The International Council of Museums invites all the museums to celebrate International Museums Day during the week of May 18th.
The International Council of Museums identified this year’s theme as “The Future of Museums: Recover and Reimagine”.

The covid-19 pandemic had a negative impact on the culture and art sector.  Due to the pandemic, many museums couldn’t welcome their visitors. Despite all the compelling restrictions the digital age and technological developments are offering new possibilities which enable the museums to continue their mission.

ICOM has been working to update the existing definition of the museums and the ethical rules guide. While the Council is working on a new definition, they invite us to reimagine the future museums and the transformation that the museums will experience.

The conversation series of 23.5 is continuing with the participation of Suay Aksoy (former president of ICOM) and museum scientist Afşin Altaylı. During the conversation we will be talking about the future of the museums, how the new definition of the museums will be shaped, the contribution of the museums to peacebuilding, democracy, and public dialogue, and how the digital transformation and new technologies will transform the museums.

The conversation* will be held on the Zoom platform. The event will be live-streamed on the  Facebook, Twitter, and YouTube channel of the Foundation only in Turkish.

You can fill out the form below to take an active part in the conversation and to raise your questions.

If you have further questions about the conversation, you can email us from This email address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it.

*The event will only be held in Turkish.

Suay Aksoy

Suay Aksoy served as the President of ICOM between 2016-2020.  She served as Chair of the Advisory Council (2013-2016) and as Chair of CAMOC, ICOM’s International Committee for City Museums (2010-2012).
She has taught graduate and undergraduate courses in Museum Management and Cultural Heritage at the Mimar Sinan University of Fine Arts and the Bogaziçi University, respectively, in Istanbul. She is a trustee of the History Foundation of Turkey where she formerly headed the museum projects (2001-2008) and also served as a Board member and Vice-President for consecutive terms. Ms. Aksoy worked as Director of Cultural Heritage and Museums at the Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture Agency. In that period she led various major projects like the Model Proposition for the Rehabilitation of Museums in Turkey. Ms. Aksoy has a BA in Economics, an MA in Political Science, and a Post Graduate Diploma in Museum Studies.

Afşin Altaylı

Afşin Altaylı is an independent museum professional, particularly fascinated by museums’ potential in contributing to social and environmental justice. He regards promoting the social role of museums as an aim and means to deepening the dialogue around contemporary societal issues within the international museum community and to integrating them into museum and heritage policies. Throughout his career, Afşin coordinated different projects for public and private museums and institutions specializing in museology, cultural heritage, and cultural policy management. Among them were Istanbul 2010 European Capital of Culture, Turkish Ministry of Culture, EU Culture Programme, Mimar Sinan Fine Arts University and Istanbul Bilgi University where he lectured in museum studies, and the International Council of Museum, where he assumed different roles in organization's various bodies, most recently as Museums and Society Coordinator at ICOM Secretariat. He is a member of the editorial board at “Curator: the Museum Journal” and has been a founding member of the Association of Museum Professionals, Turkey. In January 2021, Afşin joined the European Museum Forum community as one of the European Museum of the Year Award (EMYA) judges.