This workshop explores how small museums can unlock their power to engage a wider range of visitors, by uncovering hidden histories and sharing new perspectives on their collections.

The session outlines practical approaches and discusses how to handle some of the concerns associated with this work. The session will be led by Isilda Almeida, with Maurice Davies as a guest speaker and featuring a live case study.

At the end of the session, participants will:

· Have gained understanding in how to make collections more relevant to a wider audience

· Have had the opportunity to reflect on what the hidden histories may be in their museum

· Appreciate how using different voices and first-person experiences in the museum can make your displays more relevant and engaging

· Gained practical tips around exploring and reinterpreting collections in collaboration with communities

· Have developed skills and confidence in advocating for this work and responding to stakeholder questions

This online workshop will be run over Zoom and include a mixture of presentation and discussion activity. It is aimed at small and volunteer-run museums looking at making their collections more relevant to existing and new audiences.

Participants are asked to bring an object or image of an intriguing object from their museum collection as part of the session.

Who should attend?

This session is suitable for volunteers, staff and trustees working with visitors and collections at smaller museums across the south east.

Booking Information

There are 20 spaces available on the session for museums in the south east.

Please follow the link below to book your free space on this training session.

Book your place here

By booking a place on to a South East Museum Development training event, you are agreeing to the following :

• To ensure fair distribution, only one representative from each museum can book a place on this training course. Additional bookings from the same museum will go on to a reserve list. Places on this training course will be confirmed by email.
• That you are either a paid staff, a volunteer or a trustee who works within or with a South East museum or heritage organisation which is in Arts Council England’s Accreditation Scheme (either fully accredited or working towards accreditation). Where this is not applicable (i.e. you are a non-accredited museum), you acknowledge that in the event that training is oversubscribed, priority will be given to museums or heritage organisations in the Arts Council England Accreditation Scheme.
• It is a condition of receiving the training provided without charge that the evaluation form is completed by the specified deadline in the email notification, unless a paper evaluation is specifically provided on the day of the training session for completion before the end of the session.

Session delivery and access

Using a virtual platform (Zoom), the facilitators will use a combination of PowerPoint slides and attendee participation with an opportunity for questions and group work in breakout rooms. Auto-transcription will be enabled as standard.

Please make us aware of any access requirements you may have as early as possible to enable us the maximum time to make arrangements and book professional services, if applicable.

Examples of possible requests include, but are not limited to; audio description, advance copy of presentations or resources, resources in specific accessible formats, e.g., Large Print, specific colour contrast.