We are delighted to welcome five Keynote Speakers, artists, thinkers and doers renowned the world over, each distinguished in their very different lines of work and sharing a commitment to the ideals of ICOM.

The Opening Ceremony on the morning of Monday, 4 July will include speeches by Orhan Pamuk, Nobel Prize-winning Turkish novelist, and Christo, artist famous for his environmental interventions, carried out with his partner Jeanne-Claude until her 2009 death.

The Plenary Session the following morning, 5 July, will feature keynote speeches by Michele De Lucchi, Italian architect, and Nkandu Luo, Zambian Minister of Gender and Development.

And finally, the morning of Wednesday, 6 July will see a keynote speech by David Throsby, cultural economist at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.