Agents of Change in the UK!
For the next two weeks, I'll be traveling from London to Belfast (and everywhere in between). Check out what I have planned & stay tuned for more updates!
Hey Changemakers!
I am so thrilled to be headed over to the United Kingdom for the next two weeks to do all kinds of cool museum, heritage, and nature things. So I thought I’d quickly share where I’ll be visiting and what I’ll be up to while I’m there. And stay tuned for a few updates “from the road” over the upcoming weeks.
MuseumNext LIVE in London
First stop, London! And all thanks to MuseumNext LIVE, their first in-person international conference in 5 years (!). I am so honored to be invited to return to MuseumNext, speaking at this international conference for my fifth time. I have really enjoyed these conferences over the years, including the one we hosted right here in Portland, Oregon, in 2017.
This year, I am leading a participatory workshop called “From Vision to Action: Leading Change from Within” focusing on human-centered strategies designed to drive forward meaningful change, including relational thinking, practicing empathy, and building communities of change.
I am also giving the closing keynote address on Day 2 of the conference entitled “Visions of a Different Future,” where I am excited to ask some big questions about the future(s) of museums, such as:
What if museum futures were grounded in a radical sense of imagination and possibility?
What if museums prioritized connecting their communities to the environment?
What if we embraced a mindset of abundance (rather than scarcity) as we build the museums of tomorrow?
These questions (and my talk) are inspired in part by marine biologist and policy expert Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, who powerfully asks, “What if we get this right?” (by the way, that is the title of the new book she has coming out this fall).
By weaving together radical optimism and futurist thinking with real-world examples of where I see this future happening right now in the present, I’m interested in exploring the transformative journey ahead of us to inspire change and address the complex challenges we face in our current moment and beyond.
Aside from my own involvement in the conference, I cannot wait to hear and learn from others, meet new changemakers, and reconnect with many old friends who will be there. And I also look forward to visiting some amazing institutions while there in London doing the important work of creating our future right now. I’ll certainly share more from my experiences there.
A Pilgrimage to Leicester
Immediately following the MuseumNext conference, I am hopping on a train to head up to Leicester to visit the Museum Studies program at the University of Leicester. For those museum nerds out there, you’ll probably know why this might feel like a pilgrimage for me.
The University’s Museum Studies program there has been a pivotal force in the development of the museum field as a whole, and I’ve admired the thinking and writing of many scholars, faculty, and students from that program — including emeritus faculty Eilean Hooper Greenhill and Viv Golding, and current faculty Richard Sandell, whose 2019 book Museum Activism is still one of my all time favorites.
I’ll be speaking as part of their Museum Studies Summer School program, which I am so honored to be a part of this year.
Going WILD at the Manchester Museum
From my short stay in Leicester, I’m heading over to Manchester to visit the Manchester Museum, meet their wonderful team, and to be part of one of their opening programs for the new Wild exhibition, which so perfectly fits with my passions for museums and nature.
Wild, which opened this week, explores our relationship with the natural world and looks at how people across the globe — from Aboriginal elders to researchers and community activists — are creating, rebuilding, and repairing connections with nature. Featuring an immersive installation, audio, film and interactive elements, alongside natural history collections and artworks, the exhibition prompts you to notice the biodiversity and heritage of the featured environments while questioning our relationship with the natural world.
For their “Communities and Landscapes” conversation on Saturday, June 15th, I’ll be joining Esme Ward, Director of the Manchester Museum, to discuss what it means to reimagine museums as vibrant hubs of community activity and partnership, and how these institutions can embrace place-based practices to forge deeper connections with local landscapes and ecosystems.
I am SO excited to finally have this opportunity to visit the Manchester Museum, which is doing some truly incredible and future-oriented work right now.
Wrapping Things Up in Northern Ireland
I’ll be spending the second week of my trip over in Northern Ireland, visiting a few incredible community-based projects and leading workshops and presentations in Belfast.
While in Belfast that week, I will be a guest speaker with the Northern Bridge Consortium, a partnership of 7 universities across Northern Ireland and North East England that includes expanded research support for doctoral students in the arts and humanities. I will be leading a workshop on “Developing Effective Community Partnerships” on June 19th, and then giving the morning keynote on “imaging futures” for the Summer School program on June 21st. This will be a fantastic opportunity to not only support the students coming together for this program, but also meet some faculty whom I greatly admire from this multi-university consortium.
Also, as part of my visit to Northern Ireland, I have been invited by the National Lottery Heritage Fund to facilitate a workshop on June 20th in Belfast that explores best practices for creating meaningful, reciprocal relationships between heritage institutions and local communities. For this workshop, we’ll be visiting one local heritage institution and a community-based project, and I am excited to be learning from the work already happening in Belfast communities (and let me tell you, there is A LOT of impressive work happening in Belfast and communities across Northern Ireland).
All This plus Fish & Chips
OK, so that’s the main stuff I’m doing across these two weeks in the UK, aside from some standard tourist things, eating some lovely fish and chips, and hopefully getting in some long walks through green spaces, parks, and botanical gardens (and at least one adventure exploring alleys in Belfast!).
This trip would not be possible without the support, kindness, generosity, and hospitality of so many people, including Jim Richardson, Anna Cutler, Richard Sandell, Esme Ward, Wendy Gallagher, Elizabeth Crooke, Gemma Reid, Karen Fleming, Stella Byrne, Margaret Middleton, and so many others. Thank you all so much!
Reminder: Register now for “From Vision to Action” - this year’s Summer Changemaker Institute
I just announced “From Vision to Action: 2024 Summer Changemakers Institute”, a 4-part online workshop where where we will learn about human-centered strategies that can effectively drive forward meaningful change, come up with a vision statement for ourselves rooted in a set of core values, and leave the Institute with a specific and strategic plan of action for implementation.
During this series of four interactive, discussion-based online workshops (held on Zoom), we are going to:
Learn about the latest research on relational thinking, radical empathy, and collective action
Explore practical tools to put these ideas into action in your work
Identify key changes you can make in your own organization and work practice, and ways to address common barriers to change
Grow your support network to catalyze collective action
Develop a vision statement and create a detailed plan for implementation
This year’s Summer Institute also has an early registration discount (use the code: EARLYBIRD) if you register by June 28.
I’m really excited to launch this workshop and bring together an incredible group for this first-ever Summer Institute with the theme From Vision to Action.
If you are thinking about joining but have scheduling conflicts, or if you have any other questions at all, please don’t hesitate to contact me at murawski27@gmail.com!