Streamed sessions at MA Conference 2026

Introduction from your conference hosts

A warm conference welcome from our hosts, who are four members of the Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury, a reflection of this year’s theme: Museums Connecting Communities.

Maya Hussain, Sean MacGowran, 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.

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

Keynote: Gus Casely-Hayford

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

As a curator and historian, Gus writes, lectures and broadcasts widely on culture, having presented several 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 in 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 and communications skills to organise the biggest celebration of Africa Britain has ever hosted, with more than 150 organisations running 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.

Speakers

Maya Hussain, Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury

Sean MacGowran, Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury

Kevin Saunders, Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury

Mark Wilson, Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury

Gus Casely-Hayford, Director, V&A East

As the higher education sector goes through a period of unprecedented change, university museums have the opportunity and imperative to innovate their practice and adopt radically different models.

This panel session welcomes everyone. It presents and reflects on some practical case studies of university museums that have adopted radically different approaches and are relevant to the wider museum sector. The real-world implementation of divergent approaches and models offers an opportunity to consider and critique the strengths and weaknesses of these alternative models for the future of museums.

Located across the country, university museums have a genuinely national reach and representation and are at the heart of research environments that share an interest in the cutting edge of societal change. These networks of thought, ideas and human connection are often international in nature with an inherent ability to generate and maintain global relationships over time. These attributes foster a landscape of imagination and innovation that act as a catalyst for the process of institutional change.

Takeaways:

• Learn how institutional pressures can be a catalyst for museum innovation.
• Understand how to implement radical changes in museum practice.
• Explore different models of how to run a museum.

Chairs

Jago Cooper, Executive Director, Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia

Jenny Powell, Director, Barber Institute of Fine Arts, University of Birmingham

Speakers

Malavika Anderson, Director, Great North Museum: Hancock

James Christen Steward, Nancy A. Nasher—David J. Haemisegger, Class of 1976, Director, Princeton University Art Museum

Ciaron Wilkinson, Head of Partnerships and Engagement, Manchester Museum

Museums depend on visitor experience teams, yet many team members see these roles as short-term stepping stones.

In a sector facing recruitment challenges, rising costs and calls for more inclusive talent pipelines, investing in the development of visitor experience teams is no longer optional.

In this session Spencer Rust, visitor experience training manager at London Transport Museum, shares a cross-departmental work experience pilot that saw participants spend time working with different teams – from learning to curatorial, marketing to venue hire – contributing to a specific project, supported by regular 1:1s with their host supervisor and peer-to-peer buddy sessions.

Spencer will unpack the decisions behind designing the programme, how to influence colleagues and leadership, and the challenges and surprises he encountered along the way. Participants will leave with practical ideas for action in their own museums – whether that’s creating a similar programme or rethinking how we nurture, develop and retain visitor experience team members more broadly.

Takeaways:

• Understand why supporting the development of visitor experience team members is critical.
• Gain a practical, adaptable framework for a cross-departmental work experience programme.
• Learn how to secure buy-in from colleagues and leadership, even when capacity and budgets are tight.

Speakers

Spencer Rust, Visitor Experience Training Manager, London Transport Museum

Rowan Cox, Information Desk Visitor Experience Assistant, London Transport Museum

There is growing momentum around restitution and an increase in the number of repatriations of ancestral remains and objects from museums in the UK. This panel discussion looks at whether this represents a turning point and how we might better understand the ethical imperatives behind the practice.

The session explores how restitution fits within the broader context of decolonisation, reconciliation and healing, how we care for colonial collections and what needs to happen at a policy and funding level to effect change.

Chair

Laura Van Broekhoven, Director, Pitt Rivers Museum

Speakers

Heba Abd el Gawad, Senior Curator of Anthropology, Horniman Museum and Gardens

Thupten Kelsang, Early Career Research Fellow, V&A and the Courtauld Institute

Brain Miennies, Managing Director, Kalahari Earth Keepers International (KEKI), and Deputy Secretary-General, CASANR

Steph Scholten, Director, The Hunterian, University of Glasgow

This session takes a practical look at how small and medium-sized museums across the Midlands are undertaking community-led activity through participation in the Museum Development Midlands Sense of Place and Hidden Narratives programmes.

Speakers showcase how museums are embedding community voices, celebrating placemaking, and creating inclusive, locally rooted experiences that respond directly to their local contexts.

Using case studies, this session explores how these organisations develop community heritage by working closely with local communities and partners, uncovering overlooked stories, and co-creating exhibitions, collections and programmes. In doing so the session highlights how museums operate within a wider cultural ecosystem within their “place”, connecting heritage, lived experience and contemporary community life.

