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Museums, Co-Creation and Making Change – 20 May

Discover how to achieve meaningful co-creation with communities and inspire community-led change in your museum. Explore the values that inform co-creation and different models of best practice when listening to community needs, sharing power, embedding democratic decision-making, and managing open-ended projects that aim to inspire change.

You will have a chance to consider how such approaches might change your organisation or practice from within. You’ll also hear about case studies from museums in London, Manchester and New York and there will be time to build tailored strategies for your own projects and the wider impact that they might be able to make across your museum.

Workshop leader Stella Toonen is a specialist in co-creation practices in museums. As a researcher and museum practitioner, Stella consults internationally about co-creation, collaborative practice, community engagement, constituent museums, and cultural democracy. Her background is as an exhibition and public programmes producer for museums and the programmes she shapes often feature place-based, participatory and socially engaged ways of working.

Power to Communities: Museums, Co-Creation and Making Change
Study Day, 20 May 2025, London

Workshop leader: Stella Toonen is currently writing up her doctoral research with Tate and King’s College London, which looks at the potential for community engagement work as a catalyst for organisational change. As part of her PhD research Stella spent three years with the Tate Exchange project at Tate Modern in London, and also conducted fieldwork at the Whitworth Art Gallery in Manchester and the Queens Museum in New York. In addition, Stella is Programme Director for Culture Within Newham.

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.

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+ and working class members of staff, people with a disability, front of house staff, students, freelancers, those working at small independent museums, and people new to the sector. 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 due to Covid-19 your ticket remains valid for the rescheduled date.

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