Category Archives: Previous Events

“A conference for mind expanding conversations and international networking” — Martin Payne, Head of Schools and Young Audiences, The British Museum

We are excited to invite you to Museum Ideas 2024, where you can gain fresh perspectives to enhance your museum’s impact and explore how museums are being reimagined through deeper connections, power shifts, and co-creation.

Why Attend?

Inspire Change: Gain fresh perspectives and discover how museums are redefining experiences through deeper connections, power shifts, and community co-creation.

Network with Peers: Connect with like-minded colleagues from across the globe, share experiences, and gather actionable ideas and insights to enrich your work.

Expert Guidance: Learn from an exceptional lineup of speakers, led by Professor Dan Hicks from the University of Oxford.

Museum Ideas 2024 Speakers Include:

Iheanyi Onwuegbucha, Princeton University, and Dr. Will Rea, University of Leeds, Co-curators for the JR Centre for Yoruba Culture and History in Lagos, Nigeria
Rachel Noel, Head of Learning Programmes and Partnerships, Tate, and Co-chair, We Don’t Settle, Birmingham
Carrie Canham, Curator, Ceredigion Museum, Aberystwyth, with Dr. Alicia Hughes, Project Curator, The Sloane Lab at the British Museum
David Watson, Executive Director of Audiences and Media, National Museums Liverpool
Korantema Anyimadu, Senior Curator of Anthropology, Horniman Museum, London
Désirée Reynolds, Dig Where You Stand, Sheffield
Chloe Cousins, Social Justice Manager, Manchester Museum

We’re thrilled that Iheanyi Onwuegbucha and Dr. Will Rea from the JR Centre for Yoruba Culture and History in Lagos, Nigeria, have joined the Museum Ideas 2024 lineup. As co-curators, Iheanyi and Will will be talking about their work that “pops with colour and sound in a dazzling departure from the colonial model – noisy, performative and unapologetically non-European” (The Guardian). The museum opens its doors to the public this autumn.

Featured Speakers:

Since 2012, Museum Ideas has hosted speakers from around the globe, including South Africa, Argentina, India, UAE, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, and many European countries. The annual conference has welcomed museum workers from over 30 countries, fostering a global exchange of transformative ideas through impactful talks, wide-ranging discussions, and international networking.

Event Details:

Date: 10 October 2024
Location: Museum of London
Sponsors: Art Fund, Absolute Museum & Gallery Products, BECK and Cogapp

Book Tickets: Click ‘Select options’ below to reserve your ticket. Book with colleagues for multiple delegate discounts. Book your ticket online below or email info@museum-id.com if you prefer to be invoiced.

20% of tickets are available at the reduced rate of £97. Reduced rate tickets are available for museum workers who may face barriers to training and professional development opportunities, including people of colour, LGBTQIA+, working class, and autistic members of staff, people with a disability, front of house staff, students, freelancers, those working at small independent museums, and sector newcomers. Email info@museum-id.com to check availability and book your ticket at the reduced rate.

Tickets are non-refundable but may be swapped between colleagues at the same organisation and between different events if places are available.

“Museum Ideas is the best museum conference. It secures superb, relevant speakers, who cover a rich and wide range of topics. It offers food for thought and feeds the soul with engaging and inspiring conversation, networks and ideas” — Helen Whiteoak, Head of Participation, National Portrait Gallery, London

“A packed programme with a breadth of insight into museums that is not otherwise accessible – diverse and inspiring” — Susan Eskdale, Lead for Community Engagement, Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton

“An impressive conference, expertly curated to bring together voices from across the world. I would highly recommend to colleagues and will definitely attend again in the future” — Laura Crean, Assistant Director, Strategy and Governance, Imperial War Museums

“An inspirational conference! A coming together of museum minds – sharing ideas and making connections” — Gillian Crumpton, Head of Interpretation, Ironbridge Gorge Museum

Museum Ideas 2024 takes place on 10 October at the Museum of London and is sponsored by Art Fund, Absolute Museum & Gallery Products, BECK and Cogapp

Past Speaker Highlights
Past speakers have included Bonita Bennett, Director, District Six Museum, Cape Town, South Africa; Sree Sreenivasan, Chief Digital Officer, Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; Joyoti Roy, Head of Strategy, CSMVS Museum, Mumbai, India; Manal Ataya, Director General, Sharjah Museums, UAE; Kaywin Feldman, Director and President, Minneapolis Institute of Arts; Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell, Head of Public Programs, Smithsonian American Art Museum; Esmé Ward, Director, Manchester Museum; Nina Finigan, Curator, Auckland Museum Tāmaki Paenga Hira, Aotearoa New Zealand; Maria Ribas, Head of Audience Development, Centre de Cultura Contemporània de Barcelona; Winnie Lai, Curator, Learning and Interpretation, M+ Museum, Hong Kong; Christian Díaz and Romina Frontini, HABEMUS//, Bahía Blanca, Argentina; Ranmalie Jayawardana, Community Participation Lead, International Slavery Museum, Liverpool; Rachael Minott, Head of Participation, Birmingham Museums Trust; Aleema Gray, Collections Gallery Partnership Lead, Wellcome Collection, London; and Nick Merriman, Chief Executive, Horniman Museum and Gardens, London.

Speakers at the 2023 conference included Puawai Cairns, Director of Audience and Insight, Te Papa Tongarewa, Aotearoa – New Zealand; Jennifer Scott, Director and Chief Curator, Urban Civil Rights Museum, United States; Helen Arfvidsson, Curator of Global Contemporary Issues, National Museums of World Culture, Sweden; Afia Yeboah, Senior Producer: Community Partnerships and Participatory Practice, V&A East; and Khalil Thirlaway, Creative Producer: Community and Youth, Natural History Museum.

At the 2018 conference award-winning playwright Linda Brogan spoke about the ‘Excavating The Reno’ community project in Manchester’s Moss Side. Bringing together archaeologists, artists, social historians and the public, the project explored the story of a soul and funk club that became a sanctuary from racism in the 1970s. Linda’s talk was extraordinary. This is what Sandra Shakespeare from Museum Detox had to say about it: “Excellent to see the work of Excavating The Reno — an absolutely remarkable fresh change to see such honesty at a museum conference where the tendency is always to showcase the great and the good. It was deeply moving to witness vulnerability and authenticity.” This was echoed by Dhikshana Pering: “Still thinking about the Excavating The Reno project at Museum Ideas — hands down no conference session in my life has left such an impact”

Kayleigh Bryant-Greenwell, Head of Public Programs at Smithsonian American Art Museum, opened the 2019 conference and set the agenda with her compelling talk ‘Break the Wheel: Museums Challenge the Status Quo’: “As museum practitioners we can allow museums to be a tool of the establishment, the powered, even the oppressor. But through a reflective practice and a reimagining of our purpose, we can instead exercise the power of the museum towards challenging the status quo.” Dr Lauren Vargas from the University of Leicester commented: “This may have been the best museum conference presentation I have ever witnessed — thank you for reminding museums of their role in challenging the status quo and how power is determined by relationship with social justice.”

Other highlights from previous editions of the conference have included ‘The Right to Remember’ by Bonita Bennett, Director of the District Six Museum in Cape Town; ‘A Year in Museums’ by Sree Sreenivasan, Chief Digital Officer at the Metropolitan Museum of Art, NYC; ‘The Good of Being Different in a Time of Sameness’ by Mike Sarna, Royal Museums Greenwich; ‘Immersive Theatre in Museums’ by Peter Higgin, Director of Enrichment at immersive theatre company Punchdrunk; and ‘Talking to Strangers’ by Rosie Stanbury from Wellcome Collection.