THE WORLD BATTLEFIELD MUSEUMS FORUM 2022
How can we talk about great historical battles? How can we discover the mysteries of battlefields through archeology? By using traditional exhibitions or with modern technologies? What do museums choose to use today?
Answers to these and many other questions can be found during this year's World Battlefield Museums Forum conference, which will be held on October 12th-13th at the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk.
During the event, museum experts from over 20 institutions around the world will discuss the role and activities of battlefield museums and how museums deal with the challenges of the modern world.
October 12th-13th, 2022
Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk
Conference room Jan Olszewski, level -3
With the development of museology, the role of museums in society has changed over the decades. The changes taking place in the cultural sector have transformed the spaces of these institutions, usually filled with traditional showcases, into modern, interactive cultural and educational centers. However, despite the gradual evolution in the functioning and communication of museums with visitors, the mission that guides their activities remains unchanged.
Museum facilities around the world are linked by the function of institutional guardians of cultural heritage. By safeguarding history, science and culture, they are not only a source of knowledge passed on to future generations, but also commemorate the achievements of our ancestors and teach respect for the events and achievements of past epochs that have shaped the modern world. Certainly knowing history makes it easier to understand the present, which in turn means that museums are a key link in the process of education and in building historical and cultural awareness in society.
Due to the success of the first WBMF conference in 2018, as well as a desire to continue the international debate that was started at that time, an initiative was born to organize a second edition of the forum. In 2020, both existing partners and new institutions were invited, whose input was to expand the narrative with the experience of museums located in the most remote corners of the world. Unfortunately, the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic blocked the possibility for our foreign guests visiting Gdańsk. However, the idea of the forum was continued through online projects, and the result of these activities is the website; www.wbmf.online. After two years of functioning in the new reality of the pandemic, hopes for a return to meetings in the real world have returned, and with them the plans to organize the second edition of the conference associating world museums of battlefields.
Today, the scope of the activities of battlefield museums includes not only the presentation of exhibitions aimed at disseminating knowledge about historical battles, but also care of memorial sites. Museums located in places where battles that changed the fate of the world were fought years and centuries ago, ensure that the areas that are silent witnesses of past events carry a message to future generations and constitute a symbolic bridge of memory between the past and the present. Institutions taking care of historic battlefields must also reconcile telling the story with commercial activities related to facilities needed to provide for the needs of visitors. Large numbers of visitors will also help contribute to the effective implementation of the main mission of each museum - the protection and dissemination of cultural heritage.
Reconciling the museum's mission with the requirements of the modern world and technological development are challenges faced by all cultural institutions. It is about these topics that the speakers and invited experts will be discussing during the World Battlefield Museums Forum 2022 conference.
The conference has been scheduled for October 12th-13th, 2022, and 20 institutions from almost every continent have confirmed their participation. Representatives of, among others, the Darwin Military Museum, the Narvik War Museum, the Naval Museum in Peru and the Winter War Museum in Finland will talk about their experiences from the perspective of the people managing battlefield museums. You will be able to listen to the lectures both in the conference room of the Museum of the Second World War in Gdańsk and through the museum's website in a specially prepared live-stream section devoted to the event.
The President of the Republic of Poland, Andrzej Duda, has taken honorary patronage over the conference.
WBMF ON-LINE WEBSITE - MORE INFORMATION