ICOM-Design International Symposium

National Museum, Oslo
28–30 October 2025
Post-Symposium 31 October–1 November 2025

Deadline: 29 July 2025

For more information on how to apply click here.

The Design Collection Displays Reassessed symposium will discuss collection displays as sites of knowledge exchange and active engagement. The new National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo, a merger of four previously independent museums, is a fitting venue for a symposium with this theme. It opened its new, large-scale collection display in 2022, including decorative arts, design, interiors, fashion and studio crafts from the 1100s to the present.

Keynote Speakers

• Corinna Gardner, Senior Curator, Design and Digital, Victoria and Albert Museum, London
• Dr Sebastian Hackenschmidt, Curator of Furniture and Woodwork, MAK – Museum für angewandte Kunst, Vienna
• Marco Magni, founder and chief architect, and Maria Cristina Rizzello, architect and partner, Guicciardini & Magni Architetti, Florence
• Dr Leena Svinhufvud, Leading Researcher, Architecture & Design Museum, Helsinki

Image: Marco Magni, Guicciardini & Magni Architetti, sketch for Room 21, the collection display, National Museum, Oslo. Photo: Mario Ciampi

We are pleased to announce that the Call for Papers section of the ICOM Dubai 2025 website is open: https://dubai2025.icom.museum/call-for-papers. Even if you are not planning to present a paper this is how you should register to join us on the DESIGN IC Day site visits. ICOM Dubai will be held 11–17 November 2025 at the Dubai World Trade Centre.
 
There will be three ICOM DESIGN sessions held at the Dubai General Conference and one IC Day of site visits:

1. A-10 (DESIGN (ICDAD), GLASS) - Adornment and Identity (12th November 2025, 1.5 hours)
2. B-7 (or BC-7) (DESIGN (ICDAD), DEMHIST) - Adornment and Identity in Spatial Design and Objects (12th November 2025, 1.5 hours)
3. C-7 (COSTUME, DESIGN (ICDAD)) - Adornment and Identity (13th November 2025, 1.5 hours)
4. IC Day - Dubai’s Decorative Arts, Design, and Intangible Heritage (15th November 2025, all day)

DEADLINE FOR SUBMISSIONS: JUNE 22, 2025

For more information on the sessions' topics and application, please click here.

Photo: National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo. Image courtesy of Nasjonalmuseet

In addition to its Annual Conference in Dubai, ICOM–DESIGN is also organizing a separate 2025 International Symposium on the theme of “Collection Displays Reassessed” at the new National Museum of Art, Architecture and Design, Oslo (Nasjonalmuseet), 28–30 October, 2025. This program, organized by Nasjonalmuseet Senior Curator and ICOM–DESIGN board member Dr. Denise Hagströmer, will be followed by a special post-symposium tour to local destinations 30 October–1 November. Stay tuned for more information to come!

Photo: Museum of the Future, Dubai

Join ICOM–DESIGN for our 2025 Annual Meeting at the World Trade Centre, Dubai, during ICOM’s triennial General Conference, 11–17 November 2025. Find more information on their newly launched website: https://dubai2025.icom.museum/
 
The overall theme of ICOM Dubai is “The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities,” with three subthemes: “Intangible Heritage,” “Digital Technologies,” and “Youth Power.”

ICOM–DESIGN is planning three separate joint sessions with the international committees GLASS, COSTUME, and DEMHIST on the theme of “Adornment and Identity,” with slight variations depending on the partnering committee. We will also have a specially organized DESIGN IC Day of touring museums and other sites in Dubai of relevance to decorative arts and design professionals. Look for a Call for Papers on this topic in the coming weeks. Presentations will likely be relatively short, 10–15 minutes, and should relate to “Adornment and Identity,” hopefully in the context of one of the conference subthemes. Deadline for CfP submissions is 15 June 2025 unless otherwise stated on the Dubai website. Please submit your proposals through the General Conference portal: Shaping the Future of Museums and Heritage | ICOM Dubai 2025.  We will also send out a mailing to ICOM DESIGN members and members of interest as soon as the ICOM Dubai 2025 CfP registration is open.

Thanks to the hard work of our former board member Maria José Gaivão Tavares and her team, we are proud to announce the publication of an online book Ornament containing 13 papers by colleagues from the 2023 ICDAD (now ICOM DESIGN) Annual Conference at the Palácio Nacional da Ajuda in Lisbon. It is available at this link.