The session focuses on three key areas: community collaboration, inclusive practice, and place-based storytelling using local heritage and lived experience to foster identity and belonging.

The session is aimed at museum professionals, community engagement practitioners, and anyone interested in delivering meaningful, sustainable and locally resonant place-based projects.

Takeaways:

• Explore the potential of museum development in the local context with lived experience and community identity.
• Learn from case studies about embedding community voices to achieve genuine co-creation.
• Hear about what is needed to successfully embed placemaking.

Speakers

Sally Hawley, Museum Development Collections Officer, Museum Development Midlands

Ashleigh Jayes, Manager, Almonry Museum

Helen Sharp, Programme Officer, Museum Development Midlands

Open licensing of online collections can be a powerful mechanism for connecting and engaging the public with museums. Yet, in the age of AI, it can also raise concerns about ethical use of collections, conflicts with commercial strategies and regulatory considerations such as copyright, privacy and cultural rights.

This panel session explores how open licensing can expand access to collections, foster collaboration and stimulate creative reinterpretations of cultural heritage. We highlight real-world opportunities: community co-creation projects, educational initiatives that repurpose open content, and partnerships with Wikimedia communities.

The panel will also discuss practical challenges such as funders’ requirements, rights clearance, ethical considerations around sensitive or culturally significant material, and balancing open access with institutional commercial sustainability.

Aligned with the conference theme of Museums Connecting Communities, this session unpicks how open-content policies can strengthen institutional trust and enliven collections as shared cultural resources, while balancing this with discussions about ethical, regulatory and institutional challenges.

You will walk away with case studies and practical next steps to help you consider the opportunities and potentially resolve obstacles associated with open licensing.

This session includes a five-minute welcome from one of our conference supporters, John Kerr, Sales and Marketing Director, Zund UK, on digitising archival packaging workflows.

Takeaways:

• Understand open licensing models and how they support public access and reuse.
• Hear about practical strategies for navigating potential challenges such as rights clearance, ethical and regulatory requirements.
• Explore institutional examples of policy development work, funder engagement, and partnerships to address potential obstacles.

Chair

Naomi Korn, CEO, Naomi Korn Associates

Speakers

Andrea Cop, Research and Academic Liaison Manager, National Museums Scotland

Amy Taylor, Picture Library Manager, Ashmolean Museum

Aidan McNeill, Head of IPR and Licensing, Art UK

Recent estimates suggest that only 5.2% of museum workers come from working class backgrounds. Class inequality is a significant yet often overlooked issue in the sector.

Practices including low pay, unpaid internships, costly qualifications, precarious contracts, informal recruitment, rigid hierarchies and “idealised” career pathways continue to shape who enters, progresses and feels they belong in museums.

This session presents key findings from recently published research and an innovative pilot partnership between Royal Holloway Business School, Museum as Muck and Birmingham Museums Trust, and shares new insights into tackling class inequality.

It introduces a practical class inclusivity checklist from which participants can assess their own institutional practices and identify realistic actions for change.

This session is particularly relevant for museum leaders, HR professionals, hiring managers, and practitioners seeking research-informed, practical strategies to build a more equitable workforce.

Takeaways:

• Understand the structural roots of class inequality in museums and how it differs from – and intersects with – other forms of inequality.
• Gain practical tools and tested actions to make your workplace culture more class inclusive.
• Leave with a clear starting point for change, using the class inclusivity checklist to assess and improve practice within your own organisation.

Speakers

Samantha Evans, Associate Professor, Royal Holloway Business School, University of London

Michelle McGrath, Founder, Museum as Muck

Fran Riando, Museum as Muck

This session explores how museums and heritage institutions are connecting with communities in rural settings.

Speakers look at what rural is and how rurality impacts engagement and collection policies, including physical location and communal attitudes, in both rural and urban museums.

Takeaways:

• Leave with a better understanding of the barriers for museums and heritage institutions engaging with rural communities.
• Learn different methods museums can use to work with rural communities.
• Discover new ways to better engage rural communities that you could implement at your institution.

Chair

Katie Miller, Collections and Engagement Curator – Archaeology, Herefordshire Museums & Galleries

Speakers

Ollie Douglas, Curator, Museum of English Rural Life

Isobel King, Community Engagement Curator, Museum of Cornish Life

How can museums meaningfully address difficult histories while sharing authority with the communities most affected by them? This session presents a case study from the Science and Industry Museum and the Scott Trust (the Guardian) in Manchester, exploring collaborative approaches to interpreting the city’s historical connections to cotton and transatlantic slavery and the resulting legacies.

