Elevenses, Tuesday 2 December 2025, Making the most of your museum’s outside space
In late 2024 the Association of Independent Museums, National Museum Directors’ Council and Welsh Government commissioned MEL Research to carry out an exciting new research project looking at how museums and heritage organisations think about and utilise the land and other outdoor space they own and manage – from gardens and terraces to lakes and major landscapes.
Outdoor space has great potential around audiences, visitor experience, heritage programmes and income generation, but it is also a challenge, bringing costs and the need for different skillsets to ‘traditional’ built heritage and collections. Alongside this is our increasing understanding of climate change and how museums and heritage can both use their outdoor space to help nature recovery and the need for resilience and adaptation. This session will present and discuss the research, including several case studies, and explore how individual organisations and the sector more widely can move towards more strategic use of the land we care for.
Insightful, interactive and informal, come along to gain new insights from our guests, meet colleagues from the region, and connect with the MDN team. Everyone who works and volunteers in museums is most welcome, including museum freelancers who want to stay connected.
There’s no need to book, just click the link below on the day:
If you have any access queries, or any other questions please contact Sue Hughes at: sue.hughes@museumdevelopmentnorth.org.uk.