demhist 2026 conference

demhist 2026 conference

Shifting Lines

Historical Houses in the age of AI

26 -28 October – Versailles, France

enter

Shifting lines:

Historical Houses in the age of AI

The DEMHIST 2026 conference wishes to question House Museums about the possibilities opened up by AI within our very specific setting :

• Basic data analysis, 3D modeling to preserve or bring heritage back to life, analysis and predictions to support preventive curation processes, etc.
• Interactive, immersive interpretive tools, perfectly suited to the profiles and expectations of each unique visitor, facilitating exchanges and outreach, etc.
• AI-enhanced video surveillance, improved flow management, reception, and information services...

But beyond sharing successful and inspiring case studies, the conference will also be an opportunity to question the limitations and dangers of these tools...

Watch the Trailer

Call for Papers

Are you exploring the boundaries between tradition and technology? We are looking for bold voices to contribute to DEMHIST 2026. Whether you are a curator, researcher, or innovator, we invite you to share your insights on how AI is redefining the "Spirit of Place." From groundbreaking research to visual case studies, your expertise will help map the future of Historic House Museums.How to Contribute:

• Paper Sessions: Present your latest research or project analysis during our expert-led panels.
• Poster Sessions: Showcase your practical case studies through visually compelling displays.

Key Information:

• Submissions must align with one of our three core sub-themes: The Augmented Curator / Reinventing our Houses / Ethics
• Deadline: April 2, 2026.

Download the Call for Papers

Submit a Proposal

Organizers & Partners

Click on each logo to learn more about the organizers and partners of the conference.

Hosted by

Organized by

In Collaboration with

demhist

DEMHIST is an ICOM International Committee focusing on the conservation and management of house museums. Its name is an abbreviation of the French term “demeures historiques”. House museums range from castles to cottages, from all periods. The interpretation of house museums includes historic, architectural, cultural, artistic and social information.

About DEMHIST

Website

PALACE OF VERSAILLES

The Palace of Versailles, whose origins date back to the seventeenth century, was successively a hunting lodge, a ​seat of power and​,​ from the nineteenth century​,​ a museum. With the gardens and the ​​Palaces of Trianon, the park of the Château de Versailles spreads over 800 hectares.

About VERSAILLES

Website

ICOM France

The French National Committee of ICOM has over 4,800 institutional and individual members, forming a broad and diverse community of actors working all over the country in every discipline, from fine arts to science and technology, natural history, ecomuseums and living-history museums.

About ICOM France

Website

European royal residencies association

The Network of European Royal Residences enables its members to work together and share their knowledge and experience in the preservation and development of the rich cultural heritage in their care, to the benefit of the millions of visitors they receive each year.

About ARRE

Website

Registration

Sign-Up for updates

Ticketing is not open yet! Save the dates to secure your attendance :

• July 1st, 2026: Early Bird bookings open (Preferential rates).
• July 31st, 2026: Early Bird booking period ends.
• August 1st, 2026: Ordinary booking rates apply.
• September 30th, 2026: Registration for in-person attendance closes.

Conference Schedule:

• October 26-27, 2026: Main Conference (Keynotes, Paper Sessions, and Panels).
• October 28, 2026: Specialized Workshops and the DEMHIST General Assembly.
• October 29, 2026: Exclusive Post-Conference Tour (optional)

Prices

What's included?

Venue

The conference will take place at the Palace of Versailles

Getting to the PalacePlace d’Armes, 78000 Versailles

Access

interactive map Bienvenue à Versailles

Book your Hotel

Palace of Versailles

visit DEMHIST website

GALLERY

You can use the photo, gif, or illustration of your choice to enhance the multimedia content.

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

WRITE A GREAT TITLE

With interactive images. Includes additional information and shows it with a click.

Magic

XVI

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

You can use a photograph or an illustration as a base. The important thing is that it is very attractive to catch your audience's attention.

