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

Whether you work in public programming, interpretation, education, or strategic leadership, Museum Ideas 2026 is an opportunity to reflect, recharge, and reimagine museums

Join museum colleagues from around the world in London on 16 September 2026 for a day of shared learning, fresh perspectives, and international insights. Delegates from 17 countries attended the 2025 edition of the conference. Book tickets now to benefit from the early-bird rate and be part of the conversation shaping the future of museums.

Professor Dan Hicks, University of Oxford, will once again chair the conference, marking his fifth year leading the annual Museum Ideas event. Dan is Professor of Contemporary Archaeology at the University of Oxford, where he works on the material and visual culture of the human past, up to and including the modern, colonial, contemporary and digital worlds. He has been a curator at the Pitt Rivers Museum, Oxford, since 2007, where his wide-ranging curatorial practice has included the co-curated exhibition and book Lande: The Calais “Jungle” and Beyond. The author and editor of nine books, Dan is internationally recognised for his work on museums, heritage, and restitution. His acclaimed book The Brutish Museums: The Benin Bronzes, Colonial Violence and Cultural Restitution (2020) was described as “landmark cultural moment”, “an essential text” that “should be on every museum professional’s shelf”. His latest book, Every Monument Will Fall: a story of remembering and forgetting, published by Penguin, is out now.

Call for Speakers: Museum Ideas 2026

We are now inviting proposals for Museum Ideas 2026. Now in its fifteenth year, Museum Ideas brings together museum professionals from around the world to share new thinking and transformative ideas shaping the future of museums. We’re particularly interested in talks that explore how museums can be reimagined as dynamic, inclusive, and responsive spaces — places that embrace experimentation, care, and community at their core.

We welcome proposals that address (but are not limited to): new approaches to collections, interpretation, and storytelling; collaboration, co-creation, and community engagement; decolonisation, restitution, and rethinking institutional practice; environmental sustainability and climate-emergency curation; leadership, care, and the future of museums.

We encourage submissions from across the international museum and heritage sector. Talks are typically 20–25 minutes, followed by Q&A and discussion.

To submit a proposal, please send a short speaker biography (100 words) and a proposed session title and summary (up to 250 words) to info@museum-id.com. We look forward to hearing your ideas.

The Museum Ideas conference in London has welcomed thousands of museum professionals from over 30 countries and featured speakers from around the globe, including South Africa, Argentina, India, UAE, Hong Kong, Australia, New Zealand, the United States, Canada, Germany, France, Spain, Italy, Denmark, Norway, and Sweden. The annual event offers fresh perspectives on how museums can thrive in an era of change. Join us to explore new ideas, make valuable new connections, and help drive change across the museum sector. Be part of shaping the future of museums together.

Book Early-Bird Tickets 

Book early-bird tickets today. Save when you book with colleagues with multiple delegate discounts – bring your team and inspire change together. Click ‘Select options’ below to reserve your ticket. Book your ticket online below or email info@museum-id.com if you prefer to be invoiced.

Reduced rate tickets at £97 are available for museum workers who may face barriers to training and professional development opportunities, including people of colour, LGBTQIA+ members of staff, students, freelancers, those working at small independent museums. Simply 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; and Aleema Gray, Collections Gallery Partnership Lead, Wellcome Collection, London.

Speakers at the three most recent editions of the conference have 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; Korantema Anyimadu, Senior Curator of Anthropology at the Horniman Museum & Gardens in London; Giulia Gregnanin, Director and Curator, Timespan, Scottish Highlands; Nelson Cummins, Curator, Legacies of Slavery and Empire, Glasgow Museums; Shenali Boange, Museum Educator in Learning and Outreach, Museo Egizio, Turin, Italy; Helen Barker, Director, Collections and Programmes, Beamish Museum; Hanouf Al-Alawi, National Outreach Manager, Learning and National Partnerships, The British Museum; Helen Beaumont, Education & Outreach Officer, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin; and Mariano Gilmore, Head of Education and Community, National Museum of Fine Arts, Buenos Aires, Argentina.

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; ‘Talking to Strangers’ by Rosie Stanbury from Wellcome Collection; ‘Redefining the Museum as a Shared Resource: Becoming an Institution of the Commons’ by Giulia Gregnanin, Director and Curator, Timespan, Scottish Highlands; ‘Reinterpreting the Past to Explain the Present and Reimagine the Future’ by Nelson Cummins, Curator, Legacies of Slavery and Empire, Glasgow Museums; and ‘Making Space for Hope’ by Helen Beaumont, Education & Outreach Officer, National Museum of Ireland, Dublin