Conference central theme
Documentation in Context: Historical Legacies and Future Directions
ICOM Documentation invites proposals for its 2026 international conference, hosted by the AfricaMuseum in Tervuren, Belgium.
The 2026 conference theme asks how museum documentation has been shaped by the contexts in which it was produced, and how it can be rethought for more open, accountable and collaborative futures.
Museum documentation is at the heart of collections work. It records provenance, ownership, classification, interpretation, rights, conservation, movement, access and meaning. Yet documentation also reflects historical choices: what was recorded, what was omitted, which languages were used, which categories were applied, and whose knowledge was recognised.
This conference invites participants to examine the historical, ethical, technical and social dimensions of documentation practice. We welcome proposals that reflect on both critical challenges and practical solutions.
Submit your proposal now
Submission deadline: August 3 2026
Conference topics
Historical legacies and documentation
- Colonial, institutional and disciplinary histories embedded in collection records
- Gaps, silences, bias and contested information in museum databases
- Documentation and provenance research
- Archival traces, historical catalogues and legacy systems
- Documentation as evidence in restitution, repatriation and return processes
Ethics, access and accountability
- Community-led or collaborative documentation
- Sensitive data, cultural protocols and restricted knowledge
- Multilingual documentation and terminology
- Inclusive metadata and authority control
- Transparency, rights and responsibilities in collections information
Standards, systems and interoperability
- Documentation standards and guidelines
- CIDOC CRM, LIDO, Linked Art and other data models
- Persistent identifiers, linked open data and semantic technologies
- Digital preservation and long-term access
- Data quality, workflows and governance
Future directions
- Artificial intelligence and machine-assisted documentation
- Sustainable digital infrastructures
- Documentation for intangible heritage, performance and contemporary collecting
- Participatory platforms and shared authority
- Training, professional development and changing documentation roles
Format
We invite proposals for presentations in the following formats.
- Full length papers (15 minutes + 5 minutes for Q&A)
- Lightning talks (5 minutes)
- Panel discussions (60 minutes)
- Roundtables
- Posters and digital demonstrations
The conference is a bi-lingual English-French event. Proposals can be submitted in English or French.