Stedelijk Museum Amsterdam at 125 Years – Editorial

Abstract

“Museums are processes,” suggested the Brazilian ICOM delegation as part of their proposal for a new museum definition in 2019.[1] This might sound to some like the complete opposite of what, at least in Europe, museums seemingly represent: preservation and permanence. However, processes, in the sense of changes and shifts, have to increasingly define the dynamics of museums in the twenty-first century. The debate around the “new museum” or the “museum of the future” is not a phenomenon of this century, as Nora Sternfeld points out, but rather has again become a major concern.[2] Sternfeld quotes Alfred Lichtwark, who in 1904 argued “Solange die Museen nicht versteinern, werden sie sich wandeln müssen. (As long as museums do not petrify, they will have to change.)”[3] Lichtwark’s statement came at the height of European colonialism. Today “Western”[4] museums cannot plan their future without acknowledging their history of legitimizing racist and colonial violence.