What does it take to make a change?

More and more voices in the museum, heritage and art sector are clamouring for change. And as has become clear in recent years, the challenges are aplenty. Behind the scenes staff are calling for more cultural and socio-economic diversity, paid internships and an end to accepting funding from the oil industry, while front of house lack of accessibility, colonial narratives and the persistence of the ‘curatorial voice’ are being criticised. But how does one go from wanting change, to creating it? How can we restructure or even rebuild our institutions? How can one become a leader of change, even when formally you are not expected to lead?

During this first Night Shift after the summer break, we will be hosting a conversation with and between change leaders from the sector. People who have been exploring and experiencing how things can be done differently. Please join the conversation, which will be in English and online, on Thursday October 21st, 20:00 hours Central European Time. (that would be 19:00 hours British Standard Time, 11:00 Pacific Daylight Time, 14:00 Eastern Daylight Time, you get the gist.)

Sarah Lockwood, Head of Learning and Interpretations at the National Maritime Museum, part of Royal Museums Greenwich, will share their experience of the Endeavour Galleries Project. She will talk about the framework they used for building better connections with communities, the internal changes that were needed to accommodate this shift and how the project legacies have been embedded since.

Piotr Bienkowski is an independent consultant, based in the UK. He has worked with many cultural organisations around topics to do with community engagement and change management. Piotr was Project Director of of Our Museum: Communities and Museums as Active Partners and is co-author of the book Managing Change in Museums and Galleries: A practical guide, which was published by Routledge earlier this year. In his talk, Piotr will pay special attention to the various reasons why change may fail.

Shayne McCreadie, based in Amsterdam, is co-founder of 'De Cultuurshifters', providing training, coaching and workshops to increase diversity in the workplace. She has a broad experience in the cultural sector, working for organisations such as the International Queer and Migrant Filmfestival, Dutch Culture, Amerpodia and Melkweg. For Night Shift she will activate us with a teaser workshop, introducing the concept of Deep Democracy: a method to start dialogue and discussion by actively searching for the wisdom of the minority.