Since 2001, the institutions in charge of the most prestigious palace-museums in Europe have come together to form the Network of European Royal Residences. Today this association regroups 36 institutions in charge of managing over 100 palaces located in 15 European countries. Bearing witness to the history and identity of Europe, European Royal Residences are complex and multifaceted places of prestige: originally places of power and representation, they are now museums, open to the public, offering an extremely varied cultural programme. This range of activities connecting the past to the present raises some specific issues. The Network of European Royal Residences is primarily a tool at the service of European palace-museum staff and experts, enabling them to meet and share their experience in the preservation, management and promotion of the rich cultural heritage in their care. As they come together around various large and smallscale joint projects, through technical meetings or the organisation of common cultural programmes and mobility grants, this network, unique in Europe, aims to improve the management and conservation of European Royal Residences that receive more than 42 million visitors every year and promote them across the world. The headquarters of the Association are at the Château de Versailles, the founding member who holds the Presidency. A European board is elected every three years in order to ensure a good geographical representation of all members. The official languages of the Association are French and English.

XVI

A great presentation... it's clear and structured to convey information in an organized and hierarchical way, and to make the content that excites the brain reach the audience. For this, animation and interactivity are two fundamental pillars. Tags, windows, links, audio... With Genially, you can include any type of interactivity to add extra content and incorporate animation to attract your audience's attention. Did you know that Genially allows you to share your creation directly, without the need for downloads? Ready for your audience to view it on any device and to share it anywhere.

A great title

RUBENS - Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

ORIGINAL TITLE OF THE WORK

You can use a photograph or an illustration as a base. The important thing is that it is very attractive to catch your audience's attention.

With interactive images. Include additional information and display it with a click.

GALLERY

You can use any photo, gif, or illustration you like to enhance the multimedia content.

Visual content is a transversal, universal language, like music. We are able to understand images from millions of years ago, even from other cultures. We better grasp visual content. Visual content is associated with cognitive and psychological mechanisms. Things enter through the eyes; the first image is what matters. We associate visual content with emotions. Our brain is prepared to consume visual content. Some data: 90% of the information we process comes through sight, and we process visual content up to 60,000 times faster than text. That's why visual communication is more effective.

Michelangelo Merisi da CARAVAGGIO

Write a great title here XXXX-XXXX.

GALLERY

You can use the photo, gif, or illustration of your choice to spice up the multimedia content.

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

WRITE A GREAT TITLE

Visual

With interactive images. Include additional information and display it with a click.

XVI

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

You can use a photograph or an illustration as a base. The important thing is that it is very attractive to catch your audience's attention.

Download the call for papers

English Version

Version française

versión española

What's included?

Registration grants you access to :

• Full Access: Entry to all scientific sessions and the General Assembly.
• Exclusive Tours: Special access to the Versailles estate
• Networking: Receptions and lunches with global heritage professionals.
• Optional day : offsite visits within the Versailles region, transportation and lunch.

Note: Special rates will be available for ICOM members and students. Valid ID will be required at the time of booking.

RUBENS - Thyssen-Bornemisza Museum

Self-portrait

16th century

PETER PAUL RUBENS

Visual content is a cross-disciplinary, universal language, like music. We are able to understand images from millions of years ago, even from other cultures. We better grasp visual content. Visual content is associated with cognitive and psychological mechanisms. Things enter through the eyes; the first image is the one that counts. We associate visual content with emotions. Our brain is prepared to consume visual content. Some data: 90% of the information we process comes through sight, and we process visual content up to 60,000 times faster than text. That’s why visual communication is more effective.

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

WRITE A GREAT TITLE

Love

With interactive images. Includes additional information and shows it with a click.

XVI

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

You can use a photograph or an illustration as a base. The important thing is that it is very attractive to catch your audience's attention.

• RER line C arrives at Versailles Château - Rive Gauche train station, just 10 minutes’ walk to the Palace.
• SNCF trains from Gare Montparnasse arrive at Versailles Chantiers train station, with lines N or U, which is 18 minutes on foot to the Palace.
• SNCF trains from Gare Saint Lazare arrive at Versailles Rive Droite train station, with line P, which is 17 minutes on foot to the Palace.

Purchase two ticket (two-way trip) from your point of departure to the Versailles train station, or use a pass (Navigo, Mobilis or Paris Visite). Figure out tickets and fares on : www.iledefrance-mobilites.fr/en/ or on : www.transilien.com

• The RATP bus line 171 runs between Pont de Sèvres (terminus of the Paris metro line 9) and the Palace of Versailles in 30 minutes without traffic.
• From the A13 motorway, take exit no.5 Versailles Centre and follow the signs for the Palace of Versailles.

