Sustaining Our Practice – Sustaining Our World
GEM Conference 2025 – Leeds City Museum: 10-12 September
By Reyahn King, Executive Director, The Exhibitions Group
What a great conference was put together by the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) last week! I was there with The Exhibitions Group to do a workshop session on reducing the carbon impact of public programming. Thank you to the enthusiastic group who came to join me on Wednesday to think about advocating for making better choices, developing better practice through procurement and to exchange practical ideas and tips. I shared two useful tools: The Exhibitions Group – Rethinking Touring Exhibitions Toolkit and Rethinking environmental responsibility in public programming – Art Fund.
In what was a fast-paced workshop, people shared their thoughts and experiences of making change with colleagues on their tables and everyone went away with a ‘next action’! Every action counts.
I was very pleased that in the morning before The Exhibitions Group workshop, keynote speakers set the scene for getting practical about the environment. Art historian Meta Knol gave an inspirational talk urging against overwhelm and to just start doing. Systems thinking guru Donella Meadows was cited with the useful reminder that we must think hard about what levers we choose to pull. Changing the paradigm is the most powerful and overall, at this conference I felt that we were all encouraged by the selection of speakers to believe in the power to combat the ‘earth crisis’.
‘Earth crisis’ is the term favoured by keynote speaker Bridget McKenzie of Climate Museum UK. She shared useful frameworks including Culture Declares Emergency’s three values that help people ‘speak the truth and not be afraid’: Truth, Care, Change and a toolkit being produced on Generic Environmental Outcomes.
On a more old-school note, there was a session on Generic Learning Outcomes. I love GLOs for exhibition evaluation and think they are sadly underused. Thank you to those preparing a refresh and Sam Bowen, Dr Sarah Plumb, Carl Newbould and Jenni Waugh for introducing a new sixth GLO – a sensory GLO.
Other talks on the second day included Caro Howell of Imperial War Museums sharing all the work they are doing through exhibitions and projects to reach beyond the expectations that surround a museum with their name, and of their efforts to increase awareness of global perspectives and stories. They are about to launch a valuable new research tool: transcribed recordings of service personnel 1945-2000, available and searchable by everyone online.
The final day was full of inspiration starting with Professor Olivette Otele who spoke about Sustaining Our Focus on Colonial Slavery and Restorative Justice. There was so much nuance and wisdom in her talk! Nuggets that stuck with me included: intergenerational trauma is not just about the victim but also about “the ongoing transmission of hatred”. Museums and heritage sites now acknowledge their roles in enslavement and empire but don’t seem happy to acknowledge the resistance movements and stories. (I’d add that as there used to be with uncovering colonial links, there’s now a reluctance to do the work of finding the resistance stories or even just opening eyes to the ones in plain sight.) As Professor Otele says, “We must have these parallel stories told together.” Restorative justice is about institutional reforms and seeking accountability… a structure to fight against systemic injustice. She spoke generously about others’ work and looking at the global not just triangular picture – how entangled all the stories are.
A speedy set of presentations on social impact were full of tips and again, inspiration. Thank you to Effy Harle for sharing her experience and the London Museum blueprint for coproduction – many of us wanted a copy! Adam Andre from the International Slavery Museum (ISM) was refreshing and energising, talking about the importance of moments of joy as he spoke about Teaching Transatlantic Slavery through lived Experience at ISM. It was thrilling to see how ways of engaging on this subject continue to learn and grow for everyone’s benefit – Michelle Charters’ team are making change!
I had to leave just before the end of conference but it was another high for me to end by hearing both Mya-Rose Craig ‘BirdGirl’ of Black2Nature and author, naturalist and conservationist Dara McAnulty speaking with such eloquence about what nature means to them and could mean to all of us.
Finally, of course there were opportunities to see colleagues and make new contacts. So enjoyed catching up with my The Exhibitions Group colleague Rachel Auty as well as Gill Greaves, Jenni Waugh, Sarah Cowie, Robin Johnson, Sharon Heal, Emmie Kell, David Hopes, Kate Fellowes and to meet Ellen Zafre Stuart, Effy Harle, Adam Andre, Margaret Middleton, Harr Joht Kaur, Rita Hussain, and so many engaged and active professionals.
Thank you Rachel Tranter, Katya Provornaya and all the team at GEM for giving us three truly energising and informative days!
