Abstract
In this study we explore the creation of a co-production strategy for National Museums Liverpool, a publicly-funded organisation delivering the multi-million pound Waterfront Transformation Project with its local, national and international communities. The Waterfront Transformation Project builds on decades of collaboration to redevelop four sites - including the International Slavery Museum - and embed co-production the organisation’s standard way of working going forward. To achieve this, colleagues have worked with researchers from the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries to develop a bespoke co-production framework to interrogate and transform NML’s ways of working through a process of Action Research. Using the International Slavery Museum as a test site, the team have developed and applied the framework to scale up co-production from conception right through to governance, delivery and evaluation, with co-production partners. Through this collaborative effort, NML and RCMG colleagues consider lessons learned from this ongoing journey and the complexity of organisational change for its people, partners, systems and processes. We explore power and equity in a Capital project, and ask - how do the demands of public funding impact a museum’s aspirations of public co-production?
Presenters
Suzanne Mac LeodProfessor Of Museum Studies, School of Museum Studies, Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, School of Museum Studies, University of Leicester, United Kingdom Ranmalie Jayawardana
Community Participation Lead, National Museums Liverpool, United Kingdom
Details
Presentation Type
Paper Presentation in a Themed Session
Theme
2023 Special Focus—Museum Transformations: Pathways to Community Engagement
KEYWORDS
CO-PRODUCTION, COMMUNITY, ENGAGEMENT, ORGANISATIONAL CHANGE
