Paper short abstract:

From the perspective of fine art museum, and its (non)public and (non)users I focus on art, museum and heritage related urban practices in transitional post-industrial town.

Paper long abstract:

Maribor is a former Yugoslav and Slovenian industrial center, an important traffic junction and border city, which is for more or less twenty-five years struggling with uncertainty of post-industrial and neoliberal transition, with quite high unemployment, occasional outburst of social unrest and as it seems no future vision of the development of the city by local authorities and the state.

Museums as such, and fine and visual art production, distribution and presentation are associated with the development of a modern city, and urban practices and imaginaries. It could be said that a museum is an urban entity and urban reflection. From the perspective of the fine art museum, and its (non)audience and (non)users I focus on various urban practices that are related to art, museum and heritage. I am interested in how museum encourages and shapes different urban practices, and how urban practices and people's habits and expectations shape museum's programs, agency and its space. Moreover, I am also concerned with how social, political and urban transformations and realities are reflected and imagined in and on museum, its program and collection.