On the 5th and 6th of June Vastari participated in the exciting ‘We Are Museums’ conference in Warsaw, Poland.

Previously held in Vilnus, We Are Museums is a young event designed for innovative museum professionals to explore new tech measures to open up to new audiences, engage young visitors and offer new solutions to old problems.

The Palace of Culture and Science in Central Warsaw

Hosted by the State Ethnographic Museum and Zachęta National Gallery of Art , the event offered those who attended a great chance to exchange opinions, discuss solutions and  share opportunities with a wide forum of international museum professionals from 15 countries including among others the UK, Poland, Sweden, Mongolia and France. 

Reception of the State Ethnographic Museum in Warsaw

The talks and workshops focused on returning to the core of museum activities and enhancing the visitor experience. Other interesting topics revolved around how to use social media to create a sense of community around museums and promote their activities. A wide range of museum apps presented at WAM impressed all participants.

Apart from the indepth insight into how museums cope with digitisation and increase online presence, the topic of social media was widely discussed.

A panel on Museum Selfies by Agathe Lichtensztejn from Paris explained how museums cannot remain indifferent to social media and what visitors are trying to tell the institutions through certain behaviours.

Marta practising her best pose for her #museumselfie.

'How to’ sessions on Twitter and Instagram by Mar Dixon and Janusz Barwik further expanded on how to use these communication channels to benefit and bond with visitors.

Comfy on the bean bags- Mar Mixon’s session on Twitter.

Creative session on an magic carpet at the Museum of Modern Art.

The evenings were filled with networking events. We are looking forward to participating in next year’s We Are Museums conference in Berlin. Many thanks to the organisers, speakers and participating colleagues!

And to wrap it all up.. ​#museumstruck with the Warsaw National Museum team at the Zachęta Gallery of Art.