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Museum Summer Academy 2026: First ÖGEKW Museum Camp – taking space, making space, breaking space?

We are camping in the museum—and using this setting to engage with both major and minor questions of museum practice: Can the museum be understood as a public space, and if so, what responsibilities does this entail? Who pitches their tents in the museum and feels at home there—and who does not? How can a camp become a temporary exhibition? What role can museum space (for example, as a protest camp) play in political education? And finally: how camp(y)—both in the sense of being suitable for camping and in the sense of being kitschy, artificial, or exaggerated—are folklore museums, really?

The first ÖGEKW Museum Camp, organised by the Institute of European Ethnology at the University of Vienna in cooperation with the Volkskundemuseum Wien, is aimed at all students of European Ethnology / Empirical Cultural Studies / Cultural Anthropology across Austria and invites them to spend one week camping in the museum in July 2026.

The camp functions simultaneously as a laboratory, an act of taking space, and a pop-up exhibition, and is inhabited, animated, and shaped by the students throughout the entire week. In this setting, participants can explore museum-making both in practice and theory in all its facets, learn about museum work (ranging from inventory and storage to collections research and the development of educational and event formats), and discover the potential of folklore collections.

Our work includes, among other formats, text-based inputs, group discussions, short presentations, and idea labs.

Attendance at the preparatory meeting and participation in the entire Museum Summer Academy are mandatory. Active involvement in the preparation phase and during the camp itself is required. After the camp, a reflective and in-depth written report must be submitted and will be graded.

All course requirements must be fulfilled. Successful completion of the course (5 ECTS) requires at least a pass in all assessed components.

To ensure good academic practice, a grade-relevant oral discussion of the submitted written work may be conducted.

Location: Volkskundemuseum Vienna

Participation in the camp itself, including overnight accommodation (in shared rooms), is free of charge; however, participants are responsible for organising their own travel to and from Vienna. Catering on site will be organised collectively and at very low cost.