“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 2025 in London, where you will gain fresh perspectives to enhance your museum’s impact and discover how museum experiences are reimagined through deeper connections, power shifts, and co-creation. Join us on 9 October to connect with like-minded colleagues from across the globe, share experiences, and gather actionable ideas and insights to enrich your work.

Since 2012, the Museum Ideas conference 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 event has welcomed museum workers from over 30 countries, fostering a global exchange of transformative ideas through impactful talks, wide-ranging discussions, and international networking.

Learn from an exceptional lineup of speakers, led by Professor Dan Hicks from the University of Oxford. Dan Hicks is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, Curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, and a Fellow of St Cross College, Oxford. Dan works on the material and visual culture of the human past, up to and including the modern, colonial, contemporary and digital worlds, and on the history of Archaeology, Anthropology, Art and Architecture. His curatorial has included the co-curated exhibition Lande: the Calais “Jungle” and Beyond in 2019 and Victor Ehikhamenor at St Paul’s Cathedral in 2022. Dan has published eight books – including The Brutish Museums: the Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution which was named one of the New York Times Best Art Books of 2020 and won the 2022 prize for the Best Book in Public History of the National Council on Public History. He has written for a variety of journals, magazines and newspapers and has regularly appeared on Radio and TV, including BBC News at Ten, Channel 4 News, and BBC Radio 4’s In Our Time, Front Row, Today Programme and Making History.

Museum Ideas 2025 takes place on 9 October in London.

Call for Speakers: If you are interested in speaking at Museum Ideas 2025 please email greg (@) museum-id.com

Super Early Bird Tickets Now Available: Click ‘Select options’ below to reserve your ticket. Super Early Bird Tickets available from £107 with multiple delegate discounts. Book tickets now with your colleagues for the best rate. 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

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 2024 and 2023 conferences 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; Khalil Thirlaway, Creative Producer: Community and Youth, Natural History Museum; Rachel Noel, Head of Learning Programmes and Partnerships, Tate; and Co-chair, We Don’t Settle, Birmingham; Chloe Cousins, Social Justice Manager at Manchester Museum; Iheanyi Onwuegbucha, Princeton University, and co-curator, John Randle Centre for Yoruba Culture and History, Lagos, Nigeria; and Korantema Anyimadu, Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Horniman Museum & Gardens in London.

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.