60th Annual Conference of the Estonian National Museum
3 May 2022
Keynote speaker
Keynote speaker is Jette Sandahl (Denmark), chair of the European Museum Forum's board of trustees, who has been the founding director for two pioneering new museums, the Women’s Museum of Denmark and the Museum of World Cultures in Sweden. She has served as Director of Exhibitions and Public Programs at the National Museum of Denmark, and as Director Experience at National Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa. Most recently, she was director of the Museum of Copenhagen, Denmark. She has been part of the formation of new paradigms for museums as platforms for empowerment, cultural participation and social justice, and publishes widely within the museological field.
Pille Pruulmann-Vengerfeldt (Sweden/Estonia), the member of Academia Europaea, is a professor in media and communication at the Malmö University. Taking a critical, creative and action oriented approach, her research examines how digital technologies and the impact they have on our everyday lives are co-created through cultural, professional and interpersonal contexts. Much of Pille’s recent research efforts are dedicated to understanding the datafication of people in museums and media. She is a member of the executive board of ECREA and the international director of the European Media and Communication Doctoral Summer School and Senior Researcher at Estonian National Museum. She blogs at https://pillepv.voog.com/ and tweets @pillepv.
Raivis Sīmansons (Latvia) is a co-founder of Creative Museum, a Riga based think tank focusing on museums and creative economies. He holds a Ph.D. in museum studies from the University of Leicester. Raivis has previously worked in museum administration in Latvia and on development of the House of European History in Brussels. In 2019 he joined Žanis Lipke Memorial to work on development of its new civic education centre. As a research fellow at the University of Latvia project MemoTours he looks at memorial museums and dark tourism.
Karen Jagondin is the CEO of Vabamu. Vabamu’s mission is to educate the people of Estonia and its visitors about the recent past, prompting senses of the fragility of freedom as well as advocating for justice and the rule of law. Vabamu was founded by Olga Kistler-Ritso, an Estonian-American refugee, in partnership with the Estonian government, to support her wish that Estonia never again be occupied by a foreign power. At the opening, President Lennart Meri declared Vabamu to be “Freedom’s House“.
Rasmus Kask (Estonia) is the director of Centre of Rural Architecture at the Estonian Open-Air Museum (EOAM) and doctoral student of Tallinn University School of Humanities, cultural theory. His main field of research lies in heritage values of and practices of safeguarding vernacular architecture, emphazing the importance of integrating the idea of heritage use value - as the objects are perceived, lived and maintained by the owners – as an important contributing factor in the short and long-term success of conservation efforts made by state institutions. He has taken interest in visitor studies, has led the development of applied research methods for EOAM and contributed to implementing impact-oriented development within the museum.
Pirjo Hamari (PhD) is an experienced heritage professional who has been working with heritage management and policy-related questions at the Finnish Heritage Agency since 1990’s. Graduated in archaeology in 1996 (PhD in 2019), she has work experience in archaeological asset management, digital heritage management, and museum development and strategy issues. Currently, she works as Director of Development at Museum Development Unit at the FHA. She has participated in several national and international policy working groups, as well as several national and international projects as a partner and a manager. Currently, she is the director of the EU-funded MOI! Museums of Impact project (2020-2022). Pirjo has a passion for impact and relevance of cultural heritage in today’s society.