On Wednesday, 3 June, 2015, Kyoto was selected as the host city for the 2019 edition of the General Conference, during which some 3,000 participants converge for an entire week to discuss, exchange ideas and reflect on museum-related issues.

The city will organise conferences on the theme Museums as Cultural Hubs: The Future of Tradition, which aims to highlight the changing role of museums in today’s society: “Amidst altering social, economic, and political environments, once-static institutions are reinventing themselves to become more interactive, audience-focused centres of culture.

As part of this transformation, museums are working to create more cohesive, shared visions amongst their employees and in partnership with other institutions and the communities they serve.

As museums increasingly grow into their roles as cultural hubs, they are also finding new ways to honour their collections, their histories, and their legacies, making these traditions relevant to an increasingly diverse and global contemporary audience.”

The city of Kyoto counts some 200 cultural institutions and is home to 1,681 Buddhist temples and 812 Shinto shrines.