‘Museums, Class and the Pandemic’ report launch: An interview with Dr Serena Iervolino

Dr Serena Iervolino launched the research report entitled “Museums, Class and the Pandemic: An Investigation into the Lived Experiences of Working Class Londoners” at a hybrid panel discussion held at the Museum of London Docklands on January 11, 2023. She co-authored the publication with Dr Domenico Sergi, Senior Curator (Curating London) at the Museum of London. The report is one of the outputs of their collaborative project “Inequalities, Class and the Pandemic” (2021-2022) co-funded by the Museum of London and King’s College London, which Drs Iervolino and Sergi envisaged, developed and led in partnership.

Advertisement

CREATIVE LABOUR AND CULTURAL INSTITUTIONS

Day Two: Friday 2nd July, 10am-15.15pm (BST)    Panel 1 - Transformations in cultural institutions  10.15-11.15am Chair: Kirsty Warner, King’s College London   Stella Toonen, King’s College London Co-creation in Covid time: Opportunities for change in museums  Abstract: Co-creation has become a prevalent term in the museum sector, but many museums are still hesitant to share power with communities, give away control and work without predetermined outcomes.…

Why should we care about stored museum collections?

Dr Anna Woodham People are often surprised to discover that behind the scenes in museum storerooms across the globe, there are millions of objects that will never go on public display. Many of these objects are duplicates, ‘bulk’ collections, such as archaeological finds, or objects which could be described as “uncharismatic”. There are also objects…

Curating expertise: Towards an Interdisciplinary Museums Studies Research Agenda at KCL

Dr Serena Iervolino and Dr Stuart Dunn There has recently been much interest and attention within King’s College London to the field of museum studies. This is hardly surprising: the university sits within one of the richest and most diverse cultural cities in the world, surrounded by gems such as the British Museum, the National…

Chile: Doing research in times of social change

Catalina Urtubia Figueroa Just two months ago, Chilean president Sebastian Piñera stated in a televised interview that Chile was “an oasis in Latin America”, referring to its stable democracy and growing economy. On October 18th, it became evident that Chile was more likely to be a mirage when mass protests kicked off in Santiago due…

The new activist museum agenda: an interview with Dr Red Chidgey

Protest has become a popular topic of interest in the national arts and heritage sector.  In the past year alone, The British Museum hosted I object, an exhibition dedicated to protest objects running from graffiti on a Babylonian brick to a recent anti-Trump Pussyhat. The Imperial War Museum celebrated peace activism in People Power, and…

The co-created museum: art institutions’ search for new roles and relevance

Stella Toonen  When visiting museums as a child I was always fascinated by the exotic stories from far away countries or the extraordinary ideas coming from the creative minds of the featured artists. When I grew up, that fascination transformed into wanting to find out where those stories and ideas came from, and especially who…

Energy in Store: How can museums encourage more productive relationships with their communities?

Dr Anna Woodham @Aura Films For the last year, I have been part of a project called ‘Energy in Store’ working with the Science Museum Group (SMG) to consider how museums can better meet the needs of diverse audiences. In particular, we have been looking at new ways of working with ‘enthusiast experts’ that could benefit not only the experts themselves but also new generations of researchers, the museum and…