Yael Eylat Van-Essen PhD – Curator / Researcher

City Museums as Urban Hubs for Civic Sustainability

In recent years many urban museums have transformed from institutions dedicated to presenting the city’s history to dynamic urban centers that address contemporary issues. As such, they operate as a new kind of a ‘public space’ where museum visitors can become active agents in co-defining the city’s past, present, and future. In this context, museums become a generator for civic participatory engagement, touching upon diverse aspects of urban complexity. This process is part of a more comprehensive process characterising museums today, based on recognising that museums should take a more active role in achieving sustainability and communal resilience.    

To a large extent, this process is supported by the new opportunities enabled by big data, smart city and digital twin technologies. The ability to extract knowledge from large databases and integrate information from different ontological fields and periods becomes a substantial engine in these renewed urban institutions. The new digital tools make it possible to harness museums to tasks previously beyond their scope of activities while connecting the museum to its physical and virtual environments.

The lecture presents a proposed model for urban museums to fulfil reciprocal relations with their physical, cultural, social, and political environments. It should serve as a tool for the city’s inhabitants to take part in reflecting the city’s identity and uniqueness, connecting its multifaceted layers, and improving the citizens’ sense of belonging and communal commitment. To conduct such a process, this model intends to integrate data and knowledge stemming from the city’s shared historical narratives and from data related to the present. This kind of data can be retrieved from smart-cities data retrieval infrastructures and from local inhabitants through participatory processes that can echo their civic concerns. In the context of sustainability, this model contributes to awareness-raising and the development of community practices that can lead to practical change.

Although each city has its unique characteristics, this model provides conceptual guidelines that can be implemented and adjusted to any urban environment. It is based on creating a comprehensive infrastructure at all levels of museum representation, physical and virtual, that would enable it to be constantly updated, reflecting both the transformation of the city and its ongoing occurrences.