Reinventing the University Museum

UWA Historical Society Lecture

Presented by Ken Arnold, Director, Medicinsk Museion, Professor, Department of Public Health, Copenhagen University.

On the verge of closing forever, a number of university museums have nonetheless found a revived vigor, a new intellectual and social role. Medical Museion is one such example.

In this talk, Ken Arnold will briefly outline a history of university museums before unfolding our efforts to recalibrate the relevance of one particular institution in Copenhagen. To do this we have, in truth, drawn on some time-worn practices and epistemological notions: the value of old objects to generate new thinking, the importance of museum spaces as trusted gathering places for people from differing perspectives, and the enduring significance of curiosity as an approach, an attitude, towards the world we find ourselves in. This talk then sets out a short story of university museums in three episodes: the rise, the fall, and now a hoped-for rise-again in the fortunes of their ‘museum method’.

Ken Arnold is Director of Medical Museion and Professor in the Department of Public Health at University of Copenhagen. This world-class university museum combines innovative public exhibitions and events with adventurous and collaborative research in medical humanities. Until 2022, he was also Head of Cultural Partnerships at Wellcome - the London-based charitable foundation focused on health research. Earlier, he helped lead the establishment of Wellcome Collection and directed its first decade of programming. He regularly writes and speaks on museums - today and in the past - and on the interactions between arts, humanities and sciences.

Ken Arnold is a 2025 UWA Institute of Advanced Studies Distinguished Visiting Fellow.

This lecture will be preceeded by the UWA Historical Society AGM from 5pm. All are welcome to attend.