'From collection to connection': How museums are redefining themselves

Published 7 June 2026 · science

Gone are the days when museums were just places to see art and artifacts. On International Museum Day, DW looks at how museums are becoming

Gone are the days when museums were just places to see art and artifacts. On International Museum Day, DW looks at how museums are becoming unique spaces of community engagement and participation. Around 530 BC, the world's first public museum opened its doors in the Mesopotamian state of Ur, in modern-day Iraq. The curator was a priestess princess, and the museum was part of the palace complex, displaying artifacts from the region with informational labels in multiple languages. Fast forward some 2,500 years, and museums no longer only offer stationary exhibits accompanied by written information. From digitized collections to social media accounts to virtual reality, recent technology allows viewers to interact with collections in new ways. But recently, an even more profound shift has been taking place, one that goes to the very heart of what a museum is supposed to be and provide. It is a shift in focus from the objects on view to those doing the viewing, as museums become places that foster engagement and participation while serving broader societal needs. The Seddulbahir Fortress museum, in Canakkale, Turkey, runs oral history projects incorporating local voices into the museum narrative; it is nominated for European Museum of the Year Image: Egemen Karakaya A new museum definition for a new era "Museums are moving in this direction," Sandro Debono, a museum thinker, consultant and academic, explained to DW. He pointed to the current definition of a museum by the International Council of Museums, a global NGO that promotes and furthers heritage work. Adopted in 2022, it specifically recognizes inclusivity, diversity and community participation as essential aspects of museum work — a marked departure from the previous definition, which named serving society, but not involving it. When it comes to specific regions, Latin America has particularly embraced participatory practices, Debono said.

There, ideas of museums as places of participation and inclusion, such as citizen and community-led museums, can be traced back to the 1970s. A few decades later, the concept of social museology emerged, which focused not on objects but on living people, especially the marginalized, supporting their empowerment, heritage and social transformation. Now, many other parts of the world, including Europe, are also embracing similar approaches in their own ways, including in traditional institutions. Amsterdam's Stedelijk Museum is pioneering a new era of youth participation with its Blikopeners program Image: Dingena Mol/ANP/picture alliance For Julia Pagel, the secretary general of the Network of European Museum Organisations (NEMO), this momentum is captured by the phrase "from collection to connection." "[European] Museums are focusing more and more on communities," she told DW. She explained that funding, which largely comes from the state, is increasingly linked to social relevance. "Museums need to move from being mainly the venues you visit to becoming those social and civic infrastructures that you use, or trusted places where people can meet and exchange [ideas]." From yoga to dance: New forms of engagement While museum talks, school group tours and social events have long been staples of traditional museums' outreach, their current engagement offerings often have individuals participating in ways that do not directly relate to a collection. At the Museum of Singapore, seniors with cognitive and memory issues can take part in everything from dance classes to art workshops to discussion groups, turning the museum into a site of socialization for individuals who are often excluded from public life. Upcoming discussion events at the Hammer Museum in Los Angeles, California, include poetry readings and a panel of legal experts weighing in on the current US Supreme Court. And numerous institutions participate in "museums on prescription" programs, in which museums partner with national health systems to have museum visits recognized as a form of treatment for things like depression and loneliness.