“Cities are to the 21st Century what factories were to the 20th Century” – Richard Florida
Early in this century, the number of people living in cities constituted – for the first time in human history – more than half of the world’s population. Cities have always been catalysts for cultural change but the current rapid growth in the number and size of cities has sparked a quantum leap in cultural change, including the growth and transformation of museums, most of which are located in cities.
Implicit in the quotation above from economist Richard Florida’s groundbreaking book The Rise of the Creative Class is the idea that the 21st century economy is driven by knowledge and information-based products.
Museums in their capacity as collectors of works of art and artefacts in every field of human endeavour are mediators of cultural, social and scientific change. Museums in their capacity as presenters of new content are accelerators of cultural change. Museums as patrons of new architecture play a key role in the reinvention of our 21st century cities. That is why this exhibition looks both into the exciting new museum architecture of the coming decades and, beyond the buildings, into the forces and personalities that make them happen.
The increasing public interest in museums and museum architecture has inspired this third part of the remarkably successful trilogy of museum architecture exhibitions launched in 2000 by Suzanne Greub, Director of the Art Centre Basel.
The first exhibition in this series, Museums for a New Millennium: Concepts, Projects, Buildings focussed on 25 projects built in the decade between 1990 and 2000.
The second, Museums in the 21st Century: Concepts, Projects, Buildings featured 27 museums created between 2000 and 2010.
This third exhibition, Beyond the Building: Museums in the 21st Century will show about 20 large-scale projects in planning, under construction or recently completed.
For this concluding exhibition of the trilogy, Suzanne Greub has invited Gail Dexter Lord, Co-President of Lord Cultural Resources to collaborate as the associate curator on this exhibition.
The compelling stories about museum growth lie beyond the building. Cities and citizens make the museum projects happen. Visitors, learners, collectors, spectacle-seekers, researchers, conservators, donors, civic boosters and holiday-makers make the museum projects live.
This exhibition goes beyond the building to give voice to architects, patrons and the public as co-creators of museum projects.
The exhibition will display about 20 selected building-projects in a cultural cluster context. Each project will be presented by means of:
Space requirements: 600 m2 or more for a generous exhibition design.
The exhibition will be accompanied by an extensive, richly illustrated scholarly catalogue, printed by Hirmer Publishers, Munich and will be an architectural book in its own right.
The concept and volume will be similar to our first and second publications on modern museum architecture (please check our detailed list of catalogues here).
