With sadness, ASTC acknowledges the recent passing of Michele Lanzinger, visionary founder and director of Museo delle Scienze (MUSE), in Trento, Italy, from 2022 to 2024.
Lanzinger’s work was cited in Sarah B. George’s 2015 Dimensions article “The Stuff of Museums: Collections, Interactivity, and a Call to Action,” as an exemplar of an institution that dynamically melds interactivity with collections. Lanzinger led MUSE in hosting the 2015 European Science Network of Science Centers and Museum (Ecsite) conference on the theme “Food for curious minds,” a motif that was creatively explored in the sessions, social events, and conference meals.
In addition to being a field visionary who was also president of the International Council of Museums from 2022 to 2026, Lanzinger was a renaissance man. He played the viola, as he expertly and sensitively demonstrated during a Vivaldi guitar concerto performed with museum colleagues from four countries at the 2015 Ecsite conference. Read about Lanzinger’s prescient, forward-looking vision for what he called the “activist” museum.
Grazie, Michele Lanzinger, for your inspiration and leadership.