Transforming Collections Programme: Co-creating Collections, 20 November 2025, online via zoom
Transforming Collections is a series of online sessions designed to help museums to think about how they can explore, question, and review collections and collections information collaboratively to build more inclusive collections development practices.
This session will explore how museums can employ ethical community-centred practice for collections development.
Agenda
10.00: Welcome and Introductions
10.10: Stephen Welsh, Cultural Practitioner
10.50: Alex Fitzpatrick, Zooarchaeologist and Researcher
11:05: Break
11.15: Discussion – how are you, or might you, approach co-creating collections. Do you need to:
- Think about audiences you want to engage and why?
- Investigate contemporary issues and links to collections?
- Identify partners and community groups you want to collaborate with?
- Explore how to embed information on use of collections and collections research into collection records
11.35: Katie Brown of Collections Trust will give an overview of the Spectrum procedure Use of Collections to remind us how we embed information back into our documentation practices
11.55: Closing Statement and Follow-up
Before the session it would be helpful if you could think about how and why you do, or might do, activities in your museum. This may include:
- How you can use museum collections and resources to actively engage with communities
- How you foster dialogue, promoting social justice, and empowering individuals to participate in shaping their own stories and narratives
- How you can create spaces where communities can connect with collections, express their perspectives, and co-create meaningful experiences
- How you can capture not only collections information for catalogue records, but how the collections have been used
Booking opens 21 September 2025. Details of future sessions and topics in this programme can be found here.
If you have any questions about the programme, please contact Sue Hughes sue.hughes@museumdevelopmentnorth.org.uk.