Folk museum to host international meeting on UN goals

An international conference will be held in Seoul next week to discuss advancing UN sustainable development goals to deliver by 2030, ranging from reducing inequality to promoting climate action.

The Museums and the Sustainable Development Goals Towards 2030 gathering -- cohosted by the National Folk Museum of Korea and the International Council of Museums -- will bring together museum experts from 17 countries to look at the SDGs from five angles: partnership. people, planet, prosperity and peace.

A session on partnership will kick off the two-day event starting Tuesday, exploring how museums could better promote the SDGs. Experts from Italy, Austria and China will offer their takes on the issue.

The discussion will be followed by another on people as experts from the US, France, Canada, Mexico and South Korea weigh in on how museums could deepen ties among museum officials and help strengthen social solidarity in the long term.

Wednesday’s session will take on climate action, talking about how museums could draw more attention to the challenges it poses. Participants will debate the kind of protections museums could roll out for heritage endangered by global warming.

A session on prosperity will propose measures for financially struggling museums. How communities can thrive because of successful museums will also be part of the discussion.

The last session on peace will tackle the issue of making the world less politically and economically fragmented. The session will look at new goals and targets to achieve beyond 2030.

The conference, to be livestreamed, will take place at the National Folk Museum in Seoul.