Curator Reece Williams and programme manager Keisha Thompson are joined by members of the museum’s Collaborators Circle – a group of community-based professionals working for and with African Diasporic communities who extend the curatorial team and work as co-creators – to reflect on how partnership working has shaped the project.

The session offers practical insight into best practice for working with challenging subject matter, including strategies for building trust, navigating contested narratives and centring wellbeing for all stakeholders. Participants hear how the Collaborators Circle authentically informs curatorial principles and decision-making, and how this approach supports more equitable, accountable and community-led storytelling.

You are invited to rethink established curatorial processes and consider how collaborative models can transform the way institutions research, interpret and present complex histories.

Takeaways:

• Learn how to enhance curatorial practice by working collaboratively with community co-creators.
• Explore ways to widen community engagement.
• Find out about best practice in curating content with difficult subject matter.

Speakers

Keisha Thompson, Programme Manager (Manchester), Legacies of Enslavement Programme, The Guardian

Reece Williams, Curator – Legacies of Enslavement, Science and Industry Museum

Join our president Steve Miller, treasurer Mo Suleman and director Sharon Heal as they reflect on the past year and look forward to the year ahead.

Find out about our strategic priorities, organisational performance and proposed membership fees, and celebrate our new Associates and Fellows of the Museums Association.

We have an amazing shortlist of museums and people delivering social impact in their communities for this year’s Museums Change Lives Awards. Discover the winners in a ceremony presented by our conference hosts.

Speakers

Steve Miller, President, Museums Association and Director of Culture & Heritage, Norfolk County Council

Mo Suleman, Treasurer, Museums Association, Chartered Certified Accountant and Finance Director, Bloc Digital

Sharon Heal, Director, Museums Association

Day two is opened by our hosts, four members of the Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury. They look forward to the day’s sessions and how they relate to our theme, Museums Connecting Communities.

Maya Hussain, Sean MacGowran, 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.

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

Speakers

Maya Hussain, Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury

Sean MacGowran, Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury

Kevin Saunders, Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury

Mark Wilson, Birmingham Museums Citizens’ Jury

Speakers representing a wide range of different civic museums take part in an open and honest discussion about the challenges the sector faces.

At a local level, our organisations are having to deal with new and complex political realities, including political instability and polarisation. How far is this impacting the work that we do and what does it mean for our advocacy work?

We also have a new prime minister, Andy Burnham, who wants to shift power away from central government and give regional leaders greater ‌control over spending, transport, housing, skills and economic growth. What impact might this have on civic museums?

Our speakers also address what a new Museums Strategy for England might mean for the future of regional museums. As part of this, they reflect on the role civic museums might play in collectively addressing England’s story, particularly in the context of regional devolution.

Chair

Jon Finch, Head of Culture and Visitor Economy, Barnsley Metropolitan Borough Council

Speakers

Kathryn Blacker, Chief Executive, York Museums Trust

Tony Butler, Executive Director, Derby Museums

Jodie Henshaw, Museum Manager, Mansfield Museum

Zak Mensah, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Birmingham Museums Trust

Collections volunteering is one of the Shakespeare Birthplace Trust’s most requested areas, but traditionally the team had limited capacity. In 2025 they worked to change this by creating an exhibition volunteer role that enabled new, collections-informed, public-facing opportunities for volunteers and visitors.

Exhibition volunteer is now the organisation’s fastest-growing role, with 18 volunteers participating and contributing almost 700 hours during 2025. Some individuals have enjoyed being the first point of contact after ticket-booking, developing their skills greeting visitors in a range of languages, while others have helped to take the object handling collection out into the community.

Panel members will share the key learnings of exhibition volunteer recruitment, hearing from two of the volunteers involved.

Takeaways:

• Hear how organisational challenges can become opportunities for creativity and closer working between departments.
• Find out how exhibition spaces can be environments for multi-sensory practices such as object handling.
• Understand how to tailor your approach to the individual, including creating a slower-paced, calm environment that supports the wellbeing of volunteers.

Speakers

Frankie Davies, Volunteering and Communities Officer, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Joy Hawker, Exhibition Volunteer, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Michael Lau, Exhibition Volunteer, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust

Hear from AI experts in the museum sector who reflect on how museums can take a responsible and transparent approach to AI use in order to maintain public trust in museums. This session relates to the work of the MA’s AI and Ethics Expert Working Group who will support the development a resource to help guide ethical decision-making on AI in museums.

