Rethinking museum practices: decolonizing collections is an online series of talks organised by the international ICOM committees CIDOC, COMCOL and the national committee ICOM Brazil in partnership with MAM Rio (Museum of Modern Art – Rio de Janeiro) and supported by Itaú Cultural.

In the series we critically reflect on the practice of collecting and collection management. What does decolonizing mean when acknowledging the different contexts internationally; how to approach it in an active act centralizing human rights and heritage justice. From a perspective of solidarity we like to explore, exchange and recreate strategies and practical solutions regarding the contemporary demands to the collections and changing collecting practices.

The series is divided into a five day program, with 2,5 hours per day*, each episode with a specific focus:

• November 26: Rethinking restitution and repatriation
• November 30: Rethinking provenance research, information and knowledge sharing
• December 3: Rethinking acquisition and deaccessioning
• December 7: Rethinking cataloguing, classification and digital presence
• December 10:  Closing session – Rethinking institutional transparency and accountability

The five sessions themes allow us to invite a diverse and mixed array of speakers that are directly involved by their lives, research or work to the main theme of our series: decolonisation of museum collections.

We also will have a critical listener during the five sessions that will look into the presentations and discussions with a critical approach to help us to put everything together in a publication about this theme to be publish next year.

You can register here and see the program here!