Commoning the museum
Participation and the civic role of contemporary art museums in global cities
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 14947446 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Zoran Erić (0009-0007-9637-235X, University of Belgrade, corresponding author), Biljana Mickov (0009-0000-4555-9746, Institute of Culture Vojvodina) |
| Year | 2026 |
| Pages | 1-22 |
| Publication date | 2026-03-17 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Museum Management and Curatorship (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0964-7775 • E-ISSN: 1872-9185 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09647775.2026.2644152 |
| OpenAlex | W7138277615 |
| Language | EN |
| References cited | 38 |
Contemporary art museums are being reconfigured as civic infrastructures in global urban contexts. Once associated primarily with symbolic authority and elite cultural capital, museums are increasingly instantiated as participatory spaces that foster community engagement. This theory-driven multiple-case analysis of five institutions illustrates how museums negotiate tensions between authority and openness, heritage and experimentation, and global positioning and local accountability. Its findings indicate museums are operating as civic infrastructures integral to collective urban life: participatory initiatives can redistribute cultural authority but remain contested. Transformative potential depends on sustained practices of shared responsibility, care, and collective imagination; such practices are fragile and constrained by precarious funding, governance limits, and pressures from the global cultural economy. By practicing commoning and care, cultivating participation, and embedding themselves in urban environments, museums function as innovative laboratories for reimagining more inclusive and adaptive urban futures
Civic engagement · Contemporary art · Contemporary society · Exhibition · Right to the city · Art, Politics, and Modernism · Cultural Industries and Urban Development · Museums and Cultural Heritage
The Politics of Urban Potentiality
Governing the Commons
Museums in a Troubled World
Common Space
A Ladder of Citizen Participation
Unpacking 'Participation'
Museum Activism
Museums as Urban Catalysts
The Creative City
Social Works
Museums for urban regeneration? Exploring conditions for their effectiveness
Neoliberal Culture
New Creative Community
Cultural Policy
The multi-level perspective on sustainability transitions
Aligning accountability arrangements for ambiguous goals
Re-envisioning community spaces in Corona, Queens, New York City
The cultural contradictions of the creative city
Transforming museum management through ICT adoption
Omnivorous cultural consumption and the co-creation of cultural products
Neo‐liberalism, Culture and Policy
Participatory art and geography
Measure for Measure
Beyond the Creative City
Managing Public Museums Appropriately and Consequentially
Case Selection Techniques in Case Study Research
Media and Participation
Democratic Theory and Self-Transformation
| Highly cited | No |
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