CoMuseum is an annual conference that takes place in Athens and Thessaloniki, Greece, as well as virtually. Established in 2011, CoMuseum is “more than a conference” that aims to foster the production of collective knowledges and the facilitation of networks between culture and arts professionals from all over the world. Acting as a peer-to-peer platform for the exchange of practical knowhow, CoMuseum addresses contemporary challenges facing museums and cultural organizations and helps develop soft and hard skills for cultural professionals. Strategic thematic pillars include sustainability, the future of content, education and audience engagement, leadership, and greening, while in the past few years we have been focusing on the above through the prism of social impact and well-being. The organizing partners are the Benaki Museum, Athens, the United States Embassy, and the British Council. CoMuseum has also become a flagship program of the British Council's Museums Revisited program in the European Union.

The 13th CoMuseum International Conference took place at the Benaki Museum/Pireos 138 and the Thessaloniki Concert Hall, as well as online, on 6 to 8 December 2023. This year's conference touched upon issues of justice and representation: being fair within and through museums and cultural organizations. Invited participants discussed the degree to which DEIA (Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, Accessibility) principles are being considered or applied internally in cultural organizations in terms of employment, governance, and programming, and how in turn this process, or lack of it, affects cultural action around the world. During the thirteenth installment of CoMuseum, 34 cultural professionals from around the world examined the above issues through keynotes, panel discussions, workshops, and masterclasses. Overall participants (online and on-site) reached 1,800 people from 27 different countries.

Hosting a significant variety of speakers, including Esme Ward, Director at Manchester Museum, Dr. Barbara Plankesteiner, Co-Founder of the Benin Dialogue Group, and Elvira Dyangani Ose, Director at Barcelona Museum of Contemporary Art, this year's conference highlighted the urgency of including underrepresented publics in the early stages of planning cultural activity in order to have a meaningful impact. Most speakers agreed that bringing change from within is challenging and a number of obstacles need to be overcome, including time, budget, mindset shifting, and organizational change. Speakers with different backgrounds gave examples of leadership for change—whether this is implemented from top-ranking management, like the transformation of the Museum of Us in San Diego, California, discussed by CEO Micah Parzen or by implementing grassroots learning and outreach programs in the British Museum, presented by Hanouf Al-Alawi, National Outreach Manager. Issues of representation in the arts and the Status of the Artist were discussed in a Greek and international context, with a provocation-presentation by Karalyn Monteil, Head of Programmes & Stakeholders Outreach, Culture Sector, UNESCO, and followed by panel discussions. Anastasiia Cherednychenko, Chair of ICOM Ukraine, joined us online to expose the “cultural genocide” that Russian military action has inflicted on Ukrainian cultural heritage.

Workshops and masterclasses on the second day gave the opportunity to smaller groups of participants to dive deeper into the “how-to” of fostering inclusion and accessibility. Among these, Sarah Schleuning, The Margot B. Perot Senior Curator of Decorative Arts and Design at Dallas Museum of Art elaborated on the groundbreaking exhibition “Speechless: Different by Design” (10 November 2019–20 March 2020), promoting alternative ways to experience the world through our varied senses. For the first time in CoMuseum history, the third day plenaries in Thessaloniki further offered new content and extra speakers from the local community, in dialogue with United States, United Kingdom, and European participants, to explore further ways DEIA principles can be applied effectively in and through cultural programming.

Over the years, CoMuseum has been organically evolving in response to the needs of the community, touching on key issues that concern museums worldwide and the societies they serve. As museums and cultural organizations are increasingly human-centered, and actively involved in facing major global challenges—democracy, human rights, immigration, health, the climate emergency, and so forth—they are considered more suitable for dealing with “difficult” matters and conversations that affect the overall well-being of societies. In this framework, CoMuseum International Conference cumulatively builds on yearly knowledge and experience on the social impact of museums and culture to advocate for their power as pillars of sustainable development. This content is fully accessible online on the CoMuseum website and YouTube channel, and museum practitioners worldwide are encouraged to access these resources that form the important legacy of each conference.