The Collaborative Museum: “Gegen die Gewohnheit" (Going Against the Grain) – New Forms of Collaboration

From January 2023 to December 2025, the Ethnologisches Museum (Ethnological Museum) and the Museum für Asiatische Kunst (Asian Art Museum) try out new forms of international collaboration in the project “Das Kollaborative Museum” (The Collaborative Museum), or CoMuse for short, while curating exhibitions, researching collections, designing education programmes, engaging in artistic interventions, and implementing conservation and restoration.

Anna Schäfers, who works on the project, and Katharina Erben, a freelance cultural editor, introduce various sub-projects that are part of CoMuse. They talk with representatives of Indigenous peoples, international partners and fellows, people from Berlin’s pluralistic urban society and the museum staff who collaborate with them all, including curators, art educators, and conservator-restorers.

Podcasts

6 Hits
  • Podcast
    Scientific Cooperation Urban Society Provenance Research

    When you hear Ethnologisches Museum, you often think of looted art, colonialism, and Africa. Time to dedicate an episode to the topic.

  • Podcast
    Contemporary Art Urban Society

    At the invitation of the Ethnologisches Museum, the sculptor George Nuku has developed three interventions for the Oceania exhibition areas in the…

  • Podcast
    Urban Society Education & Outreach Culture of Remembrance

    The projekt “Intertwined Memories” explores how the Shoah and crimes of colonialism are remembered – and how the two are connected. To this end, four…

  • Podcast
    Urban Society Oral History

    The exhibition room “Aspects of Islam” is located on the 3rd floor of the Humboldt Forum in the exhibitions of the Ethnologisches Museum. Islam is a…

  • Podcast
    Urban Society Education & Outreach

    After Russia’s attack on Ukraine on 24 February 2022, many people fled Ukraine, including to Germany. In 2022, the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin awarded…

  • Podcast
    Urban Society Community Engagement

    In September 2022, the Humboldt Forum in Berlin opened the last parts of its permanent exhibitions. More than 80 international guests attended a…