The Fine Arts Museums of San Francisco (FAMSF) will host the 2025 Museums of Tomorrow Roundtable (MTR) from May 11-17, bringing together 14 global museum leaders and technology firms including Adobe, Anthropic, Bloomberg, and Salesforce. Participants include directors such as Marion Ackermann (Stiftung Preußischer Kulturbesitz), Stephanie Rosenthal (Guggenheim Abu Dhabi), Eike Schmidt (Museo di Capodimonte), Mami Kataoka (Mori Art Museum), and others, alongside Bay Area museum heads and AI artist Refik Anadol, who will speak in a free public program at the de Young Museum. The forum aims to bridge the museum and technology communities, exploring how advanced technologies can enrich operations and visitor experiences while supporting artists working with technology.
This gathering matters because museums worldwide face urgent questions about adapting to rapid AI proliferation without compromising their core missions or the analog experiences visitors expect. The roundtable facilitates global collaboration and trust-building across sectors, with participation extending beyond Western institutions to include voices from Nigeria, Japan, Mexico, and elsewhere. The event's focus on practical strategies for integrating new tools while maintaining institutional integrity addresses a critical challenge for cultural institutions in an increasingly digital age, making it a bellwether for how museums will evolve in response to technological change.