CFP: Decentering Europe: Navigating Curatorial Challenges (Boston, 14-17 July 2027)

Tuesday, 4 August 2026

Historians of Netherlandish Art Conference (HNA Boston, MA, July 14-17, 2027)
Workshop Session: Decentering Europe: Navigating Curatorial Challenges
Co-chairs: Dr. Verónica Muñoz-Nájar Luque, Thoma Foundation, and Dr. Lauryn Smith, The Frick Pittsburgh

While scholarly attention to the study of global exchange, imperialism, and the wider Atlantic World has accelerated in recent decades, translating these complex, often traumatic histories into permanent collection display remains a significant museological challenge. Curators must navigate institutional inertia, architectural limitations, and the socio-political sensitivities of presenting fraught objects to a broad public. This session serves as a practitioner’s forum for sharing and workshopping projects-in-progress. We invite participants to present a brief overview (no more than 10 minutes) of their project in development, highlighting their objectives, methodologies, and challenges. This session prioritizes contributions that address the bridge between rigorous academic scholarship and accessible public engagement.

Following the presentations, a moderated roundtable will allow participants to receive peer feedback and collectively address the logistical and ethical hurdles of “globalizing” galleries dedicated to European art.

Key questions include, but are not limited to:

How do we physically rearrange “European” galleries to reflect polycentric trade?
What strategies can we use to discuss enslaved presence and colonial extraction in ways that are both ethically responsible and accessible to vast, varied audiences?
What are practical approaches to working with source communities or descendant stakeholders to provide a platform for Majority World voices within traditional institutions?
How can digital tools and data visualization assist in displaying artworks with multifaceted histories or making invisible labor visible?
What are some ways to navigate internal inertia or pushback when challenging current, traditional narratives in galleries?

Please send paper proposals (max. 500 words), along with a single-page CV, to the session organizers.

Organizers: