Michael Birchall

Michael Birchall is Professor of Exhibiting, Curating and Mediating in Contemporary Art at the Academy of Fine Arts in Helsinki. He was previously Co-Director of Exhibitions at Migros Museum für Gegenwartskunst, where he led a programme of exhibitions, commissions, and publications. His curatorial work focuses on fostering connections between international art histories and local communities, and he has curated exhibitions with artists including Renée Green, Basel Abbas and Ruanne Abou-Rahme, Pilvi Takala, Tarek Lakhrissi, Evan Ifekoya, and Dineo Seshee Raisibe Bopape, among others. He has held curatorial positions at Tate Liverpool, The Walter Phillips Gallery at The Banff Centre, and Künstlerhaus Stuttgart. Birchall studied Art History, History, and Curating, and completed his PhD at the University of Wolverhampton. He has taught and lectured at institutions such as Zurich University of the Arts, ETH Zurich, and the Liverpool School of Art, where he is a Visiting Fellow. He has edited and contributed to a wide range of catalogues and journals, and is currently preparing a book on artistic labour and collaboration for Routledge.

An Unexpected Guest

Over the past two decades, museums have increasingly embraced participation, collaboration, and community engagement as central aspects of their public role. Within this context, artists have become important agents of change, entering museums not simply as artists but as collaborators, researchers, facilitators, and instigators of dialogue. Through residencies, live programmes, commissions, and community-based projects, artists often introduce new ways of working that challenge conventional relationships between institutions, collections, and audiences.
Through case studies, this lecture examines the evolving role of artists within museums and the collaborative relationships that emerge between artists, institutions, and their publics. It considers how artists operate within museum structures, how participatory and collaborative practices can both challenge and reinforce institutional authority, and what expectations, experiences, and lasting impacts such projects generate for visitors, communities, and museums alike.