2025 International Conference for Aviation Museum Professionals

Dates: 12 – 16 May 2025 (On-site only) 

Venue: Canada Aviation and Space Museum(CASM) and Ingenium Centre, Ottawa, CANADA  

Host: National Aviation Museum of Korea (NAMOK), CASM/Ingenium, ICOM CIMUSET  

 Network for Aviation Museums is the CIMUSET’s first special interest group and entered into a four-year cooperative partnership with NAMOK in September 2024. As part of this partnership, NAMOK will co-host with CASM & Ingenium the 2025 International Conference for Aviation Museums Professionals in May.  

The conference will comprise 6 sessions, with about three presentations per session, as well as related workshops to present a very specilized program for aviation museum professionals.   

The following is a draft of the sessions:  

  Session   Contents 
12 May  1  Storytelling in Curatorial Practice  This session will focus on best practices for employing storytelling techniques to amplify and expand perspectives in museum narratives. 

Participants will learn techniques for recruiting diverse community narrators, recording testimony, strategically incorporating diverse perspectives into museum exhibitions, and curating multi-vocal museum experiences. This session’s main panel will also present strategies for interpreting difficult histories – topics that involve traumatic memories and/or evoke strong emotions – for wide audiences. 
2  Caring for Aircraft  The long-term preservation and display of aircraft pose many challenges shared by nearly all aviation museums. This session will explore some of these challenges such as outdoor storage, restoration and recovery, and long-term display.  
13 May  3  Engaging with Audiences  Audiences are the cornerstone of museums. This session explores the efforts that go into better understanding audiences, engaging with them, and expanding them. 
4  Experiential Learning 

in Aviation Museums 

 Experiential learning in aviation museums is gaining popularity, especially as a means of increasing awareness of the industry and the wide variety of possible career paths therein. This session’s panelists will share the ways in which their work seeks to inspire youth to consider a future in aerospace through experiential learning programs at museums.  
14 May   5  Access, Hazard Management, Storage  Overview of Collection Management practices, including hazard management and safe access at Ingenium.  
6  Digital   This session will explore the ways in which aviation museums can leverage novel and basic digital elements in presentations of content, as well as the future challenges of collecting in the increasingly digital nature of aviation. 

 15 May (Field Trip 1): Canada Agriculture and Food Museum / Morning  

                       Canada Science and Technology Museum / Afternoon  

16 May (Field Trip 2): National Research Council Windtunnels 

In addition to NAMOK and CASM & Ingenium, many aviation museums in Canada and United States will take the lead in participating in this conference. However, any aviation museum expert from around the world can join the conference itself, and there is no participation fee.  

Registration will be announced at the end of March on the CIMUSET website.  

Call for papers 

Network for Aviation Museums is a special interest group of ICOM CIMUSET. The Network with National Aviation Museum of Korea, NAMOK, at its lead will co-host a conference with Canada Aviation and Space Museum, CASM and Ingenium Canada for Aviation Museums Professionals in May 12-16th. 

Now, the organiser are seeking two presenters for the identified sessions. A call for papers is open to CIMUSET members and funding of $1500 Canadian dollars will be awarded to the successful applicants. 

Call for abstracts Guidelines  

Please be sure to read all the information below in preparing your submission for 2025 International Conference for Aviation Museum Professionals 12 – 16 May 2025. 

The call-for-papers for Session 3 / Session 6 exclusively. 

Eligibility  

– Professionals of aviation museums* around the world, excluding Canada and United States 

* or any museum that houses aviation-related content and collections.  

– A person who can participate in Ottawa, Canada from 12 to 16 May  

Submission Guidelines 

  • -Abstracts should be between 250 and 300 words. 
  • Submissions must be received by midnight (12:00AM, CET) 15 March 2025. Late entries will not be considered.    
  • All submissions will be vetted by the Review Committee.  
  • Submitters will be notified, via email, by the Review Committee regarding the acceptance or rejection of their abstract by 25 March 2025.  
  • All applications are only allowed to present individually.  
  • No individual may present more than one paper.  
  • The Official language of the conference is English.  
  • The two finalists must submit their presentation manuscripts (about 5 pages in Word format) in addition to the PPT file by 15 April.  
  1. All submissions should be sent to: coordinator of the network, Khayoung Kim from NAMOK, cimuset2023@gmail.com> 

The following information should be included with the abstract proposal 

  1. Email 
  2. Presenter
  3. Institution  
  4. Title  
  5. Abstracts  
  6. Selection of the session 

  □ Session 3: Engaging with Audiences 

  □ Session 6: Digital  

  1. ICOM membership number yes / no (membership is not required, only recommended) 
  2. CIMUSET member yes / no (membership is not required, only recommended)