Museum meets University is a quarterly series of meetings at the crossroads of academic museology and museum practice. It aims to create a meeting zone and foster contact between Leiden University and the national museums of Leiden: Rijkmuseum Boerhaave, the National Museum of Antiquities, Wereldmuseum Leiden and Naturalis Biodiversity Center.
Programme
- 15.00 Marian Doom (Ghent University Museum) - online Q&A
Marjan Doom (Foto: Fred De Brock) is artistic and general director of the Ghent University Museum (GUM), which opened in 2020 as the first university museum in Flanders. Her work is driven by a sustained interest in how science museums can create space for doubt, imagination, and critical citizenship. In her thought-provoking booklet Museum van de twijfel (Museum of Doubt), she reflects on the curatorial choices underpinning GUM and argues for doubt as a central narrative device in science museums. Her research and practice question the tendency of science museums to translate scientific knowledge into simplified, unambiguous truths, and instead explore how artistic strategies and rhetorical approaches can help museums engage audiences in open-ended processes of meaning-making.
- 15.45 Student pitches
- 16.10-16.30 Mieneke te Hennepe, Behind the scene of Unseen (‘Ongezien’)
Rijksmuseum Boerhaave-curator Mieneke te Hennepe reveals the museological backgrounds of her current exhibition Unseen on the history of gender inequality in medicine.
Museum meets University is an initiative by five museum-curators, who also have a university-chair. We think that the university and the national museums in Leiden would benefit from closer mutual contacts and collaboration.
The meetings include a prominent speaker in the field of innovative museological scholarship and practice, behind-the-screen impressions of current exhibitions, and pitches of students about their research. Museum meets University targets students, researchers, museum professionals, and everyone else interested in museological matters. We emphasize we want to serve the different communities connected to both the museums and the universities.
The first Museum University Leiden-meeting is on 27 February at 15.00 in Rijksmuseum Boerhaave. Admission is free.
Museum Meets University is an initiative by:
Luc Amkreutz (National Museum of Antiquities, Faculty of Archeology - Leiden University)
Mieneke te Hennepe (Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, LUMC - Leiden University)
Ad Maas (Rijksmuseum Boerhaave, LUCAS- Leiden University)
Wonu Veys (Wereldmuseum Leiden, LUCAS-Leiden University)
Frank Wesselingh (Naturalis Biodiversity Center, Maastricht University)
We encourage students to send a proposal for a short presentation of their work at a future Museum University Leiden-meeting: admaas@rijksmuseumboerhaave.nl.
Practical information
When: Friday the 27th of February 2026. The lecture is from 15.00 to 16.30 hrs. If you want to visit the museum we advise you to do so beforehand, as the exhibit halls will close at 17.00 hrs.
Where: In the lecture hall of the museum.
Language: English.
Cost: Attending the lecture is free of charge. If you have a Museumcard or ICOM card, we’d love to scan it at the register.
Register: Please register via the button below.
