Throughout its consolidation as an academic discipline, museum studies have tended to gravitate around major national and international museums, their emblematic collections, and the management models they have established as standards. These institutions, mostly located in urban centers and supported by solid structures of funding, research, and public outreach, have shaped a “canon” that has influenced not only academic agendas but also collective imaginaries about what a museum is (and what it should be).

However, beyond this centralized focus there exists a vast and heterogeneous museum universe that has historically remained at the margins of scientific discourse and cultural policy. Small archaeological, ecclesiastical, community and local museums, ethnographic and anthropological institutions, and medium-sized collections, often located in peripheral or rural areas, actually constitute the largest part of today’s museum landscape. Far from being residual spaces, these museums safeguard heritage that is deeply connected to the communities that sustain them and to the social, cultural, and symbolic environments from which they emerge.

The relative “marginality” of these institutions is not only geographical or budgetary, but also epistemological. Their practices, challenges, and potential have been scarcely addressed in academia, despite the fact that they directly confront key issues for contemporary museums: sustainability, community participation, intergenerational transmission of heritage, management of limited resources, professionalization in precarious contexts, and the redefinition of their social function in the 21st century. In these contexts, the museum appears as an active agent of cultural mediation, living memory, and identity construction, moving beyond the notion of a mere monumental container of objects.

The International Conference Museums Beyond the Beaten Track. Challenges from the Periphery, Communities and Local Heritage, organized by students and faculty of the Master's Degree in Museums Curation of the Universidad Rey Juan Carlos, aims to shift the focus and open a space for critical reflection on these frequently overlooked museums. It is conceived as an interdisciplinary and intergenerational forum in which researchers, professionals, and cultural agents may share experiences, methodologies, and theoretical frameworks to rethink the role of museums from the periphery.

The International Conference Museums Beyond the Beaten Track. Challenges from the Periphery, Communities and Local Heritage welcomes proposals for on-site oral presentations in Spanish and English that may fall within one of the following thematic areas:

1. Management and funding strategies in peripheral museums.

Proposals focused on specific management models of museums located outside major cultural centers, considering legislative frameworks, public and private funding formulas, working conditions, and institutional sustainability. Critical reflections on structural precariousness and center-periphery asymmetries in resource allocation are particularly welcome.

2. Community participation, education, and cultural action.

Contributions analyzing the role of peripheral museums as educational and cultural agents, in dialogue with local communities, educational institutions, and associations. This includes mediation experiences, educational programs, temporary exhibitions, and participatory projects that position the public as an active actor in museum planning and local cultural action.

3. Territorial outreach, sustainability, and rural environments.

Studies on strategies through which museums extend their impact beyond their physical headquarters, contributing to the cultural, social, and economic development of rural environments. Special attention will be given to sustainable initiatives, territorial networks, and cultural policies addressing imbalances between urban centers and peripheries.

4. Collection preservation, digitization, and technological integration.

Contributions devoted to preventive conservation, documentation, and digitization of collections in small and medium-sized museums, as well as the incorporation of technological resources, digital platforms, virtual or augmented reality, and web developments. Legal, technical, and economic challenges that shape innovation in peripheral contexts will be considered.

5. Local tangible and intangible heritage and its management.

Proposals highlighting the diversity of local heritage in rural and peripheral contexts, including oral traditions, agricultural practices, craft techniques, and intangible expressions. Analyses of their management, intergenerational transmission, heritagization processes, risks of disappearance, and the museum’s role as cultural mediator are especially welcome.

6. Case studies, ongoing projects, and best practices.

Presentations of concrete experiences, ongoing projects, and best practices promoted by peripheral museums, individually or in networks. This includes applied research, new curatorial dynamics, temporary exhibitions, as well as academic work (doctoral theses, TFM, and TFG) related to these museum realities.