The first International Forum on the Sustainability of Cultural Institutions, a global hybrid event, will take place from September 26 to 28, 2025. The Forum will be held online worldwide, with three in-person hubs: in Santa Sofia (Forlì-Cesena, Italy) at the Vero Stoppioni Municipal Gallery of Contemporary Art, in New York at the MOFAD – Museum of Food and Drink, and in Guangzhou (China), in collaboration with the Institute of Digital Art and Technology of the Guangzhou Academy of Fine Arts, at the Songshan Lake Boxes Art Museum in Dongguan.

The Forum addresses sustainability by moving beyond rhetoric and grounding it in a concrete and operational dimension. Cultural institutions are not seen as static structures, but as living ecosystems, capable of regeneration, adaptation, and care for the communities in which they operate.

The program is structured around 8 thematic roundtables and 3 international keynote lectures, focusing on key issues for the future of the sector: research, heritage as active memory, circularity, territorial collaboration, human & more-than-human, economic ecosystems, education, and digital technologies.

Each roundtable is conceived as a collective laboratory, tasked with asking practical questions and formulating factual responses: what are the actual emissions of the cultural industry and how can we reduce them? how can new creative research be integrated with heritage preservation? which digital tools can reduce environmental impact and expand accessibility? what resources can be shared among diverse organizations?

The Forum will be a low-emissions event: it is designed in a hybrid format to minimize travel and transportation—the main sources of emissions in international events—while preserving moments of in-person exchange. Furthermore, all residual emissions will be offset through a tree-planting program in collaboration with Alberitalia.

PROGRAM (26–28 September)

26 September
10:30 – Presentation
11:00 – Keynote 1: Zigeng Wang
11:45 – Break
12:00 – T1: Research and Visions (Alunni Matera)
14:00 – Lunch Break
14:45 – T2: Culture for Territories
16:45 – Break
17:00 – T3: Education (Bosco dei Poeti – USA)
19:00 – Break
19:15 – T7: Heritage as a Living Memory (USA),

(held by MOFAD at Governors Island, NY, into the program of Climate Week)
21:15 – Closing

27 September
09:30 – Presentation
09:45 – T4: Circularity (Agorateca)
11:45 – Break (15 min)
12:00 – T5: Digital Technologies -

(held by the Institute of Art and Digital Technologies of the Fine Arts Academy of Guangzhou, at Songshan Lake Boxes Art Museum, Dongguan)
14:00 – Lunch Break
15:00 – T6: Economy Ecosystems
17:00 – Break
17:15 – Keynote: Timothy Morton
18:00 – Platforms Launch
19:00 – Dinner at the Park Della Resistenza

28 September
10:30 – Presentation
11:00 – Keynote 5: Jerome Bel
11:45 – Break
12:00 – T8: Human & More-than-Human
14:00 – Lunch Break
15:00 – Presentation Contributors
15:30 – Summary
17:00 – End