In the Aftermath of the White Cube: Museums and Other Spaces

No longer willing to be pristine, disinterested and ultimately sterile white cubes, museums and alternative art spaces today are pressed to continually assert their vitality and relevance and trade in banalities for accessibility. Competition with the international art biennales and art fairs also forces museums to define their own missions in the expanded art ecosystem. How is today’s art museum re-imagining its ethics and politics? What is the function of the art museum in the 21st century? Who is its audience?

Speakers: 

Sabine Breitwieser, Secretary and Treasurer of International Committee of ICOM for Museums and Collections of Modern Art
Eungie Joo, Keith Haring Director and Curator of Education and Public Programs, New Museum of Contemporary Art, New York
Bec Dean, Associate Director, Performance Space, Sydney
Michael Rush, curator, writer, critic and Former Director, Rose Art Museum, Brandeis University, Boston

Moderated by Adele Tan, art historian, teacher and writer 


Backroom Conversations is supported by the Home Affairs Bureau, HKSAR, and the Burger Collection

For more information about ART HK 10, please click here.

DVD documentation of this talk is now available for viewing at the Archive.