Reimagining Heritage, Archives and Museums: Today/Tomorrow

Civic & PublicAwards & EventsArts & CultureSustainable Development

Dec 5

An international convening to reimagine a new future for our museum and heritage spaces

The brief

Breinstorm Brand Architects (BBA) was appointed as project managers for Reimagining Heritage, Archives and Museums: Today/Tomorrow, an initiative of the Institut français d’Afrique du Sud (IFAS) / French Institute of South Africa and Embassy of France.

The project is split into three parts: an international convening from 13 to 15 February 2024 at the Homecoming Centre, Cape Town; a parallel mentorship programme; and a series of professional meetings to take the solutions and ideas tabled at the convening forward.

BBA’s responsibilities include brand development, integrated marketing and communications, logistics and event management, and supporting the curatorial process.

The transformation

Imagining a new future for museums

The name Today/Tomorrow calls on all with an interest in preserving heritage to join forces, bringing our collective knowledge and imagination together to reinvent the way we think about the heritage landscape in innovative ways. It presents the convening a place to shape the museums of tomorrow into ones that can anticipate and adapt to social needs, and bring about social change.

An internationally renowned curatorial panel

BBA and IFAS invited Molemo Moiloa (Open Restitution Africa and Andani.Africa),
Ngaire Blankenberg (Founder of the Insitute for Creative Repair) and Emmanuel Kasarhérou (President of the Musée du quai Branly) to serve on the curatorial panel and define an engaging programme for the international convening.

Growing the next generation of heritage professionals

Young graduates in South Africa, Lesotho and Malawi have been invited to submit proposals to enter into a tailor-made mentorship programme that allows them to engage with industry stalwarts and gain a holistic understanding of the sector.

Social media

The showcase of cleverness

Over 400 delegates from across the world gathered to share insights, best practices, and innovative approaches to preserve and promote our rich cultural heritage, archives, and museums in the face of contemporary challenges.

The three-day convening presented over 35 keynote addresses, panel discussions, roundtables, workshops, demonstrations and performances from 95 speakers from across 13 continents.

This included a performance lecture by poets Diana Ferrus and Siphokazi Jonas, an electrifying dance piece by Gregory Maqoma, and poetic interludes by MC Lebo Mashile. The opening event included a performance by uKhoiKhoi and a live visuals experience by Inka Kendzia inside the Whale Well at the Iziko South African National Museum.

Delegates were also given the opportunity to kick-off day one with a design thinking workshop led by the Hasso Plattner D-School Afrika (which is based at the University of Cape Town), to access the tools to reframe how they approach sticky problems. By placing themselves in the shoes of their users, delegates were able to envision heritage institutions not as static repositories of artefacts, but as dynamic spaces for dialogue, discovery, and creativity. One possible solution posed was an interactive AI Museum facilitator accessed through your mobile phone, which provides additional context for all exhibition items.