Eleventh International Conference on The Inclusive Museum

Abstract

How do you reconcile traditional and new approaches to knowledge production to include multiple perspectives and create inclusive galleries? Over the last four years, the National Maritime Museum has been on a journey of development to create four new permanent galleries, bringing 1000 more objects out for display. Working collaboratively with communities, we developed a layered model to combine traditional and new thinking in knowledge production and create a shared vision for the galleries. This session will introduce the approaches we took and the challenges we faced along the way. It will talk about macro and micro relationships and projects that fed into the final galleries. From a national participatory tour and testing and consultation, to in-depth co-curation projects, critical friends, and artist commissions. We will explore how communities had agency in the gallery development process. This paper will consider the new working relationships and practices created across the museum as a result and the value of working with audiences to achieve ownership and relevance.