Sound in Museums is an international conference exploring the dynamics of exhibiting sound in museum spaces. This pioneering forum brings together leading academics, sound artists, designers, museum curators, sound archivists, acousticians, and technology innovators to advance the integration of sound in museum experiences.
Our mission is to transform how museums and visitors conceptualize and implement sound globally and across cultural contexts to unlock its full potential in exhibition spaces. Through interdisciplinary dialogue and collaboration, we aim to reshape the future of sonic experiences in museums worldwide. Sound in Museums is thus strategically envisioned to travel globally, transcending continental boundaries to engage with diverse cultural venues across Europe, the Americas, Africa, and Oceania.
We understand that the sonic environment within museums demands careful planning, from curated soundscapes to the management of ambient gallery acoustics. Every acoustic choice should be deliberate and purposeful, contributing to the overall visitor experience.
Sound in Museums emerges at the intersection of multiple disciplines, creating a rich tapestry of perspectives and methodologies. This convergence includes: music studies (musicology, ethnomusicology, popular music studies and sound studies); psychology of music and neuroscience; acoustics and engineering; museum and material culture studies; media theory and aesthetics, phenomenology, and science and technology studies.
We recognize sound and music as cultural artifacts worthy of preservation and exhibition, supported by two key developments: the advent of recording technologies, transforming sound into portable, preservable objects allowing the possibility of repetition; the recognition of musical practices by music studies as windows into the understanding of a culture dynamics at large.
Sound and music function as potent communicative tools in exhibition spaces, creating aesthetic experiences that operate on multiple levels—sensory, emotional, representational, and social. Through their expressive capabilities, they also hold the power to stimulate visitors' imagination and strengthen their memories of the experience.
Human perception and cognition guide our work at the nexus of sound ontologies, museum practices, and spatial-technological approaches. We are committed to developing evidence-based approaches to understanding how visitors perceive and interact with sound in museum spaces, ensuring that our innovations serve both curatorial vision, visitor needs, and technological developments.
Sound in Museums 2025 is an initiative of the Heritage, Archives, and Museums thematic line within NOVA University's Institute for Ethnomusicology, Music, and Dance (INET-md) and of the National Museum of Music
Maria João Albuquerque
Susana Sardo
National Museum of Music Mafra, Portugal
A curator and producer of exhibitions since 1996, she served at Expo'98 and at Calouste Gulbenkian Foundation in Portugal (2001-2011). She studied piano, cello and composition, graduated in Musicology (1992), took postgraduate courses in Popular Music Studies (2011) and Acoustic and Sound Studies (2019), and obtained her MCs (2014) and her PhD (2022) in Ethnomusicology/Museum Studies.
Alcina’s research explores the intricate relationship between humans and exhibited sound in museums, delving into the nuances of perception, sensation, and the complex processes of creating meaning. Her insights have culminated in a book and multiple articles featured in journals such as Popular Music, Sound Studies and Curator, The Museum Journal. Recently, she published an article proposing a typology of seven sound based genres which forms the foundation of the Sound in Museums concept. She is the corresponding editor of the upcoming The Bloomsbury Handbook of Sound in Museums (to be released in 2026).
A musicologist, composer, and manager. As a musicologist, he has collaborated with Gulbenkian Música, Casa da Música, and the National Theatre of São Carlos. He was awarded 2nd Prize in the Otto Mayer-Serra Competition (2017) at the University of California, Riverside, as well as the Joaquim de Vasconcelos Prize (2019) from the Portuguese Society for Music Research and the Alumni NOVA FCSH Prize / Revelation Category — Arts (2024). He founded and directed MPMP Património Musical Vivo (2009–2022), a platform recognized with the Sequeira Costa Music Prize (2018). Within MPMP, he conceived and coordinated various editorial and musical programming projects. Between 2021 and 2024, he served as 2nd Board Member of the Portuguese Society for Music Research.
In September 2022, he assumed the role of Director of the National Museum of Music.
Maria João Albuquerque is a music librarian and integrated researcher at the Institute of Ethnomusicology-Centre for Studies in Music and Dance (INET-md), Universidade Nova de Lisboa. Her work focuses on music archives, music librarianship, and documentation practices, with particular interest in music printing and publishing in Portugal, as well as the role of women in music publishing. She is currently Portugal’s representative on the Management Committee of the COST Action 23137: Print Culture and Public Spheres in Central Europe (1500–1800). She has work on major music collections held at institutions such as the National Library of Portugal and the Ajuda Library. She is a member of IAML’s Cataloguing and Metadata Section and collaborates with RISM as an independent cataloguer, helping promote it in Portugal. Since 2025, she has been a mentor in the BAD Mentorship Programme, supporting the growth of music librarianship and fostering professional development.
Susana Sardo is an ethnomusicologist, Full Professor at the University of Aveiro, and Visiting Professor at the University of Goa within the framework of the JH Cunha Rivara Chair. Since 1987, she has been conducting research on Goa within a broader study related to music and postcolonialism. Since 2010, she has been dedicated to research on archives and, in 2017, took on the co-coordination of the Study Group on Sources and Archives for Music and Sound Studies at ICTMD. In 2023, she was elected as a member of the Executive Board of the International Council for Traditions of Music and Dance and the Board of the European Seminar for Ethnomusicology. In 2007, she founded the University of Aveiro branch of the Institute of Ethnomusicology – Center for Studies in Music and Dance, which she coordinated until January 2023.
Birgitte Folmann, Ph.D., is an anthropologist specialising in sound. She is a Reader and Head of the ATMOSphere research group at Sonic College, UC South Denmark, where her research explores the anthropology of sound, sensory experiences, and atmospheres in museums, always with a focus on human perception. In addition to her research, she teaches future sound designers at Sonic College. As a result of her focus on building an international network and research projects in the field, Birgitte is serving as an invited International Co-Chair for the Sound in Museums 2025 edition.
Consulting to nonprofits and cultural institutions internationally, Finney’s background includes over 30 years in senior leadership positions in arts marketing and management. Prior to his work in the nonprofit sector, he spent over a decade working in advertising and corporate marketing. Finney began his museum career at the Exploratorium, a museum of science and art in San Francisco, followed by the San Francisco Museum of Modern Art, SFMoMA, and most recently, the Peabody Essex Museum in Salem, MA. He is a co-founder of the Art Museum Marketing Association and a former board member of ICOM USA.
Want to boost your organization’s visibility in the sound and museums field?
Network, establish new relationships, and keep on top of the latest trends?
Join us as a sponsor at Sound in Museums 2025!
For further information, please contact us at info@soundinmuseums.com with the subject SPONSOR.
