The activist museum: going deeper – Ann Burroughs and Marcela Kvetková

Online debate
With Ann Burroughs and Marcela Kvetková
2 December 2025
Bratislava: 6pm | Lisbon: 5pm | Los Angeles: 9am
Watch the recording
Check all recordings in the series The Activist Museum: going deeper

We are happy and honoured to welcome Ann Burroughs (Japanese American National Museum) and Marcela Kvetková (Bratislava City Museum) to our next “The Activist Museum” debate.

Since the beginning of the year, we have been witnessing the US administration’s multiple attempts to subdue museums, mainly by withholding funds. Approximately one-third have lost government funding. The Japanese American National Museum refused to abandon its DEI – Diversity, Equity, Inclusion policies and programmes, receiving both public support and donations. Other – and also smaller – museums are looking for ways to counter the offensive.

In Slovakia, the crackdown on cultural organisations started last year, with the dismissal of the directors of the Slovak National Theatre, Slovak National Gallery and Slovak National Museum. The government’s intentions became quite clear, though, soon after the October 2023 elections. The “Early Warning” report reveals political interference, censorship and suppression, which are reshaping the cultural landscape. Cultural professionals and artists are fighting back with all the means at their disposal.

Can museums resist authoritarianism? How and at what cost? What does solidarity mean for them in the current political context? What can we learn and how can we take care of each other?

Bionotes

Ann Burroughs has been JANM President and CEO since 2017. An internationally recognized leader in the fight for human rights, she is currently International Chair of the International Board of Amnesty International. Previously, she was Chair of the Board of Amnesty International USA and Chair of Amnesty International’s Global Assembly. She is Chair of the Japanese American Confinement Sites Consortium and serves on the board of the Heart Mountain Wyoming Foundation. Burroughs’ lifelong commitment to racial and social justice was shaped by her experience as a young activist in her native South Africa when she was jailed as a political prisoner for her opposition to apartheid. She has previously served as Executive Director of the Taproot Foundation and as the Executive Director of LA Works. Burroughs also worked as a consultant for the Omidyar Network, the Rockefeller Foundation, and the government of South Africa.

Marcela Kvetková studied Art and Cultural History at Trnava University. After graduating, she dedicated herself to meaningfully mediating museum and gallery content to the public. She has worked at both the Slovak National Museum in Bratislava and the Foundation – Centre for Contemporary Arts. She then led the Cultural Centre in Modra, where she lives, for five years. More recently, she worked at the Slovak National Gallery, developing programme dramaturgy, methodological frameworks, and digital educational projects. She has worked as a project manager and deputy director at the Bratislava City Museum for the past two and half years.

Suggested readings

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