3. “Life is messy, controversial, fluid, contentious - lots
of things a museum has difficulty with.”

4. “We‟ve got these buildings – physical and conceptual - designed
around the spectatorship experience that goes back to the late 19th
century, and we haven‟t been able to shake it off. It‟s so rigid. The
genuine intention to be socially participatory is continually undermined.
Museum professionals are entrapped with a way of working in which
only certain channels of communication are allowed – but of course
people use museums in their own social ways that is rarely
acknowledged. We are still working inside the bubble of a fixed
construct.”
Alistair Hudson

6. The current growth model is based on
building expansions, expensive
exhibitions, growing collections and
increased operating costs – coupled
with the relentless imperative of visitor
consumption in order to augment the
earned revenues that are required to
support the increased costs. This
vicious cycle is unsustainable.

7. Public
consultation is
not about
making
improvements
in a commodity
model of
consumer
consultation as
part of a
market-survey
of museum
products and
services.
Museum as
marketplace

8. Myths About Race

11. Map charting the spread of elected xenophobic parties in Europe as of 2013. When
viewed on a map, the growth of the far-right is striking. Green refers to countries were
a xenophobic party is in government, while grey means none is in power. Copyright
James Mayfield/GeoCurrents.

12. The environment…
“It‟s not seen as controversial in the way that other political and social
issues are. In most cases it doesn‟t have to be a case of taking one
side or another – it‟s more about starting the discussion.”
Maurice Davies,
British Museums Association

13. “There are almost no organisations that go far enough in the
face of the most catastrophic mass extinction in the earth‟s
history. Neutrality implies an absence of ethos and passion. I‟d
rather see museums act fully as guardians of commons, as
models of stewardship of human and biological diversity. They
need to be spaces to allow people to voice their feelings about
the future. These feelings will intensify as conditions worsen.”
Bridget McKenzie

14. Are Museums Racist?
debate, Manchester
Museum, 2007

15. “I‟m not an academic, but sometimes my problem is with academia....
It‟s like people who don‟t talk about racism but the symptoms of
racism.” [what we might term - the high concept of RACISM]. He
continued, “Racism is about human beings - it‟s not about analysing it
in an exhibition. It‟s the feelings we have inside, the hatred, the
palpable feelings – that‟s the racism I‟m interested in.”
Zahid Hussain, Manchester Museum
Community Advisory Panel
Manchester
Museum
August 2007

16. “to move beyond the specifics of exhibition controversies and
theoretical rhetoric to examine the relevance, plausibility and practical
operation of a range of museums as civic centres and for the
engagement of topics of contemporary relevance and importance.”

17. The project research asked…
• „Are museums information sources and safe places to explore these
topics by presenting a range of viewpoints?‟, or „Should museums
take a more active role, as transformative spaces to challenge and
change views?‟
• „Should museums act as provocateurs and take a leading role as
social and political activists to bring about change, and to assist in
the resolution of issues on a personal or political level?‟
• „ Alternatively, is the primary role of museums to offer non-
challenging social experiences? And can museums be all of these
things at once?‟
• Other questions related to museums, social responsibilities and civic
roles, as information sources including authority, expertise and
censorship, the impact of controversies on institutional
functioning, successful programming and funding arrangements.

18. „are museums ready and willing to provide?‟

19. “Whatever the recent successes of civil society
organisations in helping to address [current] challenges, it
seems that current responses are incommensurate with the
scale of the problems we confront. It is increasingly evident
that resistance to action on these challenges will only be
overcome through engagement with the cultural values that
underpin this resistance.”
T. Crompton
Common Cause: The Case for Working with our Cultural Values
2010

20. “The fundamental question is – what social institutions exist to
address these challenges, recognizing the growing ineffectiveness
of government bureaucracies and the wreckage of the corporate
profit agenda? Even universities are becoming the handmaidens of
corporatists, with science in the interests of consumerism driving
many university research budgets. Museums, it is argued, are one of
the few social institutions with vast potential for proactive and
effective community engagement.”
Robert R. Janes, (2010)
Museums in a Troubled World:
Renewal, Irrelevance or Collapse?

21. FIHRM
Federation of Human Rights Museums
Fighting for equality: social change through human rights
activism

22. museums “modelling inclusion” and dwelling “on the
boundary between advocacy and scholarship.”
Katherine Ott, 2010

23. Empowerment-lite

24. “Whose cake is it anyway?”
A collaborative investigation into engagement
and participation in twelve museums and galleries in the UK
Dr.
Bernadette
Lynch
Available on the Paul Hamlyn Foundation website :
phf.org.uk

28. Curious project in
Glasgow aimed to
create intercultural
dialogue and „a legacy
of increased
understanding of each
other, our city and our
collections‟.
Gained training in
facilitation skills and
trained volunteers
“Successful disagreement”

29. Facilitation
Facilitator in action, „The Thing
is…” , UCL Museums
Skills to help participants share
their diverse views …

30. “If we are unable or unprepared to have dialogue and risk conflict, what
do we learn?...
Victoria Hollows,
GoMA, Glasgow

31. “We‟re here to
challenge, and I fear that
others may not challenge
us back. It‟s not for you
to just listen to us being
angry and just listen. The
point is the dialogue. The
point is that we could be
totally wrong. I don‟t
personally believe I‟m
wrong – but I am willing
to listen to somebody
who totally disagrees
with me.”

32. “If we in museums don‟t do it, who will?”
James Clifford, 2013

33. “Agitate, because we will need all your enthusiasm.
Get organized, because we'll need all your strength.
Study, because we will need all your intelligence.”
Antonio Gramsci, ‟The New Order‟, 1919
by Nathan Coley at Tate Liverpool 2006

34. Mange tak!