The Museum is a member of ICOM (International Council of Museums), ECSITE (European Network of Science Centers and Museums), ASTC (American Association of Science-Technology Centers), and EUSEA (European Science Events Association), and collaborates in a variety of international projects with the support of the European Union.
The Museum’s involvement in international activities positions it at the forefront of global scientific and technological education, communication, research, and promotion. It also enables it to work across boundaries; collaborating with international partners maximizes everyone’s knowledge, tools, and experience. During the last decade, the Museum participated in 14 European Projects under the funding schemes of FP7 and Horizon 2020.
Just as science knows no boundaries, so too does the global community of science museums freely share content, knowledge, and assistance. For over a decade, the Museum has been working with science museums around the world to host traveling exhibitions and curate and co-design original exhibitions. Belonging to this global community generates international exposure for exhibits, and results in collaborations that not only yield revenue, but strengthen cultural and scientific ties as well. Along with its contribution to the development and production of other exhibitions, you can find the Museum’s unique flagship exhibitions displayed in various science museums around the world.
An ongoing collaboration with Universcience- the Museum of Science in Paris- over the last decade has led to a number of successful exhibitions; The blueprint of Me Games and Light and Shadows exhibitions, for example, were purchased and given a local curatorial appearance in the Museum. On the 70th anniversary of Israel’s independence, the Israel-France cultural season was marked by exchanging exhibitions; the Museum hosted the To Risk or Not to Risk exhibition, and its Illusions- Mind Boggling exhibition was presented, with great success- receiving over 250,000 visitors! - at the Palais de la Decouverte in Paris.
In 2015, the Museum hosted the Musica exhibition from the Museum of Music in Germany. The exhibition, which featured scientific musical displays and highlighted MAKE culture, was very successfully integrated into the Museum at large. Not only did it attract a large audience, but it served as a basis for a unique educational project for students from Givat Ram, The Academy of Music, and ORT schools.
International collaboration means exhibitions are exchanged, moved, and shared even across oceans. Biomechanics: The Machine Inside exhibition, of the Field Museum in Chicago (USA), was presented simultaneously, there and here. The exhibition exposed visitors to the mechanical workings of the animal and human body alongside technological developments inspired by nature.
Of all the exhibitions initiated by the museum, one of the highlights was 2 x 200. To mark the bicentennial of the invention of the bicycle, the Museum, in partnership with three museums throughout Europe and Canada, curated, designed, produced, and presented an interactive and historical flagship exhibition that showcased the invention that influenced the world technologically, environmentally, and socially. The exhibition combines unique interactive exhibits developed by the Museum team with rare artifacts from the VELORAMA Museum from the Netherlands and from collectors around the world. In recent years, urban renewal projects have resulted in bicycles becoming a primary means of transportation in many cities, a trend that intensified in 2020. At the end of its run at the Museum, the exhibition went on a world tour; After being shown in Germany (2018) and Italy (2019), it opened at the Copernicus Museum in Warsaw, Poland, in 2020, and in 2022 it will make its way to Canada.
In the upcoming decade, the Museum will continue to initiate collaborations with science museums around the world, academia, and the business sector, to develop diverse, global exhibitions that are adapted to local operative and economic needs.