The MUDE – Museu de Design, Lisbon, announces an International Symposiumon Museology and Conservation dedicated to discussing contemporary challenges and emerging perspectives in museography and conservation within the museum context.
Under the theme “Between Exhibition Gallery and Storage. Redesigning museum conservation practices”, the Museum invites conservators, museologists, curators, designers, and other researchers to reflect on how conservation practices are (re)shaped, negotiated, and transformed through the institutional, conceptual and spatial dynamics of the museum.
In what ways can conservation be rethought as part of museological and curatorial discourse and vice versa?
The symposium aims to foster an interdisciplinary dialogue around the material and immaterial dimensions of conservation, exploring its intersections with curatorial strategies, design processes and museum mediation, also considering the challenges facing museums in terms of environmental sustainability.
We welcome academic papers, practical case studies, and research projects addressing the following themes:
- Interrelationships between conservation and curation
- From preventive care, display materiality, risk, and adaptation
- Collaborative practices between conservators, curators and designers
- Conservation narratives and the visibility of their process on display
- Methodological innovation in the conservation of modern and postmodern materials within contemporary collections
- The ethics and aesthetics of conservation in museum storytelling and curatorial discourse
The symposium will include a special panel — InBloom — to present the main outcomes of an interdisciplinary project and fosters a moment of discussion and exchange around blooming — a degradation phenomenon visible as whitish surface deposits that affect both the appearance and display potential of objects — bringing together perspectives from conservation, museum practice, and related professional fields. For a limited number of participants, a workshop will also be offered to those wishing to deepen their understanding of blooming in a museum context.
More information at InBloom
InBloom (2025–2026) is an interdisciplinary research project dedicated to the conservation of thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU)- coated fabrics in fashion and design collections. Widely used since the 1960s, these materials now face a critical challenge: blooming — a degradation phenomenon visible as whitish surface deposits that affect both the appearance and display potential of objects.
We are pleased to share the open call for papers for a special issue entitled Between Exhibition Gallery and Storage: Redesigning Museum Conservation Practices in the peer-reviewed journal Conservar Património.
Building on the themes explored during the International Symposium, this special issue welcomes contributions addressing the intersections between conservation, curatorship, exhibition practices, and contemporary museum collections. Submissions are open to both symposium participants and the wider international community of researchers and professionals working in these areas.
The submission deadline is 18 September 2026, and submissions are now open.
More information on manuscript preparation and submission guidelines is available at: https://conservarpatrimonio.pt/specialissues