GPS coordinates for the Palace of Versailles: 48.48'17N and 2.07'15E

Use this space to add a great phrase. Surprise your audience with additional info.

WRITE A GREAT TITLE

Contextualize your topic with a subtitle

Our brain is biologically prepared to process visual content. Almost 50% of our brain is involved in processing visual stimuli.

Animation adds value to our content by helping us capture attention, prioritize ideas, and make our audience remember the content.

ICOM France is the French National Committee of the International Council of Museums (ICOM), a leading international non-governmental organization that will celebrate its 80th anniversary in 2026. In 2025, ICOM France represents more than 6,800 institutional and individual members, forming a broad and diverse professional network across the country and spanning all museum disciplines, including fine arts, science and technology, natural history, ecomuseums, and social history museums. As a key platform for professional dialogue and cooperation, ICOM France actively contributes to the international influence of the French museum community. The Committee supports its members in addressing the major transformations shaping museums today — from collections management and research to public engagement, mediation, and governance — while promoting diversity and inclusion, digital innovation, and emerging social and environmental responsibilities. Through its engagement within ICOM’s global network, ICOM France plays an active role in cultural diplomacy, fostering international partnerships, professional exchange, and intercultural dialogue, and contributing to the global visibility and leadership of the French museum sector.

DEMHIST holds conferences and maintains a website to help provide a professional platform for sharing ideas and solutions. Its goals include the development of standards for conservation, restoration and security of house museums as well as helping develop communications with other professionals and visitors of house museums. Further concerns are the ways to improve community relations while increasing visibility and tourism.DEMHIST came into being in Palazzo Spinola in Genoa, in 1997, during the conference “Living History. Historic House Museums”During this conference, for the first time, the need was expressed for a specific ICOM committee devoted to this particular category of museums. The participants signed a petition which the ICOM-Italy president, Giovanni Pinna, submitted to the 1998 ICOM General Conference in Melbourne where it was accepted and ratified.A few days later the new committee held its first meeting and chose the name “Historic House Museums/Demeures historiques-musées/Residencias Históricas-Museo” as well as the acronym DEMHIST (from the French version). The Committee first gathered in July 1999 in St Petersburg where the first board was elected and the committee regulations were approved.Over the years, more and more organisations have joined DEMHIST; Today we have over 600 members with Historic House Museums across the world. Each year, they meet to raise and discuss professional issues.

The history of the Palace of Versailles starts at the 17th century. It was first a hunting lodge, then a seat of power, and finally, from the 19th century onwards, a museum. Since 1979, the Palace of Versailles has been listed as a World Heritage and is one of the greatest achievements in French 17th century art. Louis XIII's old hunting pavilion was transformed and extended by his son, Louis XIV, when he installed the Court and government there in 1682. A succession of kings continued to embellish the Palace up until the French Revolution. Today the Palace contains 2,300 rooms spread over 63,154 m2. Containing over 60,000 works, the collections of the Palace of Versailles span a very broad period. The collections reflect the dual identity of the Palace, as both a palace occupied by the kings of France and the royal court, and later a museum “dedicated to the glories of France,” inaugurated by Louis-Philippe in 1837.The collections of the museum founded by Louis-Philippe, and still active today, offer a chronological overview of the history of France from the Middle Ages up to the late 19th century. The museum was intended to provide both historical and iconographic insight into the great figures and events which shaped the history of France, and the collections primarily comprise sculptures and paintings dating from the 16th through to the 19th centuries. They include originals and copies, specially-commissioned pieces, and regular purchases.When founding his museum, Louis-Philippe refrained from moving the statues dotted around the palace gardens, which remain as they were in Versailles’ royal heyday. On the other hand, he had no qualms about rearranging many of the palace’s historic apartments, particularly in the north and south wings. Since the late nineteenth century, a renewed interest in the iconic home of the kings of France has inspired efforts to restore the palace and refurnish the apartments of the central wing and the Petit Trianon to recreate their pre-revolutionary appearance. Meanwhile, in the Grand Trianon priority is afforded to the First Empire period.