outside their walls, and through different formats of interaction (from workshops to courses, laboratories and dialogues).
They are museums that seek institutional partnerships and collaborations, whose ecosystem is plural, with staff, curators, artists and researchers looking for new ways to exchange ideas and implement transformative experiences for people. Museums and institutions play a critical role in advancing public understanding and action to address the interconnected challenges we face, enabling visitors to co-create their own images of the future and, consequently, be better equipped to think, feel and act in the present.
FORMS is conceived, therefore, as a community of cultural leaders who are deeply committed to contributing to just, peaceful and regenerative societies through their leadership skills.