Hosting under the theme ‘The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities’, Dubai will be the first city in the Middle East to host such a conference.

For the very first time, Dubai will host the 27th International Council of Museums (ICOM) General Conference 2025 as it wins the bid at the ICOM’s Advisory Council.

Hosting under the theme ‘The Future of Museums in Rapidly Changing Communities’, Dubai will be the first city in the Middle East to host such a conference.

Surpassing Sweden and Russia, the result of the vote came in favour of the UAE’s bid file, making Dubai an organiser of this prestigious international conference since ICOM’s establishment in 1946.

Dubai’s victory came following the voting round that was held at the meeting of ICOM’s executive committee on November 18 and 19, wherein 130 members participated. Dubai’s bid succeeded in obtaining 68 votes, beating Sweden's Stockholm (34 votes), and Russia’s Kazan (20 votes).

The news was announced on Saturday, in a tweet by Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid, Vice President and Ruler of Dubai who said, “Dubai’s victory to host the largest global conference on museums, ICOM 2025, with the attendance of 119 countries, covering 20,000 international museums, gives a strong impetus to the country’s cultural sector. Our international museums in our beloved emirate and our national museums throughout the country will lead the global debate on the future of museums at this huge international conference.”

Held every three years, the 26th edition is scheduled to be held in Prague, the Czech Republic in 2022. The 25th edition was held in 2019 in Kyoto, Japan.

The ICOM is the gathering of museum representatives and professionals globally for discussions surrounding the promotion and protection of natural and cultural heritage, in addition to examining future industry trends.

The International Conference of Museums Conference has also released a statement on the theme for the 2025 event, with a particular focus on how the cultural sector can bounce back amid the pandemic.

“The world we live in today is vastly different from the one we used to know not so long ago. A torrent of events – a pandemic, massive protests, natural disasters, soaring inequalities, technology and digital revolution, to name a few has changed everything we thought we knew and led to the one thing we can be certain of: tomorrow will be uncertain,” reads the statement.