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Keynote addresses:
 Global Accountability – Who do we answer to? (this presentation is not available)
Sandy Nairne, Director, National Portrait Gallery
This talk considered how the work of each of us can contribute to positive change within the shifting field of public museums and galleries, particularly in an increasingly globalised world where natural resources are more and more precious.
The role of the curator has changed over the past twenty five years - from a concern with the object and its provenance, to a concern with how it is utilised, and who else might gain from encountering it.
During this period of change the question of who the curator is responsible to has become increasingly important. On one hand this can imply the bureaucratic hand of audit, while on the other the active engagement of local communities and communities of interest as well as complex questions of patronage and sponsorship. Issues of professional integrity and responsibility take great prominence in order to respond to these changes.
 Advocating to Stakeholders
Andrea Nixon, Executive Director, Tate Liverpool
How does advocacy differ depending on stakeholders? If we acknowledge that local government is under financial difficulty, what can museums do in terms of advocacy that is effective? Who else has an advocacy role? In terms of local and national advocacy – what is out there, what works and what doesn’t?
 Who decides the relevance and who tells the story? (this presentation is not available)
Keith Khan, Head of Culture, 2012 Olympics & Paralympic Games
How do we make "culture" accessible to young people - or different people? We often speak in coded forms that act as ciphers between us. These ciphers are often unintelligible to regular people and wider audiences. In order to curate for the future, we have to learn to articulate better, find more dynamic ways to communicate and involve people.
With the Olympic Games now delivered by Beijing, we need to interrogate how we want the world to see our cultures and how these collections might be interpreted. These are exciting and changing times. Many people would never dream of engaging with museums. So, how can we create opportunities beyond the school trip, or the holiday experience that will captivate new audience? The relevance of new audiences, diverse practises, and dynamic interventions is really the lifeblood of the future.
Meaning-making and identity: How museums and galleries combat social exclusion
Andrew Newman, Director, International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, University of Newcastle
The possible use of museums and galleries to resolve problems of social exclusion has become central to the thinking of policy makers and practitioners since at least 1997, when the present administration was elected. There are great difficulties disentangling the rhetoric (what we hope is possible) from the reality (what can be demonstrated). There are also significant problems in attempting to conceptualise how visitors to museums and galleries use cultural property and to what purpose. Andrew will suggest that identity construction, using ideas and language borrowed from sociology, allows us to understand the place of museums and galleries in everyday life and will propose a possible method through which they might assist in resolving social problems.
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Workshops
Bringing museums closer to visitors
Andrew McIntyre, Director, Morris Hargreaves McIntyre
Andrew took participants through a number of very practical and unobtrusive observation and tracking techniques that cast invaluable light on the ways in audiences engage and the effectiveness, and ‘stickiness’ of displays.
What is forever? Collections care v. access
Irit Narkiss, Conservator of Objects & Access and Helena Tomlin, Curator of Learning, The Manchester Museum
Participants discussed what ‘the future’ means for museum objects and learned about the value of a multi-sensory approach to exploring objects.
Rethinking Diversity
Roshi Naidoo, Freelance Research and Education Consultant
This session helped delegates reconceptualise what diversity means and helped them explore how easy it is to develop strategies which move us forward.
From Curator to Senior Manager: The role of senior managers in 21st century museums
Paulette Francis-Green, Consultant, Birmingham City Council
How do the skills of a senior manager differ from those required of other museum staff? How are these skills acquired and developed? How does a senior manager manage change and the new curatorship?
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