ICOM-SUSTAIN’s FIRST IC DAY, 15 November 2025

ICOM-SUSTAIN is pleased to host its first IC Day, “Museums as Arenas for Action: Supporting Changing Communities in a Just Transition to a Sustainable Future,” 15 November 2025, in cooperation with the remarkable Museum of the Future in Dubai.

This is the only hybrid IC day available to digital registrants of ICOM 2025. Only 100 spots are available. Join the day early to secure one of those spots.

Schedule:

9:00 AM Museum of the Future opens

9:30 AM SUSTAIN IC Day Registration

10:00 AM Welcome: SUSTAIN chair, Morien Rees

10:05 AM Museum of the Future director, Majed Al Mansoori

10:15 AM Sharing SUSTAIN, Ben Melham, SUSTAIN board member

• Introduction to SUSTAIN’s 2024 Young Member Grant Recipient, Prossy Nanyondo, Uganda Railway Museum

10:40 AM SESSION: Sustainable Development: From 2030 Goals & Beyond

• Access Beyond Ramps: Reclaiming Disability Narratives in Museums for Social Sustainability, Nevine Zakaria, Egypt/Germany
• Agenda MAC USP 2030, Juliana De Lucca, Spain/Brazil
• Activating the Sustainable Development Goals through Museum-Based Social Innovation: The MLEADS Model in Indonesia, Nofa Lestari, Indonesia [co-authored with Misari Musa, Sriwulantuty RO, and Nyimas Ulfah]
• Moderator: Giovanna Gray Nassralla, Culture for the Planet, Switzerland

12:00 PM Lunch (Museum of the Future)

13:00 PM SESSION: Climate Justice, Equity, & Community

• Coastal Heritage, Climate Justice, and Participatory Museology in Costa Rica, Juan Pablo Zamora-Rodriguez, Costa Rica
• Activating Affective Knowledge: Experimental Human-Nature Encounters in the Natural History Museum, Berlin, Sylvana Jahre, Germany [co-authored with Julia Diekämper & Carolin Glahe]
• Empowering Cultural Institutions for the Sustainability Transition, Giovanna Gray Nassralla, Switzerland [co-authored with Martin Müller and Leticia Labaronne]
• Moderator: Ben Melham, United Kingdom

14:25 PM SESSION: Cultural Heritage & Sustainable Practice

• Crafting Continuity: Ithra’s Museum Practice as a Model for Cultural Heritage and Sustainable Action, Farah Abushullaih, Saudi Arabia [co-authored with Preeti Gaonkar]
• Stitching Spirit into Sustainability: Exploring Spiritual Sustainability as a ValuesBased Leverage Point in Sami Art and Museum Practice, Fangke Jiao, Sweden
• Beyond the Battlefield: How War Fuels Climate Change and What Museums Can Do, Natalie Dziubenko, Ukraine
• Italian Network of Museums of the Futures, Michele Lanzinger, Italy, in absentia, and Michela Rota, Italy
• Moderator: Debra A. Reid, United States

15:45 PM Comfort Break

16:00 PM Closing Conversation: Future Directions in Sustainable Museums

• Alberto Garlandini, Italy
• Rossella Locatelli, Italy
• Moderator: Michela Rota, Italy

16:30 PM Coffee Break

17:00 PM ICOM SUSTAIN Annual General Assembly (for ICOM-SUSTAIN members & interested individuals)

• Featured speaker, Lucimara Letelier, SUSTAIN vice-chair, live from COP 30 in Belém, Brazil

18:00 PM Guided tour 1 hour (for ICOM members) Maximum 45 per group

19:00 PM Open time to tour museum (including reflective space with meditative engagement)

21:00 PM Museum closes

If you have not registered for IC day please go to this page, scroll down to find the description of the ICOM-SUSTAIN IC day, and click “Join” https://dubai2025.icom.museum/international-committees-day

DIGITAL REGISTRANTS: ONLY 100 seats exist for SUSTAIN’s IC ZOOM meeting. You will receive a ZOOM link directly from ICOM to participate.