ICOFOM Study Series

Micromuseology in Lesvos: Reflecting on large ideas through “small places”

Alexandra Bounia — 2025-07-24

This article examines three grassroots museums on Lesvos to propose a theory of micromuseology, highlighting how small-scale, community-led institutions preserve personal and collective memory, support intergenerational learning, and foster cultural sustainability. These museums — focused on resin collection, refugee heritage, and local folklore — offer intimate, emotionally resonant experiences, rooted in gift economies and personal storytelling. Despite lacking professional standards, they function as vital spaces of identity and resilience, particularly in the absence of official narratives. The author argues these micro-museums challenge dominant museological paradigms and demand a rethinking of what museums are and whom they serve.

Layered legacies: Building the future on the knowledge of the past

Ana Katurić — 2025-07-24

This article explores the Croatian Coral Centre Zlarin (CCCZ) as a case study in ecological museology, tracing how coral serves as both ecological organism and cultural symbol. It examines the co-creative museum process engaging local traditions, global trade histories, and sustainability discourse. Through contemporary art, archival research, and community dialogue, the CCCZ reframes coral harvesting’s history as a platform for climate action, cultural memory, and participatory heritage-making. Emphasizing interdisciplinary collaboration, the article positions museums as transformative civic spaces where the past fosters ecological awareness, socio-cultural resilience, and new futures grounded in inherited knowledge and community solidarity.

The Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding: Small step for museology, giant leap for local community

Darko Babić — 2025-07-24

The Betina Museum of Wooden Shipbuilding on Murter Island, Croatia, stands as a beacon of maritime heritage preservation. This ethnographic museum not only showcases the rich tradition of wooden shipbuilding in Betina but also embodies the principles of an ecomuseum by actively engaging the local community in the preservation and dissemination of their intangible cultural heritage. This article explores the museum’s establishment, its collections, community involvement, and its role in sustaining traditional shipbuilding and sailing practices.

Reactivating traditional environmental knowledge to increase plant awareness

Hannah Reid Ford — 2025-07-24

This article explores the relationship between traditional environmental knowledge (TEK) and plant awareness disparity, or “plant blindness,” in the context of the Cayman Islands. It examines how TEK may be reactivated to enhance nature-connectedness and pro-environmental behaviours. Drawing from archival and ethnographic research, the study suggests that bioculturally grounded interventions can restore human-plant relationships. It proposes implications for museology in promoting biocultural diversity and sustainability, offering insights into addressing biodiversity loss and climate change through localized, culturally relevant methods rooted in the revitalization of TEK.

Tides of change: Youth, museums and heritage in the climate emergency

Jamie Allan Brown — 2025-07-24

This paper explores how youth engagement with heritage in small island communities can advance climate justice through participatory museology. Drawing on the Shared Island Stories project connecting Barbados and Scotland’s Outer Hebrides, it demonstrates how transnational exchanges and intergenerational knowledge-sharing empower young people as climate changemakers. Through critical pedagogy, co-curation and community-led practices, museums become active sites of resilience, challenging colonial legacies and fostering sustainable futures. The paper highlights the transformative potential of youth-led initiatives in reshaping museum roles — from custodians of history to catalysts for environmental and social justice in climate-vulnerable regions.

Transmission, archipels et publics : Le musée rénové à Tahiti

Marine Vallée — 2025-07-24

Après cinq ans de fermeture de son parcours d’exposition permanent, le Te Fare Iamanaha – Musée de Tahiti et des Îles rouvre ses portes en mars 2023. Repenser le projet muséographique et de médiation d’un musée qui avait été conçu dans les années 1970 questionnait les modes de transmission des savoirs, au cœur de sa mission. Ainsi, la variété culturelle des communautés des archipels de Polynésie française et leur demande de meilleure visibilité a été au cœur du projet muséographique. La médiation scientifique a été également confrontée à la grande diversité des publics attendus au sein de l’unique institution publique muséale de ce vaste territoire, tout en gardant le fil conducteur du projet d’établissement : construire un musée « par des Polynésiens, pour les Polynésiens ». Outils, expériences et premiers retours illustrent les innovations, les limites et les perspectives qui entrent en jeu dans un tel projet.

Retrouver la voix de nos objets : démarche muséale et revendications culturelles au fenua ènata

Guillaume Molle — 2025-07-24

Aux Îles Marquises, en Polynésie française, le patrimoine culturel matériel, qu’il soit archéologique ou contemporain, recouvre de multiples enjeux. À la fois culturels, identitaires, pédagogiques et économiques, ils ont été réaffirmés par l’inscription récente de l’archipel au patrimoine mondial de l’UNESCO. Cet article s’appuie sur l’exemple de l’île de Ua Huna, où un nouveau musée fut récemment construit sur le site culturel et communautaire Tetumu. Il explore l’engagement des dirigeants locaux et de la communauté dans la préservation et la valorisation de leur culture, en s’intéressant aux démarches entreprises et aux objectifs visés, réponse autochtone à une frustration causée par l’éloignement d’un patrimoine largement dispersé. La mise en avant de la langue marquisienne y devient également outil de réappropriation. Cette initiative pionnière de Ua Huna s’inscrit dans une dynamique proprement marquisienne, en écho aux préoccupations croissantes concernant la préservation et la...

L’exposition comme émanation d’une parole : Symbolique et mise en espace à la Maison de la Nouvelle-Calédonie

Cassandre Decorce — 2025-07-24

L’article explore comment la Maison de la Nouvelle-Calédonie à Paris utilise la scénographie pour incarner et transmettre une parole kanak contemporaine. Conçue comme un « chemin initiatique », son exposition réunit objets, symboles et récits, intégrant une pensée autochtone vivante. Les poteaux sculptés, ambassadeurs d’une identité en transformation, et l’alliance du sacré, du secret et de l’émotion, nourrissent une réflexion sur la décolonisation muséale. Loin d’être statique, cet espace interpelle la relation entre culture et politique, ouvrant des perspectives sur l’évolution des identités dans des contextes postcoloniaux, et sur le rôle des musées comme lieux de dialogue et de transmission vivante.

Museums as social action: Building equity in marginalised communities

Leilani Wong — 2025-07-24

This case study proposes a new methodology for museums to engage and activate marginalised communities, using a social action approach to identify social vulnerabilities and become an actor for equity and justice in the community. The ecomuseum Te Fare Natura in Moorea, French Polynesia, serves its Indigenous community through the social reintegration and cultural rehabilitation of disenfranchised youth. Mediating science through culture and revalorizing ancestral Polynesian knowledges, the ecomuseum collaborates with civic services to hire disadvantaged youth as museum guides, providing them with the skills needed to reclaim their dignity and protect their island homes, building cultural and climate resilience.

Empowering narratives: Rethinking Taiwan through the National Museum of History in Taiwan

Yi-An Chen — 2025-07-24

This article examines the Oceanic Taiwan exhibition at Taiwan’s National Museum of History (NMH) as a pivotal moment in reshaping national identity through museum narratives. Departing from its Sinocentric legacy, the NMH engaged diverse non-state actors to construct a maritime-centered curatorial assemblage that foregrounded Taiwan’s settler-colonial history and ongoing democratization. Using Bennett’s museum theory and Latour’s Actor-Network Theory, the study analyzes the exhibition’s agency in producing a counternarrative that simultaneously advanced decolonial aims and revealed representational limitations—particularly regarding Indigenous voices. Oceanic Taiwan exemplifies both the potential and challenges of national museums in cultural decolonization and identity rearticulation in post-authoritarian Taiwan.