The Network for Aviation Museums is the first Special Interest Group of CIMUSET, the ICOM International Committee for Museums and Collections of Science and Technology. It brings together professionals and institutions working with aviation heritage, giving them a dedicated space to learn together, exchange practice, and build lasting connections.

Aviation museums hold collections, expertise, and stories of global significance, yet they often work in isolation. The Network exists to connect them — strengthening professional capacity, supporting collections and research, and creating a community where knowledge and experience are shared.

Who the Network Is For

The Network welcomes two groups:

• Individuals — museum professionals with an interest in aviation, across all career stages and regions.
• Institutions — museums that hold aviation-related collections, or whose work engages with aviation heritage.

Together, these individuals and institutions form a community that inspires, educates, and engages citizens with aviation, science, and technology through collections, research, and experiences.

Objective

The Network’s central objective is to establish a global platform that strengthens the capacity of aviation museums. It pursues this through three connected goals:

• Enhancing professional expertise among those working in aviation museums.
• Promoting research and exchange among aviation museums worldwide.
• Encouraging regional and intercontinental networking, so that knowledge flows freely across borders and museum contexts.

Connection to the CIMUSET Strategy

As a CIMUSET Special Interest Group, the Network supports the four strategic areas of the CIMUSET Strategy 2025–2028 within the aviation museum field:

• Accessibility — removing cultural, physical, and institutional barriers so that professional development and shared knowledge reach aviation museums everywhere.
• Serving as a Bridge — connecting aviation museums through dialogue and collaboration, creating spaces where diverse knowledge and practice meet.
• Towards a Sustainable Future — encouraging aviation museums to reflect sustainability in how they work and what they stand for.
• Strengthening our Foundation — sustaining a stable, well-run network that ensures continuity, transparency, and excellence.

How the Network Operates

The Network delivers a focused, practical programme each year:

• One to two webinars or in-person workshops annually, with an emphasis on practice-oriented sessions that participants can apply directly in their own institutions.
• 2025 — The Network co-hosted the International Conference for Aviation Museum Professionals in Ottawa, Canada (12–16 May 2025), a specialised programme of sessions and workshops. See the conference sourcebook.
• 2026 — Two webinars in the second half of the year, followed by the publication of its proceedings.

By prioritising hands-on, practice-oriented workshops and sharing their outcomes through published proceedings, the Network turns shared expertise into a lasting, accessible resource for the whole community.

Click here to read the call for papers.

Click here to download the submission form.

A Distinctive Feature: Annual Rotation of Core Themes

To ensure balanced coverage of museum practice over time, the Network rotates a core museum topic each year. This rolling structure lets participants build knowledge progressively and helps every aviation museum, whatever its current priorities, find relevant content over the cycle:

• 2026 — Collecting & Conservation
• 2027 — Exhibition Planning & Visitor Experience Design
• 2028 — Educational Program Development & Operation
• 2029 — Museum Marketing & Branding

Together, these themes cover the full breadth of museum work, supporting aviation museums as vital, forward-looking institutions in a rapidly evolving world.

Coordinators

• CIMUSET: Khayoung Kim & Emily Gann
• Supporting Team: Christopher Kitzan, Erin Gregory, Valerie Kaiyang Wood, Changhun Yang