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Creating the museum


  • National Gallery Londo UK (map)

Exploring the museum impulse in local, regional and national contexts

While the birth of the concept of the museum has attracted lots of scholarly attention and the desire to create new museums is now a global phenomenon, the question of how individual museums, their collections, buildings and personnel, come into being has not been widely considered. Over time, local, regional and national museums, large and small have flourished. Some museums, however, although passionately wished for, ultimately stalled, and some were proposed but never realised. Some museums were created for particular audiences, while others evolved from earlier forms of collecting.

To further develop our understanding of the reasons for creating museums, and to coincide with the 200th anniversary of the creation of the National Gallery in London, this conference will focus on why and how galleries and museums have emerged and evolved globally. The conference will explore the different ways in which museums and public art galleries come into existence and the inspiration, rationale and objectives for ‘creating’ museums; and what the future impulses for creating museums might be.

Organising institutions

The conference is jointly organised by the National Gallery and the Museums and Galleries History Group.

Please find the Conference Schedule HERE

Please find the Conference Programme HERE

Price: Standard:£30 Concessions:£15 MGHG Members:£15

Event official website


Earlier Event: September 25
FuturaCanvas 2025
Later Event: September 29
Culture and Health Forum, Turku, Finland