Keynote | Gus Casely-Hayford, Director, V&A East 

A man wearing a green jacket smiles while standing in front of the V&A Museum. The building has a modern, geometric facade and large V&A letters on top. The image has film borders and light leaks.
Gus Casely-Hayford © Lewis Vorn

Gus Casely-Hayford joined the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) in March 2020 as the director of V&A East, which opened recently in east London. 

As a curator and historian, Gus writes, lectures and broadcasts widely on culture, having presented a number of series for Sky, BBC radio and television and other channels. 

He is a former executive director of arts strategy at Arts Council England, and is also a past director of the Institute of International Visual Art. 

Gus has offered leadership to large and medium-scale organisations, including the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art in the US. He has served on the boards of many cultural institutions, including the National Trust and the National Portrait Gallery, London.  

Gus has lectured widely on culture, including periods at Sotheby’s Institute, Goldsmiths, Birkbeck, City University, University of Westminster and Soas. He has advised national and international bodies on heritage and culture including the United Nations and the Canadian, Dutch and Norwegian Arts Councils.  

In 2005 he deployed these leadership, curatorial, fundraising, communications skills to organise the biggest celebration of Africa Britain has ever hosted when more than 150 organisations put on over 1,000 exhibitions and events. 

Gus has a PhD from SOAS and is a cultural fellow of King’s College London. He was awarded an OBE in 2018. 

Conference hosts | Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury

A man with a shaved head, light skin, and blue eyes wearing a dark sweater over a white collared shirt, posing in front of a solid teal background.

Sean MacGowran

A middle-aged man with short curly hair, wearing glasses and a blue collared shirt, smiles softly against a plain gray background.

Mark Wilson

A man with glasses, a black beret, and a white cable-knit sweater smiles slightly against a plain grey background.

Kevin Saunders

A young person with long dark hair, wearing a black jacket with a green paisley pattern and a white collared shirt, stands against a plain gray background, looking at the camera with a neutral expression.

Maya Hussein

Four members of the Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury will host this year’s Museums Association Conference, which this year has the theme of Museums Connecting Communities. 

Maya Hussain, Sean Mcgowran, Kevin Saunders and Mark Wilson were among the group of Birmingham residents that were chosen in 2024 to help reshape the city’s museums. This innovative initiative aimed to directly involve local residents in the decision-making process. 

Maya, Sean, Kevin and Mark will provide a warm welcome while helping delegates understand more about Birmingham, its museums and the conference itself. 

The Citizens’ Jury is part of a fundamental transformation of Birmingham Museums Trust to a resilient and financially sustainable organisation with the structure, culture, skilled workforce and audience insights to deliver its ambitious vision. 

A group of people sit in a circle, talking and smiling, inside a large, elegant room with ornate columns and purple lighting. Other attendees are seen mingling in the background.
Members of the Citizens’ Jury pictured in 2025

A statement from the jury issued in 2025 said: “It is important for our museums to involve and represent the communities they are responsible to, i.e. the people of Birmingham, and they shouldn’t be precious about doing so. We deserve museums that are proud of us, that we can be proud of, that celebrate what’s unique about Birmingham. The voice of the museum is to some extent, the voice of the people, and we want everyone to hear us a mile coming.” 

The Citizens’ Jury, which ran from September to November 2024, shared its recommendations on 30 January 2025 at a special event at Thinktank, Birmingham Science Museum. 

Keynote | Casey Bailey, Poet

A man with short curly hair and a beard, wearing a dark coat, stands by a canal with buildings and a blue sky in the background. The scene appears calm and slightly urban.
Casey Bailey Photo by Paul Stringer

Born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham, Casey Bailey is an award‑winning writer, performer and educator. He served as the Birmingham Poet Laureate from 2020 to 2022. 

Casey has published multiple poetry collections as well as a cultural history of Birmingham’s grime and hip-hop scene. As a playwright, his work has been staged at a range of theatres. His play Please Do Not Touch, which asks important questions about museum collections, completed a successful national tour this year. 

His contributions to the arts and education have earned him numerous accolades, including a Royal Television Society Award in 2022 and an honorary doctorate in education from Birmingham Newman University. 

More speakers and sessions to be announced in due course