Milda, Director of MO Museum
2020 was the second year of MO. We started it with a hope that our work will be more knowledge-based after we gained some experience. In the first year we did so many things for the first time. And not only in the museum, but also in Lithuania. The entire world was tested by enourmous challenge of uncertainty and first times due to the pandemic. This again required flexibility, concentration and courage. Internationally, 2020, when museums were hit by the COVID-19 and Black Lives Matter protests, was believed to be the year when the crisis of institutional identity began. The International Council of Museums (ICOM) is working on a new museum definition. Insights of what a future museum should look like underpinned our understanding that this is precisely the MO – a forward-looking museum – that we are building since 2018. The biggest MO project in 2020 was the main exhibition Why Is It Hard to Love? We overcame management as well as complex technical challenges when we had to bring an international exhibition during the pandemic.
We are proud to encourage people to reflect on a meaningful topic and being able to work with world’s reknowned curators as well as offer our visitors a new, comprehensive and cinematographic experience. During the period of two lockdowns, we used this opportunity to establish MO as a virtual museum. It is the virtual MO that one can visit any time without any restrictions. This is why we think a lot about our online visitors and user-friendly formats, including podcasts, articles and broadcasts of events. In 2020, we have been not only developing cultural education activities but have also been actively working to overcome exclusion. The travelling museum refers to the MO exhibitions and educational activities in regions. By building the MO community and networking with other communities we seek even greater integrity. Being nominated as The Choice of the Disabled at The Change of Lithuania awards is an immense achievement for us.
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