Museum managers, architects, artists and multidisciplinary experts met this week in Madrid for the second edition of the global Next In Summit, organized by ACCIONA Living & Culture, which ended today.

The forum was inaugurated by the mayor of Madrid, José Luis Martínez Almeida, who highlighted the Spanish capital's commitment to museums as a key part of its identity. Martínez Almeida also emphasized his view of culture as an element that improves Madrid residents’ quality of life while attracting millions of visitors to the city.

Meanwhile, Juan Ignacio Entrecanales, vice-chairman of ACCIONA, pointed out that museums are “no longer passive guardians of the past, but dynamic, forward-looking institutions that adapt to new realities, open up to new audiences and redefine their role in society.” In this vein, he spoke of ACCIONA Living & Culture’s work, as a leading company in the sector, in the creation of a new museology that is more inclusive, sustainable and open to the public.

Along these lines, architect and 2023 Pritzker Prize winner David Chipperfield stressed that we live in very interesting times to “redefine the future through art,” considering that the arts “have an essential role as a bridge between the past and the future.”

Chipperfield also highlighted that urban architecture “should support the community, acting as a driver of social and environmental regeneration through dialogue.”

One of the other notable speeches was given by digital artist Rafael Lozano-Hemmer, who reviewed the most relevant works of his career, explaining that in this era of constant participation “creating immersive art must cause discomfort and invite us to think about the role of the spectator in the work, seeing it as an incomplete piece, co-created by the spectator and the artist.”

Glenn D. Lowry, director of New York’s Museum of Modern Art (MoMA), also spoke about collective creation, asserting that the arts “should not be silos, but a cross-pollination across cultures, time periods and techniques.” Lowry also pointed out that his task is to bring the museum into the 21st century, as “the concept of modern art is a work in progress,” so the museum “must focus its growth online, collapsing the barriers between the virtual and the physical.”

Miguel Falomir, director of the Prado Museum, agreed with this idea, explaining that the challenge is no longer just to attract visitors, but to diversify audiences and find new ways of relating to them. Falomir also spoke about the expansion work carried out at the Casón del Buen Retiro building, which will make it possible to exhibit part of the museum's collections that were previously in storage, as well as to make room for temporary exhibitions.

Moreover, Mariët Westermann, director and CEO of the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum and Foundation, explored the current trend of hybrid museums, explaining that “their relevance is not based on technological novelty, but on the radical inclusion they offer in order to appeal to younger generations through a shared language.”

The forum also saw the launch of The Ultimate Museum Book, a work by ACCIONA Living & Culture, which compiles the conclusions of research carried out in more than 150 museums around the world with the aim of creating a guide of best practices in sustainability to inspire this sector.

The 2025 NEXT IN Summit, held on the ACCIONA Campus in Madrid, brought together more than 300 professionals from the sector. A total of thirty international experts from the United States, the United Kingdom, Saudi Arabia, Japan, Denmark, Canada, the Netherlands and Spain, among other countries, participated as speakers this year. In addition to giving informative lectures and participating in panel talks, they also met with attendees in networking spaces.