Join us for the inaugural Museums Forward lecture The Moral Imagination of Today’s Museum by Dr. Dorothy Kosinski, distinguished art historian and Director Emerita of The Phillips Collection.

Artist Krzysztof Wodiczko once stated: “One makes democracy. We must develop the capacity for communication and for fearless listening.”

The work of the museum practitioner is to champion the art object and to elevate the artist’s voice. Let’s look to the humanist and the moral philosopher to align our practice around a set of ethical values: curiosity, collaboration, empathy, generosity, and love. How do we design our work and construct our institutions around these values? Perhaps the most inspiring models are found not within societal and political organizational structures but rather within the messy, complex, resilient, and efficient of systems of nature.

Key cultural practitioners include artists, curators, and scientists, referenced: Carolina Caycedo, Kader Attia, Jenny Holzer, Nicholas Galanin, Fred Wilson, Denise Murrell, Edward O. Wilson, Yasmine Ostendorf-Rodríguez.

6 p.m. – Doors open
6:30 p.m. – Opening remarks and lecture 

This event will include ASL interpretation and live captioning by Communication Access Realtime Translation (CART) services. The theater is wheelchair accessible, and assistive listening devices are available. Please see Accessibility at BMA for additional resources to support your visit.

If there are any additional accommodations or resources we can provide to support your attendance, please call 443-573-1701 or email visitorexperience@artbma.org.

Dorothy Kosinski is Director Emerita of The Phillips Collection, where she served from 2008 to 2023. Prior to leading the Phillips, Kosinski distinguished herself internationally as an art historian and curator. From 1985 to 1997, while living in Basel, Switzerland, she was the curator of the Douglas Cooper Collection of cubist art. From 1995 to 2008, she was curator at the Dallas Museum of Art. She has also served as an independent curator of major exhibitions at the Royal Academy of Arts, London; The Kunstmuseum Basel; The Kunstmuseum Wolfsburg; and The National Gallery in Prague. In 2013, Kosinski was appointed by President Barack Obama to the National Council on the Humanities. In 2017, she was recognized by the Ambassador of Italy with the Order of the Italian Star. In 2022, she was named Chevalier de l’Ordre des Arts et Lettres by the French Ministry of Culture. She currently serves on the boards of national foundations as well as the board of governors of the Folger Shakespeare Library.

Dr. Kosinski has written widely on topics including 19th-century Symbolism, Dada, Surrealism, 20th-century sculpture and contemporary art, and innovative and socially impactful museum practice. In 2014, she published “A Case for the Importance of Culture in a Prosperous Society.” In 2022 her essay, “Purpose is the Only Thing” appeared in Change Is Required: Preparing for the Post-Pandemic Museum. In 2024 during a Getty Museum residency she began her current project about cultural practice as an act of citizenship.