Open Dialogues | African Collections between Archives, Storage, and Contemporary Museum Practices.
International School of Cultural Heritage. Seminar with the residents
Free entry
The seminar will be held in English
As part of the fourth edition of the International School of Cultural Heritage programme, promoted by the National School of Heritage and Cultural Activities, the MUCIV-Museum of Civilisations is organising an opening seminar for the professional residency Managing Art Collections: from Ancient to Contemporary, with the participation of four directors, curators and conservators from museums and cultural institutions of national importance from Angola, the Republic of the Congo, Ghana and Senegal.
The seminar will be attended by:
Abubakari Iddrisu Saeed, Regional Director of the Centre for National Culture (Tamale, Ghana)
Edna Bettencourt, Independent Curator and Project Manager at the NESR Art Foundation (Luanda, Angola)
Grace Jessica Moyongo, Head of Documentation and Archives at the National Museum of Brazzaville (Brazzaville, Republic of Congo)
El Hadji Malick Ndiaye, Curator and Head of Museum at IFAN / Mhéodore Monod African Art Museum (Dakar, Senegal)
Gaia Delpino, Curator of the African Arts and Cultures Collections and the Collections of the former Colonial Museum, MUCIV-Museum of Civilisations
Rosa Anna Di Lella, Curator of the Collections of the former Colonial Museum and Head of Educational Department, MUCIV-Museum of Civilisations
Matteo Lucchetti, Curator of the Contemporary Arts and Cultures Collections, MUCIV-Museum of Civilisations
Breanna Upshaw, Researcher, John Cabot University, Rome
The seminar provides an opportunity for dialogue with the professionals who will be taking part in the MUCIV-Museum of Civilisations residency programme from 27 April to 20 May 2026. The project aims to strengthen international cooperation between the Museum of Civilisations and the institutions represented by the participants. The project intends to foster exchanges of expertise and curatorial practices related to the study, management and interpretation of museum collections, with particular attention to African collections preserved at MUCIV and to the historical archives associated with them.
Launched in 2019, the International School of Cultural Heritage was conceived to strengthen professional dialogue between Italian cultural institutions and heritage professionals from diverse geographical contexts. Over the course of its various editions, the programme has contributed to the development of an international network of professionals engaged in the management, protection and promotion of cultural heritage.
The fourth edition, entitled ‘Managing Art Collections: from Ancient to Contemporary’, focused on the management of museum collections characterised by the coexistence of heritage from different historical and cultural contexts, promoting an interdisciplinary dialogue between archaeological heritage and contemporary artistic production. The programme comprised a structured course consisting of online training sessions, an intensive workshop in Rome and a four-week professional residency at six museum institutions under the Ministry of Culture: the MUCIV-Museum of Civilisation, the Regional Directorate of National Museums of Lazio, the National Archaeological Museum of Taranto (MArTA), the National Archaeological Museum of Reggio Calabria, the National Archaeological Museum of Naples (MANN) and the Archaeological Museums and Parks of Praeneste and Gabii.