Corinne Fowler is an expert in the legacies of colonialism to heritage, literature and representations of history. Her book project, The Countryside: Ten Walks Through Colonial Britain, has been exploring Britain’s colonial connections and its impact on our lives today. She is joined by Graham Campbell, who accompanied her on walks in Jura and Islay, Bharti Parmar, who accompanied Corinne on a walk through Lancashire, and Raj Pal, who was her fellow walker in the Cotswolds.

Corinne’s talk will be followed by an open discussion in the room.

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This year the Museums Association launched our Museums for Climate Justice campaign to support museums in tackling the climate and ecological crisis. The campaign supports museums to be bold and brave in taking action, putting forward a systems change approach focusing on climate and social justice. In this session, speakers discuss how museums can take action for climate justice.

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Interisland Collective is a group of Tagata Moana (people of the Pacific Ocean) artists, cultural practitioners, curators and community workers who have selected taonga, informed and designed the interpretive planning decisions for the display. Paisley Museum’s work with Interisland started with an extended visit by the group that set the foundations for a reciprocal relationship.

The visit to Paisley’s publicly accessible museum store changed the museum’s perception of the collections. The museum no longer sees them as “objects” but “taonga” – living, breathing manifestations that carry mana (a supernatural force in a person, place, or object), narratives, and ancestral history. Staff are now grappling with what that means for storage, research and display. Paisley Museum Re-Imagined and Interisland partners honestly reflect on the ongoing process and challenges of working and learning together. Hear why co-production can embed real change in organisations and why partnership working needs flexibility.

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Members of the Empire, Slavery & Scotland’s Museums Project Steering Group discuss how empire, colonialism and historic slavery can be addressed using museum collections and museum spaces. This group will discuss the key recommendations in their recent report and how the sector can take them forward, including funding opportunities. The project builds on existing work from within the equalities sector and from across Scotland’s museums, to explore how the sector can confront challenging histories in museums.

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In 2020, National Museums Liverpool was approached by a young man from the Yemeni community in Liverpool, seeking support for a relative with dementia. He said that the continued war in Yemen is preventing families from travelling to reconnect with their heritage, elders’ memories are fading, and young people are struggling to connect with their cultural heritage. His discovery of the My House of Memories app appeared to offer a solution but did not represent his family heritage – he wanted to get involved to change this.

This session shares the speakers’ experiences of working with the House of Memories team to co-create the Connecting with Yemeni Elders’ Heritage digital programme, including: the creation of a Yemeni Advisory group; the process to engage young people as digital curators; and the production of a bilingual app package and toolkit specifically designed for museums working with diverse young people across the UK. The session also explores the significance of a digital Yemeni collection co-created in Liverpool to support the wider UK Yemeni community.

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Join Art Fund director, Jenny Waldman, to hear about The Great Escape, a new initiative inviting the UK’s museums, galleries and historic houses to host workshops that inspire children to set free their imaginations and connect with our native wildlife, leading up to a large-scale participative event on Earth Day 2023 (22-23 April).

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A presentation of heritage and creative projects featuring Kath Buckler and Ruth Purdy.

Kath Buckler

I am a cellist, composer, sound producer, and performer living in the West of Cornwall. Having written songs since my early teens, I started recording instrumental music for a variety of media in 2018, winning commissions to write original music for videos and podcasts, scoring a Young Creatives animation film for the BBC, and co-composing a Library album of instrumental ‘cello works for No Sheet Music. In 2020 I was the lucky recipient of ACE support through the Develop Your Creative Practice scheme, which I used to create new electronic music all about my mum. The same year, I set up www.sheproducer.com to help women in Cornwall explore home studio production. I have recently been awarded Seed funding from the Sound & Music New Voices Project 2022 to develop my composing work and am continuing to investigate the role of new music and original composition in illuminating history.

Ruth Purdy

Ruth studied Fine Art in Birmingham, followed by an MA in Photography at Falmouth, where she was identified as one of the best MA students in the British Journal of Photography in 2008. Her credits include book and album covers, and she has taught photography and art at all levels to all abilities. Her work in varied institutions has reinforced her interest in how mankind makes pictures and in sharing the skills which give meaning to her life. She now runs a social enterprise CIC and works freelance as an artist.

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This session – a film screening and panel discussion – explores how the placing of Black queer lives at the centre of a bold reimagining of our shared heritage might contribute to opening up society’s conversations around the role of culture in nation-making by reshaping our perceptions of who belongs and who doesn’t, whose lives are valued and affirmed and whose are not. Led by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries in partnership with Historic Royal Palaces, English Heritage and the National Trust, Permissible Beauty has been developed through a collaboration between art historian, performer and writer David McAlmont; portrait photographer Robert Taylor; researcher Richard Sandell; and filmmaker Mark Thomas.

Permissible Beauty examines how beauty has been defined, hailed, and perceived in the past and how this is reflected in, and shaped by, our nation’s heritage. It explores how fresh ways of recognising and celebrating beauty might be opened up and how more expansive, rich, and generous expressions might be brought into view. Permissible Beauty aims to expand and enrich the repertoire of strategies museums and heritage use to engage audiences that rarely see themselves reflected in the nation’s heritage and, more broadly, to work in ways that counter racism, ableism, homophobia, and transphobia.

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Hear how the Jewish Museum London created a workshop that helps children to talk about the topic of loss. Rather than creating another factual workshop about Holocaust education, the museum wanted to instead think about how the world around it was evolving. Covid-19 had changed children’s lives forever and many were experiencing grief and loss for the first time. This project took a year to develop, and a pilot stage was launched in January 2022 in partnership with mental health experts at Grief Encounter, which supports children with loss. The team at the Jewish Museum London is now keen to share its knowledge and skills with others to help them support children and young people with mental health topics through their own collections.

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The Baring Foundation, with the support of the Museums Association, is publishing a new report – Creatively Minded at the Museum – which includes 15 examples of museums around the country that are undertaking targeted work with people with mental health problems as part of their commitment to community engagement and inclusion. Join David Cutler, Director of the Baring Foundation, for an introduction to the report and its findings.

The Baring Foundation is an independent foundation with a long-standing Arts programme, which is currently focused on creative opportunities for people with mental health problems.

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The pandemic has brought the mental health of the workforce into stark focus. As the sector managed an unprecedented time of instability, the need for mutual support increased. With much of their membership being small independent museums, Scotland’s geographic forums became an important source of community and camaraderie during a time where many felt cut-off and isolated. This panel discussion highlights the variety of approaches taken, shares best practice and explores what more can be done within these ready-made networks to support and improve the wellbeing of the workforce.

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Each day that we run the historic static steam engines in our small, independent, community-focused industrial site we burn one ton of carbon. Is there a way to continue running as a museum without it becoming economically and socially unviable? This session explores how we are setting out to answer this question, and touches on governance, leadership, staff training, interpretation, and the visitor experience. There is also the really big question: why and how we are focusing on sustainability at a time of reduced income with no external funding? We aim to inspire you, no matter your museum’s subject, size or budget, to give this work a go, be brave and think about your organisation in a new way.

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