Worklab - International Association of Labour Museums

07/04/2026

Registration for the Worklab General Conference 2026 is now OPEN. To register, please click the link below:

Online Registration Form: https://forms.gle/zGXchGd2va2mkuh27

07/04/2026

Registration for the Worklab General Conference 2026 is now OPEN. To register, please click go to

Welcome to the official registration for the WorkLab General Conference 2026! Theme: USE IT OR LOSE IT – Sustainable and Creative Use of Industrial and Labour Heritage Date: 3 – 5 June 2026 Location: Ljubljana & Bistra, Slovenia Please complete this form to secure your spot at the conference. Fo...

16/12/2025

USE IT OR LOSE IT
Sustainable and Creative Use of Industrial and Labour Heritage: Sites and Buildings

Ljubljana, Slovenija, 3rd to 5th June 2026

Tehniški muzej Slovenije
Icomos Slovenija

06/08/2025

THREE WEEKS TO GO 📣 📣 📣

It's time to get your abstract ready for the 2025 General Conference of WORKLAB - The International Association of Labour Museums.

The conference theme is "Workers' Culture".

We invite presentations from museum professionals, researchers, artists, and consultants on a diverse range of subjects, including:
📍Interpreting workers’ material culture: banners, badges, tools, union ephemera, and publications
📍Preserving immaterial culture: songs, stories, and oral histories
📍Artist–worker–community collaborations
📍Cultural expressions shaped by gendered experiences and LGBTQ workers
📍Labour migration and transnational narratives
📍Museums as spaces for democratic engagement and cultural memory
Read the full Call for Papers at the WORKLAB website https://worklab.info/worklab-2025-general-conference-in-hamburg/

⏰ Send your abstract and a short biography no later than 25 August.

The conference will take place on 5th to 7th November 2025 at Museum der Arbeit in the amazing city of Hamburg. Hope to see you there!

WORKLAB 2025: General Conference in Hamburg WorkLab Posted on 22. May 2025 by Søren Bak-Jensen6. August 2025 The 2025 General Conference of WORKLAB – International Association of Labour Museums – will take place in Hamburg, hosted by the Museum der Arbeit from 5–7 November. This year’s them...

22/05/2025

📢 CALL FOR PAPERS – WORKLAB 2025 General Conference
📍 Museum der Arbeit, Hamburg
🗓️ 5–7 November 2025
🎯 Theme: Workers’ Culture

In times of growing inequality, workers’ culture—songs, objects, rituals, stories—remains a vital source of solidarity, resistance, and identity.

We invite proposals for papers and workshops exploring how museums and heritage institutions collect, preserve, and interpret workers’ culture. Suggested topics include:

📌 Material culture (banners, tools, ephemera)
📌 Immaterial culture (songs, oral histories, rituals)
📌 Artist–worker–community collaborations
📌 Gendered and LGBTQ workers’ experiences
📌 Labour migration and transnational stories
📌 Museums as democratic cultural actors

💡 Whether you work in a museum, archive, university, union, or cultural institution—we want to hear from you!

Send your proposal by Monday, 25 August 2025.
Full details of the call for papers here: https://worklab.info/worklab-2025-general-conference-in-hamburg/

01/07/2024

CALL FOR PAPERS: FUTURE WORKERS’ MUSEUMS – CREATIVITY IN TIMES OF CRISIS?

WORKLAB General Conference, December 10-12, 2024

The destruction of cultural heritage buildings and objects due to war or natural disasters has become an urgent topic to manage in wider society, as well as among museum professionals. Digitization offer important responses to this, and AI provide possibilities to keep pace with technological changes in wider society and potentially attract audiences. But new technologies also entail risks and problems that we need to deal with.

WORKLAB invites museum, library and archive professionals, researchers, exhibition producers and technological innovators to join this urgent discussion in the amazing surroundings of Arbetets museum/The Museum of Work in Norrköping, Sweden.

Read the full call for papers on WORKLAB website (link in comments) and send us your 500-word abstract by 15 September.

17/09/2023

"GLOBAL WORK" - REGISTRATION NOW OPEN

The programme for the 2023 WORKLAB General Conference is now online. Find information about all sessions and speakers along with registration details at the Museum der Arbeit website below.

We have a great conference ahead of us, and we are especially proud to be welcoming Gorkem Akgoz of the Humboldt Universität zu Berlin as our keynote speaker.

Please register now, and we look forward to seeing you in Hamburg.

Allgemein WorkLab General Conference Global Work WorkLab WORKLAB General Conference 2003 – Registration is now open! Many WORKLAB member museums were created to preserve and exhibit the memory of the workers, of industrial work and of workers’ movements – mainly based or referring to our respe...

01/08/2023

PLEASE SUBMIT YOUR ABSTRACT NOW

The deadline for the WORKLAB General Conference 2023 is approaching. Please send us your abstract by 15 August.

CALL FOR PAPERS! Global work: Going beyond national perspectives in labour museums. WORKLAB General Conference 2023 – Hamburg 16th – 18th November WorkLab Posted on 22. June 2023 by Søren Bak-Jensen22. June 2023 The call for papers for the 2023 WORKLAB General Conference is now open! Work ties ...

22/06/2023

CALL FOR PAPERS!

Global work: Going beyond national perspectives in labour museums.

This is the overarching theme of the 2023 WORKLAB General Conference which will be held at the Museum der Arbeit in Hamburg, Germany on 16th - 18th November 2023.

We invite papers bringing a broad range of professional approaches, institutional perspectives, museological traditions, and concrete experiences to questions around the role of transnational perspectives in the collecting, exhibition, and community work of labour museums. Read the full call for papers here: https://worklab.info/call-for-papers-global-work-going-beyond-national-perspectives-in-labour-museums-worklab-general-conference-2023-hamburg-16th-18th-november/

Please submit your paper by 15 August 2023! We look forward to hopefully seeing you in Hamburg!

CALL FOR PAPERS! Global work: Going beyond national perspectives in labour museums. WORKLAB General Conference 2023 – Hamburg 16th – 18th November WorkLab Posted on 22. June 2023 by Søren Bak-Jensen22. June 2023 The call for papers for the 2023 WORKLAB General Conference is now open! Work ties ...