Making Museums: Place & Politics symposium + Helmsdale: Museum for a Day

The symposium was framed through The Museum of Loss and Renewal’s key concerns and included keynote presentations that positioned museums as active cultural agents, a roundtable discussion on collecting and collections today, a series of discursive sessions that offered the opportunity to critically explore some of the key issues regional museums are faced with, and debates on the role of museums in connection with historical and current issues around displacement and migration. The Museum of Loss and Renewal curated a programme of activities and events and determined the aesthetic environment.

A range of museum professionals, academics, and artists including Chris Whitehead, Professor of Museology at Newcastle University and co-author of the book Museums, Migration and Identity in Europe: Peoples, Places and Identities, Dr. Emma Martin, Lecturer in Museology at Manchester University and Curator at the World Museum, Liverpool, Bahbak Hashemi-Nezhad, designer, Christine Millar, The McManus, Dundee’s Art Gallery and Museum, Amanda Crabtree, co-director of artconnexion, Lille, Alison Scott, Timespan’s current Graduate Fellow, and the Museum of Non-Humanity contributed to the symposium.