Towards a Visual History of Museums (Naples, 14-16 Jan 26)

PRIN – PROGETTI DI RICERCA DI RILEVANTE INTERESSE NAZIONALE – Bando 2022
“Le forme del museo: progetto pilota per un atlante digitale dei musei italiani”
Università di Napoli Federico II, Università di Pisa, Università Roma Tre, Università di Udine

International Conference
Towards a Visual History of Museums: Studies and Experiences

edited by Silvia CECCHINI, Paola D’ALCONZO, Antonella GIOLI, Donata LEVI

Proposal Submission Deadline: September 30, 2025
Notification of Selection Results: October 15, 2025

In recent years, many museums have engaged in redefining their image through re-installations or new tools for self-representation. More rarely, however, have museum institutions focused on communicating their own history to the public, an approach that would allow visitors to understand exhibition spaces as the result of multiple processes including the formation of collections, their arrangements, the gallery layouts, and the organization of displays.
At a time when museums are undergoing significant transformations affecting their very ‘form’, it is necessary to reflect on how displays have changed over past centuries, as museum institutions have been called upon to respond to society’s evolving needs.
Visual documents (such as drawings, engravings, paintings, photographs, and videos) that record these choices, when fully recognized as historical sources, can play a vital role in reconstructing a museum’s history, its language, and its narrative strategies. At the same time, this approach enables scholars to envision new forms of analysis, offering a reassessment of museological and museographic identities from a perspective that is not exclusively technical but critical and historiographical.
This call therefore invites contributions that trace the history of the ‘forms’ assumed by archaeological and art museums through the critical analysis of visual sources related to arrangements and installations. Submissions should aim to combine a historical-artistic approach with the broader field of Visual Studies.

Specifically, proposals may address:
– Museums that have already undertaken significant initiatives in presenting their history to the public, primarily based on visual documents.
– Museums that have enhanced archival and photographic sources to visually narrate their history.
– Critical analysis of specific cases of reconstruction and visual narratives of museums’ history, as well as comparative studies of different experiences.

Proposals – to be sent to visualhistoryofmuseums@gmail.com – should include a title and abstract (maximum 2,000 characters, including spaces) accompanied by two images (300 dpi), a minimum of three keywords, and a short CV (maximum 1,500 characters, including spaces).

Submissions may be for either a paper or a poster; please specify the intended format.

Please note:
– Papers and posters may be submitted in Italian, English, French, or Spanish.
– The deadline for abstract submission is September 30, 2025.
– Notification of acceptance will be communicated by October 15, 2025.
– Selected speakers will be responsible for covering their own travel and accommodation expenses.
– The pre-proceedings, including abstracts of both accepted papers and posters, will be distributed to all participants upon registration at the opening of the conference.
– Written contributions (papers and posters) will be published following a successful blind peer-review process.
– Final versions of texts for publication must be submitted by February 10, 2026.

Upon notification of acceptance, authors will receive:
– Editorial guidelines for written contributions.
– Template for poster formatting.

For further information, please contact the Organizing Secretariat: visualhistoryofmuseums@gmail.com.

Scientific Committee: Silvia Cecchini, Paola D’Alconzo, Antonella Gioli, Donata Levi

Scientific Secretariat: Daria Brasca, Annalisa Laganà, Martina Lerda, Camilla Parisi

Organizing Secretariat: Annalisa Laganà (coordinator), with Maria Giovanna Cianciulli, Pasquale Di Nota, Benedetta Tortora