Speakers

Elizabeth Llabres, Collections Manager, Bradford District Museums & Galleries and AI and Ethics Expert Working Group member

John Peel, Collections Information Manager, Manchester Museum

Sonia Solicari, Director, Museum of the Home, MA Ethics Committee member and Chair of the AI and Ethics Expert Working Group

Paula Westenberger, Senior Lecturer in Intellectual Property Law, member of the Centre for AI at Brunel University of London and AI and Ethics Expert Working Group member

As the Migration Museum works towards developing a permanent home in the City of London, it is developing a network of Community Curators from rural and urban areas across the UK to create exhibitions rooted in local knowledge and storytelling. Opening in 2028, the museum will share stories of people and communities across the UK, working with institutional partners nationwide to deliver this major project.

From Hastings to Glasgow, and Derry-Londonderry to Newcastle, the programme supports creative outputs reflecting migration histories within local communities, recognising migration as a national story expressed through local contexts.

The team shares its approach to scaling community co-production from a local initiative to a national programme. The session explores partnership development, shared authority and accountability across sites, and how locally produced work can shape a new museum – alongside practical realities such as resourcing, safeguarding, accountability and sustaining meaningful relationships.

Takeaways:

• How to build equitable collaborations with partners and community members.
• Ways to democratise museums through exhibition-making processes.
• How to embed lived experience into permanent displays – ensuring that people are represented and connected to your work.

Speakers

Arbër Gashi, Community Curator, Migration Museum

Mona Jamil, Head of Civic Engagement, Migration Museum

Daria Lynch, Researcher in Curatorial Practice and Civic Engagement, Migration Museum

Museum attendance has increased in all social groups since the Taking Part Survey began in 2005/06 – but the gap between upper and lower socio-economic group visitation has remained unchanged at 24%.

In 2025, the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester received a £1.45m Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) grant over four years to “address the museum attendance and benefit gap”.

The project will clarify the meaning of key terms such as equality and inclusion, and what we already know about “what works” in attracting more representative audiences – providing a workbook for heritage organisations to enable them to address the attendance and benefit gap.

But you don’t have to wait for the workbook – this session offers early lessons in how we might achieve the needed breakthrough in audience development.

Takeaways:

• An understanding of why audience development has reached its limits in attracting more representative audiences.
• Why we don’t really know how to break through these limits.
• How you can start making breakthroughs in this area.

Chair

Lucy Reid, Strategy and Creative Officer, DemocracyNext

Speakers

Suzanne MacLeod, Co-Director, Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, University of Leicester

Sara Wajid, Co-Chief Executive Officer, Birmingham Museums Trust

Implementing a new visitor management system is rarely just a technical upgrade – it’s a catalyst for organisational and digital transformation.

This session explores how the National Museum of the Royal Navy leveraged its implementation process to break down internal silos and centre the museum’s work on audiences while maintaining business goals.

The museum team shares how it drew internal teams, external agencies and audience insights together to drive an inclusive, accessible strategy. By aligning curatorial, marketing, operations, IT and learning, the museum moved beyond individual departmental requirements to focus on a holistic community journey.

Together, they focused on creating a seamless experience – from the first digital touchpoint to the on-site visit – ensuring the museum is accessible and welcoming to all.

Takeaways:

• Learn how to align internal departments and external partners to build a cohesive system that serves the museum and its diverse audiences.
• Discover how to map a seamless online booking experience.
• Identify how to select partners who prioritise innovation and flexibility to meet the changing needs of your community.

Speaker

Sharna Bennett, Performance & CRM Lead, Royal Navy Museums

Hear how an exploratory commission to identify queer stories became a powerful and transformative project connecting new LGBTQ+ audiences with Melton Carnegie Museum and wider Culture Leicestershire services.

This project has been a learning curve and a meaningful step forward in how the service engages with marginalised histories.

Hear how the team designed a brief to ensure they partnered with the practitioners who could support real change and connect with new communities.

Takeaways:

• Discover best practice approaches to LGBTQIA+ projects.
• Learn how to build a safer framework for staff and participants.
• Get tips on how to commission practitioners to support change.

Speakers

Alison Clague, Senior Curator, Culture Leicestershire

Jon Sleigh, Arts educator, learning officer and learning curator

Born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham, Casey Bailey is an award‑winning writer, performer and educator. He served as Birmingham’s 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.

Speakers

Casey Bailey, Writer, performer and educator