Directors' Meeting 2025

The annual Directors’ Meeting is exclusively dedicated to NEMO’s full members: national organisations that represent and support museums in their countries. The 2025 edition will be organised on Sunday 26 October at FÆNGSLET in connection to NEMO's European Museum Conference 'Who cares? Museums, wellbeing, and resilience' in Horsens, Denmark.

The Directors' Meeting offers a unique opportunity for directors of national organisations representing museums to connect, exchange ideas, and explore shared challenges and trends in the museum sector.

This year, we are excited to invite Elizabeth Merritt to engage in discussions about the future of museums. As the American Alliance of Museums’ Vice President for Strategic Foresight and Founding Director of the Center for the Future of Museums​, her work covers strategic foresight and trends analysis as applied to museum planning and operation as well as monitoring emerging practices in other sectors.

  • Who is it for? The meeting is only open to senior management of national organisations representing museums that are members of NEMO and upon personal invitation.
  • Pre-registration is mandatory. Get in touch with office@ne-mo.org if you have any questions.
© ASTRA Museum, Image: Silviu Popa

The meeting takes place at FÆNGSLET (Fussingsvej 8, 8700 Horsens) in the room 'Snedkeriet' and starts at 10:00 on Sunday 26 October.

One senior representative per NEMO full member organisation is welcome to join the meeting. If the director cannot participate, we ask you to please appoint a representative to join on behalf of the organisation.

The public programme of the NEMO European Museum Conference starts in the afternoon on Sunday 26 October with tours followed by the NEMO Members' Forum and opening reception. Please note that you have to register to both the general conference programme as well as the Directors' Meeting. 

Programme

10:00

Welcome and introduction

Moderated by Julia Pagel, NEMO

10:30

Impulse talk: A status report on US museums in 2025

Elizabeth Merritt (USA), American Alliance of Museums’ Vice President for Strategic Foresight and Founding Director of the Center for the Future of Museums 

Moderated by Julia Pagel

The US museum sector is reeling from the impact of presidential executive orders and actions that are disrupting their operations and their financial health. Federal agencies that fund arts, culture, history, and science have been decimated, thousands of grants cancelled, diversity, equity and inclusion programs suppressed, and censorship imposed on museum interpretation. There are also emerging threats to the system of nonprofit, tax-exempt status that is the bedrock of civil society in America. AAM Vice President Elizabeth Merritt will provide a briefing on these developments, as well as an overview of how museum leaders and associations are responding to these challenges.

11:15

Nemo

Break

Stretch your legs and get some refreshments.

11:45

Open table discussions

Time to get talking in smaller group discussions on various topics:

  1. Bridging continents: Alliances between European and US museum sector
  2. Museums of tomorrow: Exploring future scenarios together
  3. Between resilience and crisis: The role of national umbrella organisations

13:00

Nemo

Lunch

We will wrap up the meeting with lunch.

Supported by

Logo of the European Union. The European flag is on the left. The text on the right reads "Co-funded by the European Union".