What does true inclusion look like when museum networks stretch across continents? In this ICOM Talk Jude De Wolff-Finies, director of Terramar Museum, Bonaire, explores the deep contrasts and surprising parallels between Bonaire and the European Netherlands in how cultural infrastructure is designed, funded, and imagined.
Drawing from both personal experience and institutional case studies, Jude will reflect on the responsibilities of museums within a transatlantic Kingdom still grappling with its colonial past. How can Bonaire’s cultural institutions claim their place as equal players in the Kingdom's heritage landscape?
Museums as platforms for building equitable futures
Museums today are more than guardians of the past-they are platforms for building equitable futures. In the context of the Kingdom of the Netherlands, which spans both Europe and the Caribbean, the role of museums and cultural institutions takes on added weight: they serve not only as centers of heritage but as instruments of recognition, economic opportunity, and social resilience across historically unequal geographies.
Museums x Sustainable Development Goals
Anchored in the theme “Museums for Education and Research”, this Talk reflects on how museums can support three key Sustainable Development Goals:
- SDG 8 (decent work and Economic growth): On islands like Bonaire, cultural centers offer vital training, employment, and creative industries development. Yet structural underinvestment has limited their potential compared to the Netherlands’ robust cultural economy.
- SDG 9 (industry, innovation and infrastructure): While the Netherlands has embraced digital innovation and museum technology, Bonaire is still in the early stages of digital archiving, exhibition-making, and inclusive design. The talk highlights examples of emerging innovation in Bonaire, including youth-led storytelling labs and digital heritage projects.
- SDG 11 (sustainable cities and communities): Museums in both regions act as cultural anchors. In Bonaire, institutions like Herensia Kultural Rincon and Mangazina di Rei are reclaiming this role, working to foster intergenerational dialogue and community identity in a rapidly globalizing environment.
Terramar Museum
Shared memory and mutual progress
Through this conversation, we will uncover how museums—despite their geographic and infrastructural differences—can co-create a more balanced and culturally literate Kingdom, where both continents contribute to shared memory and mutual progress.
Practical information
- Thursday 3 July 2025 - 4-5 PM (CET)
- Language: Dutch
- Online via Zoom
- Free, no need to sign in
- Link: https://zoom.us/j/94948330712
About the speaker
Jude De Wolff-Finies is a cultural innovator, creative entrepreneur, and connecting leader with deep roots in Bonaire and a global outlook. With a strong background in heritage management, cultural project development, and international collaboration, she is deeply committed to the sustainable cultural development of the island. As director of the Terramar Museum, she successfully led its redesign, resulting in above-average scores on the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Currently, as chair of the Cultureel Centrum Bonaire (CCB), she is working to strengthen the institutional foundation of this historic cultural institution.
Jude is currently specializing in cultural diplomacy, focusing on developing strategies that strengthen Bonaire’s position within the Kingdom of the Netherlands. In her recent case study for CCB, she explored how cultural infrastructure can support postcolonial justice, equal dialogue, and sustainable collaboration between Bonaire and the Netherlands. For Jude, cultural diplomacy is not merely a formal policy tool—it is a community-driven approach that centers heritage, arts, and local voices.
Her vision is deeply inspired by the sustainable lifestyle of her ancestors, who lived in balance with nature, community, and tradition. As co-founder of Frente Kultural, Aliansa Kultural, and the Across The Isles Foundation, and as a board member of the NGO Platform Bonaire, Jude is a key figure in the island’s cultural ecosystem.