Trainings
NEMO’s courses provide training on topics related to all aspects of museum work and are facilitated by international museum experts. Participants also get to share best practice approaches with each other in peer-to-peer exchanges.
Upcoming training
- Unlocking potential: Museums, the SDGs, and the path to wellbeing
- Facilitated by Inga Surgunte, Henry McGhie, and José Luiz Pederzoli Jr.
- Online on 10 & 17 September and 1 & 8 October 2025 at 10:00-12:30 CEST
- The call for applications is open until 2 June 2025
NEMO and ICCROM are thrilled to invite applications to the 3rd edition of the online workshop on Museums and the SDGs (Sustainable Development Goals). This year a special focus will be on wellbeing as Inga Surgunte (Latvian Academy of Culture), Henry McGhie (Curating Tomorrow) and José Luiz Pederzoli Jr. (ICCROM) will guide participants in the training ‘Unlocking potential: Museums, the SDGs, and the path to wellbeing’.
After successful collaboration over the last 2 years, NEMO and ICCROM are teaming up again to empower workshop participants to contribute to Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). This year the programme will have a certain focus on Sustainable Development Goal 3, ‘Ensure healthy lives and promote well-being for all at all ages’, in terms of how museums work with communities, also considering the health and wellbeing of museum staff, and how action for this goal relates to a range of museum activities. These topics are interpreted in the broad sense and participants working with other topics are also strongly encouraged to apply.
The overall aim of NEMO and ICCROM is to develop capacity in museum workers to fully understand sustainable development and the SDGs, to formulate key SDG-oriented challenges or aspirations to be addressed through their collections-based work, and to make and successfully implement a plan to put their ideas into practice.
What you will learn
Agenda 2030 and SDGs are based on the principles of human rights for everyone, Leave No-one Behind (prioritising the needs of those most under-served in society), and gender equality, as well as protecting and restoring the natural environment. Museums can play many roles in this Agenda, through caring for and providing access to collections, education, public participation, creating jobs, training, partnerships, research and more. They also need to manage their negative impacts, for example heavy use of natural resources, and where they marginalise and exclude people. Sustainable development approaches help us to "do more good and do less harm", focusing on addressing the big challenges facing people and nature locally and globally. The workshop will draw on resources created by ICCROM's Our Collections Matter initiative, notably the online Toolkit, an open-access resource including over 600 practical tools gathered from the heritage sector and beyond.
Outline of workshop programme:
- Agenda 2030 and the Sustainable Development Goals: how they relate to the work of museums. Understanding national and local challenges; recognising how your organisation contributes positively and negatively to sustainable development.
- Deciding on your sustainable development challenge/aspiration: setting goals and developing plans, using the Sustainable Development Goal targets.
- Finding useful tools to support your project: exploring the Our Collections Matter toolkit. Identifying relevant actors from your context to engage with.
- What you are going to do: consolidate and share your commitments and plans.
Practical information
- NEMO members are given priority and participate free of charge. Non-members are eligible to participate in the training for a fee of 100 euro.
- Apply by 2 June 2025. Find all details in the call for applications.
- Participants are expected to attend all four sessions.
- Participants do not need any previous experience of working with the SDGs and Wellbeing; but should work with collections.
- Participants are expected to do some work - about 1 hour between the online sessions - to relate the course content to their own work and workplace.
Meet the facilitators
Inga Surgunte (Latvian Academy of Culture)
Inga is a research assistant at the Latvian Academy of Culture and Arts Institute. She is involved in several international projects addressing the cultural sector’s impact on sustainable development, including health and wellbeing.
Henry McGhie (Curating Tomorrow)
Henry has a background as an ecologist, museum curator and manager. He runs the UK-based consultancy Curating Tomorrow and works as a consultant on ICCROM’s Our Collections Matter programme.
José Luiz Pederzoli Jr. (ICCROM)
José has a background in polymer chemistry and paper-based heritage. Conservation scientist at the Netherlands Institute for Cultural Heritage (1997-2003) and ICCROM (2005-2008). Back at ICCROM since 2018, he manages the Strategic Planning.
