Moving from Vision to Action

The early registration deadline for the upcoming Summer Institute is THIS Friday. So let's talk about how we can imagine bold futures and build the concrete action steps necessary to get there!

Hey Changemakers,

I am back from my incredible trip across the UK, and excited to focus my energies now on the upcoming Summer Changemaker Institute, which has its early registration discount deadline ending this Friday, June 28th.

We’ve decided to change up the Summer Institute a bit this year, and focus on this idea of moving from vision to action. So what does that mean?

Across many of my presentations and workshops these past couple weeks in the UK, I led exercises that invited participants to use their imagination — a skill that is seriously fading from our practice — to envision the future if the best were to happen.

Having a strong vision of the future can be one of the most powerful forces in motivating us to work toward meaningful change, and build a growing community of support and solidarity around that change.

At the end of my keynote presentation at MuseumNext in London (June 2024), I held up a protest banner I had made in a workshop with Aram Han Sifuentes that reads “Let’s Create Beautiful Futures Together.”

My own interest in exploring alternative and different futures for museums has emerged directly from my work as a change activist, working with museum professionals and institutions to support positive and transformative change within these institutions. I see envisioning futures as a necessary, yet often ignored, step in effectively advocating for and advancing change.

As peace activist and teacher Kazu Haga eloquently expresses:

“Offering a vision of a different future and cultivating the belief that such a vision is possible is the best way to motivate people to stand up for change.”

Envisioning Futures in Action

From this radical practice of imagining the future, we can develop important “what if” questions to help reframe our thinking in bold and creative ways.

For example, during a workshop I led last week in Belfast for the National Lottery Heritage Fund in Northern Ireland, we spent time discussing “what if” statements and collaboratively writing new ones.

Here are a few examples of the “what if” questions we grappled with:

• What if museums and heritage organizations became central hubs for environmental activism and education in their communities?

• What if local communities led the curation of exhibits in museums, ensuring that their voices and perspectives were authentically represented?

And some that we created together:

• What if the work of museums and heritage sites was not determined by the parameters of funding?

• What if decision making came from the grass roots level in our organizations?

• What if we trusted each other?

Professionals from across the museum and heritage sector in Northern Ireland discussing “what if” questions as part of my workshop there in Belfast at the Brink! urban community garden site in center city.

From this space of imagination and creative thinking, we can work to develop action plans and concrete steps that aim toward these aspirations, asking ourselves: What are some small steps we can take to begin making this future happen right here and right now? After all, as I shared many times throughout my travels across the UK these past weeks:

“the best way to predict the future is to create it.”

For the upcoming Summer Changemaker Institute: From Vision to Action, we’re going to make space for imaging these futures, creating our own “what if” questions, and then working across the 4 weeks to create a Personal Change Statement and an individualized Action Plan to do just that — create our futures right now.

After working with so many incredible people making bold and impactful change happen in their own communities across England and Northern Ireland, I am so excited to bring this energy of radical possibility into the upcoming Summer Changemaker Institute and the group coming together for this 4-week online professional growth experience.

This work of transformation requires that we build community, and work together in community to support each other. That’s why we need to come together as a collective of changemakers to bring focus and intention to making change happen.

We all have a role in solving our current crises because I believe that we absolutely can transform museums, heritage organizations, and nonprofits. We can have hope for a better future and begin building that future right now.

It is up to us to choose to step up, be a solution to the problems we’re experiencing, and make this change happen together.

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Register Now for “From Vision to Action” to get use the early registration discount - this year’s Summer Changemaker Institute!

The “From Vision to Action: 2024 Summer Changemakers Institute” is 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 a 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 THIS Friday, June 28.

The Summer Institute is designed to serve the needs of anyone working in nonprofits or museums — or in a related field like consulting. Early career professionals, those in leadership positions, as well as volunteers are all welcome.

Workshop Dates and Times: 

• Wednesday, 7/17, 1 pm-3 pm Eastern (10 am-12 pm Pacific)

• Wednesday, 7/24, 1 pm-3 pm Eastern (10 am-12 pm Pacific)

• Wednesday, 7/31, 1 pm-3 pm Eastern (10 am-12 pm Pacific)

• Wednesday, 8/7, 1 pm-3 pm Eastern (10 am-12 pm Pacific)

You'll receive a Zoom link and follow up details shortly after you sign up. 

Deadline for early registration discount is June 28 (use the code: EARLYBIRD).

Please note! 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 so that we can make accommodations!