Radical Museums

Sharon Heal speaks to Marian Gwyn, who has worked to diversify heritage practices throughout her 30-year career in the museum sector, including producing the first exhibition on slavery at any National Trust property in 2007. More recently, with Welsh Government funding, she devised and led a transformative initiative to diversify and decolonise local museums in Wales. Marian won the Radical Changemaker Award at our Museums Change Lives Awards 2024. Not yet a member of the MA? Join us today f...

MA head of publications and events Simon Stephens travels to south London to interview curator, cultural producer and academic E-J Scott, who founded the Museum of Transology in 2014. E-J’s work focuses on enabling communities who may traditionally have been marginalised in museums to recentre their histories via participatory practice. They are a senior lecturer on the BA (Hons) Culture, Criticism and Curation programme at Central Saint Martins, University of the Arts London. The Museum of T...

Sharon Heal visits Belfast to meet William Mitchell, the project director for the Action for Community Transformation (ACT) Initiative, which is dedicated to supporting former political prisoners and empowering those categorised as former combatants to support the reconstruction of their communities. As part of its community transformation work, the initiative has an exhibition, a hands-on interactive narrative telling the story of conflict in Northern Ireland. Not yet a member of the MA? Joi...

Sharon Heal, the director of the Museums Association and Simon Stephens, the head of publications and events at the MA, introduce the third season of the Radical Museums Podcast. Not yet a member of the MA? Join us today for access to great benefits including Museums Journal content, professional development programmes and free entry to 900+ museums across the UK. Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Instagram and Facebook. Music: The Right Direction © 2020 by Shane Ivers, licensed under CC B...

Sharon Heal, the director of the Museums Association, travels to Belfast to meet Agrippa Njanina, a community engagement officer at National Museums Northern Ireland. Agrippa has more than 15 years of experience in the non-profit, education and community sectors, specialising in ethics and community engagement. At National Museums NI, he plays a vital role in coordinating and facilitating the Global Voices Local Choices programme across six museums in Northern Ireland. He is also a member of...

Simon Stephens, the head of publications and events at the Museums Association, meets John Kenneth Paranada, the inaugural curator of art and climate change at the Sainsbury Centre, University of East Anglia. Paranada is a British-Filipino curator, critic, researcher and writer. In addition to his curatorial role, the first role of its kind in a UK museum, he is also a researcher at the Tyndall Centre for Climate Change Research. His work pioneers regenerative curatorial and museological pra...

Sharon Heal, the director of the Museums Association, meets Jane Henderson, a professor of conservation at Cardiff University, for our Radical Museums podcast. Jane is a long-standing activist and has recently campaigned successfully against the closure of the Museum of Cardiff. Sharon and Jane discuss the power of museums and their collections, the joys of Cardiff, approaches to culture in Wales, tackling racism in Wales, and the challenges of working in museums today, particularly for tho...

Simon Stephens, the head of publications and events at the Museums Association, meets Leonie Bell, the director of V&A Dundee. The venue, which opened in September 2018, was designed by renowned Japanese architect Kengo Kuma. V&A Dundee has been riding high on the success of its Tartan exhibition, which closed on 14 January and has been receiving rave reviews from critics and visitors. Its next big exhibition will be Photo City: How Images Shape the Urban World, which opens 29 March ...

Sharon Heal, the director of the Museums Association and Simon Stephens, the head of publications and events at the MA, introduce the second season of the Radical Museums Podcast. Not yet a member of the MA? Join us today for access to great benefits including Museums Journal content, professional development programmes and free entry to 900+ museums across the UK. Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Instagram and Facebook. Music: The Right Direction © 2020 by Shane Ivers, licensed under CC ...

Sharon Heal, the director of the Museums Association and Simon Stephens, the head of publications and events at the MA, introduce the first season of the Radical Museums podcast. Not yet a member of the MA? Join us today for access to great benefits including Museums Journal content, professional development programmes and free entry to 900+ museums across the UK. Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Instagram and Facebook. Music: The Right Direction © 2020 by Shane Ivers, licensed under CC B...

Simon Stephens travels to Ulster Museum in Belfast to meet the team at Reimagine, Remake, Replay, a youth engagement project in Northern Ireland. Not yet a member of the MA? Join us today for access to great benefits including Museums Journal content, professional development programmes and free entry to 900+ museums across the UK. Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Instagram and Facebook. Music: The Right Direction © 2020 by Shane Ivers, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Sharon Heal visits Glasgow to meet Zandra Yeaman, the curator of discomfort at the Hunterian Museum. Not yet a member of the MA? Join us today for access to great benefits including Museums Journal content, professional development programmes and free entry to 900+ museums across the UK. Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Instagram and Facebook. Music: The Right Direction © 2020 by Shane Ivers, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

Simon Stephens visits St Fagans National Museum of History in Cardiff to meet Nasir Adam, the curator of black history at Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales. Not yet a member of the MA? Join us today for access to great benefits including Museums Journal content, professional development programmes and free entry to 900+ museums across the UK. Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Instagram and Facebook. Music: The Right Direction © 2020 by Shane Ivers, licensed under CC BY 4.0.

In the first episode of Radical Museums, Sharon Heal travels to South Yorkshire to meet Victoria Ryves, Doncaster Culture Services' learning and community development manager. Not yet a member of the MA? Join us today for access to great benefits including Museums Journal content, professional development programmes and free entry to 900+ museums across the UK. Follow us on LinkedIn, Bluesky, X, Instagram and Facebook. Music: The Right Direction © 2020 by Shane Ivers, licensed under CC BY 4...