A week of research and teaching, learning and living in (the heart of) the museum: From 27 July to 1 August 2026, the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change” and the Institute of Cultural Anthropology/European Ethnology, are organising a one-week practical course (in German) on current topics and tasks of museums, in cooperation with the LWL-Freilichtmuseum Detmold (Westphalian State Museum of Everyday Culture). Under the title “Curating Materialities”, participants will gain in-depth insights into the museum as a field of practice, a place of research, a collecting and educational institution, and much more. The course is chaired by Prof. Dr. Lioba Keller-Drescher (Münster), Professor of European Ethnology and In-House Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study, and International Guest Curator Hon.Prof. Dr. Birgit Johler (Graz/Vienna), Curator at the Volkskundemuseum Graz – Universalmuseum Joanneum and Senior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study. Participants will gain in-depth insights into the museum as a field of practice, a place of research, a collecting and educational institution, and much more. Master’s students of cultural anthropology, history, art history and other courses in Faculty 8 (History/Philosophy) at the University of Münster are eligible to participate. The offer is also open to Master’s students of museum-related subjects and, where applicable, interested doctoral students from other universities. Registration deadline: 1 April 2026.

How does digitalisation change cultural participation of people with disabilities? Does it open up new ways of access, forms of expression, and spaces for self-determination – or does it create new barriers, standardisations, and exclusions? From 18 to 20 March 2026, the conference “Kulturelle Teilhabe im digitalen Wandel – Ethik, Ästhetik und Praxis des Zugangs zu kulturellen Gütern von Menschen mit Behinderungen” (“Cultural participation in the digital transformation – ethics, aesthetics and practice of access to cultural goods for people with disabilities”, in German) will adress these questions from ethical, aesthetic and practical perspectives. It brings together scientific, artistic and activist forms of knowledge and creates space for dialogue, reflection and joint practice.
The programme includes lectures, artistic contributions and participatory formats on topics such as universal design, inclusive design, ethical, legal and political frameworks, and media and technology-related perspectives. The event is aimed at researchers, students, cultural professionals, people with disabilities, representatives from politics, administration and civil society, as well as the interested public.

Prof. Dr. Reinold Schmücker, Director of the Centre for Advanced Study, is a guest at the podcast “Digitalgespräch” hosted by the Centre Responsible Digitality (ZEVEDI) at the Technical University of Darmstadt. He talks about digital access to cultural goods. Valuable works of art and historical documents are kept in secure locations that the general public can access only under certain conditions — if at all. If digital images capture what we consider essential about an object, it is often sufficient to view the copy. As is expected in democratic societies, access to these images should be as unobstructed as possible. Open access is the keyword here. Additionally, digital processing goes beyond mere reproduction, creating entirely new possibilities for access and potentially breaking down barriers to reception. However, digital reality also includes software, hardware, and license agreements, which are subject to historical developments, decay processes, and the power of private, global companies that operate according to their own rules. What does this mean for a contemporary sense of responsibility in the arts and culture sector?

Volume 10 of the Access Points series, “Verharren im Besitz. Die Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz und die Restitutionsfrage der 1970er Jahre”, has been published. Against the backdrop of current debates on the decolonisation of museums and their collections, this study by Jolanda Saal examines the history of today’s restitution discourse in West German. Taking the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz – Germany’s largest federal cultural foundation – as a case study, it traces decisions, networks and developments in cultural policymaking that shaped the response to international restitution claims during the 1970s and early 1980s. The central question is whether the Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz’s official rejections concealeda systematic policy of obstruction.

From 4 to 6 March 2026, the international conference “Digital Curating: Ethics of Access and Sustainability” addressed changes in curatorial practices in the wake of digital transformation and the resulting ethical, ecological and social challenges. Experts from museums, universities and cultural institutions discussed how digital technologies are expanding access to cultural heritage, challenging existing hierarchies and enabling new forms of participatory knowledge production. The focus was on questions of authenticity, representation and responsibility in dealing with digital artefacts, reproductions and virtual spaces. The possibilities and risks of artificial intelligence for curatorial processes and the ecological impact of digital infrastructures also were addressed. The aim of the conference was to open up perspectives on sustainable and equitable cultural access in the digital age and to bring together the aesthetic, ethical and ecological dimensions of globally networked cultural practice.

The Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change” is one of the twelve winners of the DFG photo competition and features in the German Research Foundation’s 2026 photo calendar with the March image. On display are postcards by Kasper König. Kasper König was co-founder of Skulptur Projekte Münster and director of the Museum Ludwig in Cologne. Over the decades, he sent numerous collaged postcards, full of wit and with a clearly recognisable style, to artists, colleagues and companions. As testimonies to the networks on which curatorial practices are based, the cards point to biographical traces, hinting at relationships and personal as well as professional constellations. For the exhibition “Access to Curatorial Networks” organised by the Centre for Advanced Study, students have, for the first time, compiled postcard collections from several of König’s contacts, thereby revealing this informal communication system.

