Watch content from MA Conference 2025: Perthyn – Belonging, which was held in Cardiff and online on 6-9 October 2025.

Please note that the captions provided are for the English language only. The system we used also picks up other languages, including Welsh, but these captions should not be regarded as accurate. Apologies for any inconvenience.

Core sessions

Introduction, welcome and keynote

Conference host O’Molemo Thamae introduces this year's event, delegates are welcomed by Welsh culture minister Jack Sargeant, and a panel discusses reclaiming art and culture for the common good.

Museums and civic repair – a call to arms

In this session organised by the English Civic Museums Network, a panel explores how local authority museums can contribute to civic repair during a period of increased polarisation.

Not just a cabinet of curiosities – museums as active centres of knowledge exchange and research

Museums don’t just support research – they lead it. This session challenges existing notions and reimagines museums as dynamic centres of research and knowledge exchange.

Deliberately deliberative: Birmingham Museums Trust citizens’ jury

This session shares how BMT delivered a citizens' jury, bringing together a representative group of Birmingham citizens, centring communities and giving them a clear role in the direction of the trust.

President’s keynote and AGM

Join our president, trustees and director as they reflect on the past year and look forward to the year ahead, including details of our strategic priorities and organisational performance.

Museums Change Lives Awards 2025

Find out more about the shortlists and discover the winners of this year's awards in a ceremony with our vice-president and awards judge Rachael Rogers.

Intersectional feminist collecting in action

Hear about We Make Museums, a three-year project developed by Glasgow Women’s Library to initiate crucial discussions about museum processes and empower communities to shape collections.

After return – rebalancing through ongoing equitable collaboration

International and UK partners from the Horniman, the Hunterian and Manchester Museum highlight examples of continued collaboration following returns of cultural and natural heritage.

Delivering Change: what does it look like to become an anti-oppressive museum?

Hear from three Museum Transformers on the Delivering Change programme, an anti-oppression initiative that aims to empower the museum workforce to make changes to help all people access culture.

Facing the future

With so much upheaval, what are the key challenges facing museums and galleries in 21st-century Britain? Our final session sees our panel reflect on what they've learned at this year’s conference.

In Practice

Embedding anti-racist practice in small museums

Explore how Cyfarthfa Castle Museum and Art Gallery is putting the Anti-racist Wales Action Plan into practice across its collections and community engagement.

How to align trustee contributions with your museum’s strategic priorities

This session offers strategies for aligning board contributions with museum priorities and professional standards, as well as practical techniques for fostering productive relationships between staff and trustees.

The art of museum sh*tposting

Imaginative sh*tposting (good posts with bad behaviour) on social media can make museums accessible to new audiences. This session explores inspiration for your own content and how to make it work for you.

Empowering voices

The Museum of Cardiff worked with the Grange Pavilion Youth Forum on the Young Curators project, leading to a co-curated exhibition. Young Curators share their experiences of working with a local museum.

“But we don’t have the collections!”: when the community is the collection

This session highlights the importance of including community voices in the work of museums and heritage organisations, and telling stories about underrepresented communities in your local area.

Calling time on poor pay policies

Low pay in the museum sector has a detrimental impact on workforce attraction, retention and wellbeing. This session explores how we can redress poor pay and implement more equitable pay policies successfully.

Supporter sessions

A helping hand: discover the Tru Vue Conservation and Exhibition Grant Scheme

If you’re a smaller institution with less than 100,000 visitors a year, the Tru Vue Conservation and Exhibition Grant Scheme could help you. Learn more about the products available as part of the programme.

Everyone’s welcome in museums: how to improve accessibility for disabled visitors

Get ready to welcome All In, the new access scheme for creativity and culture in the UK and Ireland. Set to begin roll out by the end of 2025, All In is designed to help museums welcome more disabled visitors.

From zero to hero – our collections are from the past, but our systems don’t have to be

Find out how Amgueddfa Cymru has undergone a strategic transformation with Tessitura to deliver to a unified approach that brings visitors, data and systems into the 21st century.