The Activist Museum

The Activist Museum

The Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester is delighted to invite you to ‘The Activist Museum’.

The event brings together projects which, although addressing hugely different injustices and crises, share a concern for democratic practice, opening up space for multiple voices and creating more equitable museums. The Museum of Transology, Journey to Justice and 100 Histories of 100 Worlds in 1 Object partner up to share reflections on activist museum practice.

The panellists are recipients of the Activist Museum Award 2020, launched to celebrate the 20th anniversary of the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries (RCMG) in the School of Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. The projects reflect the ideas presented by Robert Janes and Richard Sandell in their recent book, Museum Activism (2019). Museum activism refers to, ‘museum practice, shaped out of ethically-informed values, that is intended to bring about political, social and environmental change.’ Together, the projects encourage, inspire and support similarly activist museum work throughout the museum community.

This award was made possible by a gift from Robert R. Janes.

Presentations

The event will include three presentations reflecting on the findings of activist projects by the following panellists:

• E-J Scott, Museum of Transology, which used the Activist Museum Award to pilot a new collecting strategy that uses a combination of film and objects to deliberately and measurably increase the visibility of QTIBIPOC communities within the museum’s collection.

• Carrie Supple and Dr Abi Rhodes from Journey to Justice, a national human rights education charity. Responding to the widening wealth gap and deepening economic and racial inequality, Journey to Justice developed an online resource focused on Economic (In)Justice to be used by museums, in all education settings, local communities and the wider public.

• Mirjam Brusius, Benjamina Efua Dadzie and Alice Stevenson from 100 Histories of 100 Worlds in 1 Object, which developed a pilot project to facilitate conversations between researchers, heritage and museum practitioners in the Global South through their online platform, with the ultimate goal of addressing broader questions that concern the role of museums in the multicultural societies of tomorrow.

The panel and debate will be moderated by Prof. Richard Sandell and Dr Ceciel Brouwer.

Resources

The Museum of Transology hopes to inspire other community museums to begin their own decolonisation projects. Watch the results of the new collecting strategy here: https://www.museumoftransology.com/qtibipoc

Journey to Justice’s Economic (In)Justice online resource is freely available online: https://economicinjustice.org.uk/

Publications, events, blog posts and podcasts created by 100 Histories of 100

Worlds in 1 Object can be accessed: https://100histories100worlds.org/

Activist Museum Award 2021-2022

The third round of the Activist Museum Award will be launched at the end of September 2021. More information and to find out how to apply can be found here: https://le.ac.uk/rcmg/research-archive/activist-museum-award. The deadline for applications is Friday 26 November 2021.

Anmeldung über Eventbrite.