The workshop “Wikipedia Edit-a-thon – Making Media Art Visible” took place from 27 February 2026 to 1 March 2026 at ZKM Karlsruhe. The workshop was a joint project of the Centre for Advanced Study “Access to Cultural Goods in Digital Change”, the Center for Art and Media | ZKM Karlsruhe, and Wikimedia Germany. Who decides which artists are seen – and which receive little attention? Social media plays a role, but the most important and reliable source of information on the internet remains Wikipedia. This is where knowledge is created that is read and used worldwide. At the second edit-a-thon at ZKM Karlsruhe, students could actively help to shape this knowledge and help to give media artists greater visibility online.

On 21 February 2026, the Centre for Advanced Study welcomed Atsuki Morishima as a new Junior Fellow. He is a  is a researcher in philosophy at the Graduate School of Humanities at Osaka University (Japan), specialising in legal and political philosophy. His research focusses primarily on the legitimacy of norms and the public sphere. Morishima's particular interest is in the further change of the public sphere due to digitalisation, and the significance of this for the legitimacy of norms.

As part of the themed day “Stille Monumente. Sprechende Geister” (Silent Monuments. Speaking Spirits) at the Kunsthalle Osnabrück, Prof. Dr Ursula Frohne, co-director of the Centre for Advanced Study, delivered the keynote lecture entitled “Stille Monumente, neue Stimmen: Kunst im öffentlichen Raum zwischen Erinnerung, Archiv und Zukunft” (Silent Monuments, New Voices: Art in Public Space between Memory, Archive and the Future)”. The lecture examined contemporary artistic strategies in public space that challenge traditional notions of monumentality and develop new forms of remembrance work. The focus was on artistic positions that do not understand monuments as fixed historical entities, but as dynamic, processual structures linking the archive, the present and the future. It became clear how “silent” monuments can gain new voices through performative, media-based or participatory interventions – particularly within the tension between politics of memory, visibility and social negotiation. Furthermore, the symposium explored how digital archives, networked visual practices and hybrid publics are shifting the conditions of access, reception and cultural participation. Art in public space thus emerges as a field in which analogue cultures of remembrance and digital knowledge circulation are increasingly intertwined.

Volume 3 of the Access Points series, “Abbildungen in der Kunstwissenschaft. Eine kleine Rechtsfibel”, has been published. Uncertainties about image rights and licenses often impede or obstruct art historical publication projects. This primer by Paul Klimpel on the use of illustrations in art history explains how most images can be reproduced in scholarly publications without costly licenses. Based on German copyright law and other relevant areas of law, the concise textbook explains exclusive rights and their limitations and exceptions, the public domain status of most classical works and their reproductions, as well as the right to quote, which is crucial in an academic context.

Volume 8 of the Access Points series, “Nutzen und erfreuen. Vereinfachte Gegenwartsliteratur im Spannungsfeld zwischen kultureller Teilhabe und Urheberschutz”, has been published. In it, Thomas Kater examines access to contemporary literature for people with reading difficulties. For these, contemporary German literature often remains largely inaccessible. This accessibility gap is due to an unresolved tension between the human right to cultural participation, a fundamental right even of people with reading difficulties, and exclusive rights of authors and publishers. A solution would require authors and publishers to generously grant the licenses for simplified versions. This would not only allow people with reading difficulties a significant improvement of their chances to cultural participation, but could also benefit authors. 

The conference “Strukturwandel des Publikums? Konsequenzen des digitalen Wandels für den Zugang zum Theater” (“Structural transformation of the audience? Consequences of digital change for access to theatre”, in German) from 5 to 7 February 2026 focused on the transformation of theatre in the present day. Audiences and performers no longer always share the same physical space; immediate co-presence is being transformed by digital formats. Theatre streaming, hybrid performances, immersive spaces and interactive performances are changing the relationship between stage and audience and also raise the question who makes theatre – and for whom. How is digital transformation changing the conditions of access to theatre, opening up new opportunities for participation and posing potential challenges? How are the aesthetics and social functions of theatre changing, and what are the consequences for the relationship between stage and audience? Does theatre still represent an independent art form alongside film and gaming?

On 26 January 2026, Prof. Dr. Nosheen Fatima Warraich (Lahore/Pakistan) gave her Fellow Lecture on the topic of “Ethical and Responsible Use of AI in Research and Information Science”. Artificial Intelligence (AI) is transforming how we conduct research, manage data, and share knowledge. While its potential to boost efficiency and innovation is clear, it also raises crucial ethical questions that researchers and information professionals must thoughtfully address. The lecture discussed how AI tools influence data collection, organization, discovery, and decision-making, as well as the risks they bring – such as bias, misinformation, privacy concerns, and the loss of human judgment. By reflecting on real-world examples, participants learned how to identify and address these ethical challenges while making the most of AI’s capabilities.

On 22 January 2026, Prof. Dr. Nosheen Fatima Warraich, Senior Fellow of the Centre for Advanced Study and Professor at the Institute of Information Management, University of the Punjab in Lahore (Pakistan), gave a lecture for students on the topic of “Mastering the Art of Systematic Literature Review – Techniques, Tools, and Best Practices” at the University Library of FernUniversität Hagen. The lecture is available as a video.