Appealing
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| Doors open at 9:30 a.m., event starts at 10:00 a.m. |
| For museum professionals, linguists and literary scholars, students, practitioners in the fields of education and accessible communication, as well as the interested general public. |
| Workshops, First Floor |
What kinds of textual landscapes are we creating? What influences reading and comprehension? What assumptions are embedded in our texts? What characterizes comprehensible language?
Language is not a neutral medium of communication, but rather a space for actively shaping knowledge, power, and relationships. It determines who feels addressed and how exhibitions are understood.
Caught between curatorial aspirations and diverse visitor groups, museum staff face the challenge of articulating complex knowledge in a way that is both understandable and nuanced. This symposium explores what constitutes accessible, responsible, and effective language in a museum. How do we design communication strategies so that as many visitors as possible feel engaged and truly connect with the content?
The symposium brings together interdisciplinary perspectives from academia and everyday museum practice to reflect on language as a central medium for the relationship between the institution and its audience. Following keynote presentations and discussions in the morning, the afternoon will serve as a laboratory where different forms of language will be tested, their effects discussed, and experiences shared.
The goal is to raise awareness of language as a central tool for museum education—and to develop concrete ideas for accessible, thoughtful, and audience-appropriate communication. After all, good language does not arise from simplification, but from conscious decisions about relationships, perspectives, and accessibility
Participants
Sabrina Turker, neuroscientist, Brain and Language Hub, University of Vienna
Regina Bergmann, linguist, Institute for German Studies and Media Cultures, Dresden University of Technology
Methu Thavarasa, Consulting and Training for Political Education, Berlin
Greta de León, Curator and Cultural Ambassador, Mexico-City
The detailed program will be available here in early September. Please register by September 14, 2026.
The symposium is aimed at museum professionals (curators, educators, exhibition designers, etc.), linguists and literary scholars, students (in museology, cultural studies, linguistics, etc.), practitioners in the fields of education and accessible communication, as well as the interested general public.
Organiser
