After more than 20 years of work in education and museums, Murawski has become an outspoken advocate for transformative, human-centered change in museums, nonprofits, and beyond. He is a consultant, change leader, and the author of the book Museums as Agents of Change: A Guide to Becoming a Changemaker. Murawski currently serves as Operations Director for Explore Washington Park in Portland, Oregon, and is also the co-founder of Art Nature Place, a business that provides design and consulting services focused around place-based learning, building connections with nature, and expanding access to the outdoors. He previously served as the Director of Learning & Community Partnerships for the Portland Art Museum, Coordinator of Education and Public Programs at the Mildred Lane Kemper Art Museum, and Director of School Services at the Saint Louis Art Museum. He earned his MA and PhD in Education from American University in Washington, DC.
Mike Murawski ist Referent der Session Blick nach vorn: Das demokratische Museum der Zukunft am Montag, 5. Mai, 11.45 Uhr.
Radical Imagination and the Democratic Museum: Envisioning Bold Futures for Community-Centered Change
In a time of rising political divisiveness and global threats to democracy, museums everywhere have a vital role to play as spaces for dialogue, empathy, and connection. But fulfilling this potential requires more than reactive strategies—it demands bold imagination and a willingness to envision entirely new ways of working, sharing power, and centering community involvement.
In this talk, Murawski will explore how radical imagination—the practice of envisioning futures beyond the limits of the present—can help museums strengthen their role as democratic institutions. Together, we will reflect on how museums can shift from passive sites of preservation to active platforms for participatory democracy, community care, and collective meaning-making. Through visionary thinking and concrete examples from global museums and nonprofits, this session will invite participants to imagine new futures for museums—futures where democracy flourishes through shared power, deep listening, and a commitment to building bridges within our communities.
This session will leave participants with a renewed sense of possibility, practical strategies for embedding future-visioning into their work, and inspiration to embrace the transformative power of imagination as a tool for strengthening museums’ role as democratic actors.