Wednesday, March 11, 2009

IMA ANNUAL CONFERENCE 2009, Derry/Londonderry, February 27th - March 1st ~The Museum: A Dialogue in Shared Histories and Common Heritage~


The central event in the IMA calendar is the Annual Conference. Held in February each year the conference is eagerly awaited by our members as an opportunity to meet, network and get to know each other. Of course, it is also an occasion for debate and this years conference titled 'The Museum: A Dialogue In Shared Histories and Common Heritage' proved just that.

Over the course of two days the conference explored how the common ground of heritage and history has the potential to encourage museums to break from tradition and embrace new ways of thinking, working and developing ideas.Through a series of workshops and presentations, the panel of sixteen speakers addressed this notion through topics such as new ways of engaging visitors, heritage in landscape, material and intangible culture and representations of repression in museums. At the end of each day discussions were held and delegates were given the chance to reflect to the presentations of the day and respond by posing questions to the panel of speakers. Over the course of the weekend it can be said that these presentations and discussions added depth and further challenged the subject of 'The Museum' as a 'Dialogue in Shared Histories and Common Heritage'.