Abstract
Opening in 2025, V&A East is a new museum and storehouse on Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, east London. The surrounding boroughs have some of the youngest and most diverse populations in the UK, if not the world and east London has a thriving creative sector. However, the boroughs’ diversity is not reflected in the industry’s workforce. We have a clearly defined ambition for our priority audience: 16–24-year-olds, representative of the boroughs in which our buildings are located. How can we leverage our collection and connections, working with our communities to empower young people and open pathways into the creative sector? This presentation shares the findings of our research-led practice as we build a new museum and collection store with and for young east Londoners. From initial consultation through to the prototyping and evaluation of new models that challenge traditional hierarchies of knowledge production and decision making to raise the profile and impact of youth voice and community engagement in decision making, design and content production at V&A East. Highlights include: V&A East Youth Collective, a paid advisory board of locals aged 16-25 who play a key role in shaping strategic decisions in the making of V&A East; Interdisciplinary design collective RESOLVE as V&A East’s first Youth Workers in Residence to help shape V&A East’s future youth programming; STEP, the East Bank’s shared training and employment programme to diversify and build sustainable pathways into the cultural sector; MAKE Space, a collaborative, regular open studio programme to inspire creativity and connection.
Details
Presentation Type
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Museum Transformations: Pathways to Community Engagement
KEYWORDS
MUSEUMS, STAKEHOLDERS, COMMUNITY,ENGAGEMENT, AUDIENCES, DIVERSITY, EQUITY, KNOWLEDGE PRODUCTION, CO-CURATION, CO-PRODUCTION
