Today, Monday 18 May, the University of Valencia is celebrating the International Museum Day with online activities next Monday due to the non-attendance conditions derived as a result of the COVID-19.
Every May 18, since 1977, ICOM (International Council of Museums) organizes this initiative with the aim of raising awareness of the fact that museums are an important means of cultural exchange and enrichment of cultures. The international theme chosen for this edition is 'Museums for Equality: Diversity and Inclusion'. The Universitat de València has adapted the celebration of this day to this theme with different videos created specifically for this day and which have as their main theme the motto of this edition, as explained by the director of Heritage, Adrià Besó.
All the activities can be consulted from Monday 18 May on the website created for this purpose www.uv.es/DIM2020 as well as on the YouTube channel of the Cultural Center “La Nau” of the Universitat de València. These videos demonstrate that equality, diversity and inclusion are values present in the Universitat de València’s philosophy, its academic life and its heritage collections and cultural spaces.
Among the audiovisual materials that the Universitat makes available to the public for this conference is an audiovisual montage in which different people from the academic institution explain pieces from its collections. The video begins with the presentation of the only female painting in the Paraninfo's portrait gallery, the image of Olimpia Arozena, one of the first professors at the academic institution, and the Universitat's latest acquisition for this space, as it was incorporated in 2018. In this audiovisual montage in which different university works are presented to the public, the technicians of Heritage, Amparo Mora and David Sánchez, the astronomer Amelia Ortiz, the professor of Paleontology Ana Márquez, and different directors of collections and university cultural spaces appear: Adrià Besó, director of Heritage; José Carlos Guirado, director of the Astronomical Observatory and Anna García Forner, director of the Museum of the Universitat de València of Natural History.
A section has also been created that incorporates videos related to diversity and equality, for the production of which the Heritage Area of the Office of the Vice-Principal of Culture has had the collaboration of the Office of the Vice-Principal of Equality, Diversity and Sustainability. Ricard Huerta and Hasan López, professors at the Universitat de València, present different works related to sexual and ethnic-cultural diversity, respectively. Furthermore, from the Diversitats initiative, promoted by this vice-rectorate, they propose a virtual visit to the Feminisms and LGTBI Museum, which will take place on May 18 at 6 pm, with Gonzalo Santos, a political scientist specializing in gender. Admission is free, but places are limited. The inscriptions are made through the mail: diversitats@uv.es.
The commemoration for this day closes with a final section that brings together audiovisuals that highlight the Universitat de València as an open institution and at the service of society through different cultural activities, which are carried out in various unique university centres, such as the Jardí Botànic. All these materials created by the Universitat de València for this day will be available online through the websites set up as of next Monday.
