Care is a word increasingly present in conversations about museums, but what does it actually mean in practice?

Is care something we offer through individual relationships, or something that should be embedded within the structures, decisions and spaces of our institutions? What might it mean to work with care in the language we use, the stories we interpret, the programmes we design, the relationships we build and the ways in which people experience our museums?

This study day takes a deliberately reflective and collaborative approach to exploring care across museum practice, from learning and community engagement to interpretation and exhibition spaces. Rather than presenting care as a fixed methodology or a set of techniques, we will examine how care operates through relationships, facilitation, language, space and institutional structures. We will consider how museum encounters are shaped not only by collections and content, but by the social, cultural and emotional conditions through which people encounter them: that meaning is relational, shaped through facilitation, context, memory and lived experience.

Together, we will explore questions of attention, trust, belonging, emotional safety and shared meaning-making; how we facilitate encounters with objects and histories that may evoke recognition and curiosity, but also discomfort, memory or difficult conversations; and what it means for care to move beyond the intentions of individual practitioners and become embedded within institutional practice.

This study day will draw on examples and provocations alongside the knowledge and experience of everyone in the room. It will create space to examine where care is already present in our work, where it becomes difficult or compromised, and the tensions between our aspirations to work with care and the structures, resources and realities within which museum practice takes place. This is particularly important in a sector where socially engaged and wellbeing-focused work can remain fragmented or dependent on short-term projects despite the commitment of individual practitioners.

The day will not begin with the assumption that there is one definition of a caring museum. Instead, one of its ambitions will be to explore whether, through collective reflection and dialogue, we can begin to develop a shared understanding of what care in museum practice means and what it might look like in action.

Care in Museums: What Does it Mean in Practice?
Study Day, 16 March, Central London
Led by Hanouf Al-Alawi

About the Workshop Leader

Hanouf Al-Alawi is an international museum consultant specialising in interpretation, learning and audience engagement, with over 20 years’ experience across the UK and Middle East. She has worked across museums, heritage and cultural initiatives including the British Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Botanic Gardens Kew, UNESCO and Barker Langham. Her practice spans learning and participation, interpretation, co-creation, programme development and culturally responsive audience engagement.

Across her practice, Hanouf has explored how museums can create spaces for connection, participation, belonging and dialogue, and how collections and interpretation can support curiosity and shared meaning-making while also holding emotionally and culturally complex histories. Her approach brings together audience-centred and participatory practice, inclusive interpretation, trauma-informed approaches and a particular interest in the relationships between people, objects, place and lived experience.

Book Tickets

Click ‘Select options’ below to book your place on the study day. Tickets are available on a sliding scale from £137 – £177. Book with colleagues for multiple delegate discounts. Book your ticket online below or email info@museum-id.com if you prefer to be invoiced.

Want to join us for several study days? You can save with our 2027 Study Day Ticket Bundle.

20% of tickets are available at a reduced rate for museum workers who may often be excluded from training and professional development opportunities, including people of colour, LGBTQ+ members of staff, students, freelancers, and those working at small independent museums. Reduced rate tickets are £97 – email info@museum-id.com to check availability and to book a ticket at the reduced rate.

Tickets are non-refundable but may be swapped between colleagues at the same organisation and between different study days (if places are available). If the workshop is postponed, your ticket remains valid for the rescheduled date.