What does it mean to start a museum in the last decade? How does practice echo or differ from older museums?

The Museum of British Colonialism began in 2018, a good 335 years after the Ashmolean. The East End Women's Museum, est. 2015, holds one object (its founding email) -- 7,999,999 fewer than the British Museum.

 MoBC and EEWM are both part of a new group of ‘emerging’ museums - organisations with an explicitly social justice mission. Committed to making visible otherwise underrepresented histories, we use participatory, grassroots approaches to capture and tell people’s stories. Moreover, we aim to make positive change in the present, challenging established narratives, and putting marginalised voices back in the frame.

 This panel discussion will explore the opportunities and challenges of this new museological space, including how new museums approach their work; being a museum without holding objects; use of participatory, artistic and co-design practices; and the representation of diverse stories. We’ll also discuss whether a new museum -- however contemporary in inception and inclusive in intention -- can ever truly avoid the colonial, patriarchal baggage of its elder peers.

Recording available to Museum Association members here.