The Global Culture Assembly. Experimenting with New Forms of Governance in Museums (2022–2024)

Abstract

The Global Culture Assembly (GCA) is a collaborative initiative that seeks to redefine museum governance through inclusive, horizontal and cross-cultural participation. Emerging from the 2022 Humboldt Forum’s opening symposium, the GCA has evolved through workshops and ongoing dialogue between international partners, museum professionals and community representatives. Its central aim is to establish permanent structures, such as an embassy, that enable shared decision-making over cultural heritage. Despite internal tensions, representational challenges and inequalities of power between the Humboldt Forum complex and the GCA, the latter offers a promising path toward decolonial transformation in museum practices. By prioritizing fair collaboration, transparency and long-term engagement, it represents an exceptional experiment in 21st-century museology. This article reviews the unfolding of the GCA over the past three years. We shed light on how external partners are willing (and allowed) to collaborate and participate in museums’ decision-making processes, as well as addressing the challenges that arise when experimenting with new forms of governance. Finally, we briefly engage with decolonial perspectives and describe how the GCA can offer hope in the context of 21st-century museums.