News
Stolen Renoir paintings recovered after museum burglary in France
Six suspects have been arrested following the theft of two paintings from the Renoir Museum in Cagnes-sur-Mer
England’s museums positive about the year ahead despite rising costs, survey finds
New research shows signs of resilience and growth – but mixed picture for visitor numbers and volunteering
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Analysis
All things to all people | How communities are reshaping heritage practice
Museums often ask communities to respond to collections. The Black Beyond Data project asks what ethical practice looks like when descendant communities put forward the questions, rather than just the answers
Hanging by a thread | How restitution is bringing lost Indigenous practices back to life
Many traditional skills struggled to survive colonial disruption, but communities are showing how the return of ancestral objects can spark cultural renewal
Opinion
The art of interpretation
Muriel Bryans calls for more confidence among those working in interpretation
Blockbuster exhibitions: what happens when the crowd gets too big?
Popularity must go hand in hand with meaningful engagement, says Justin Langshaw
Widespread hidden digital labour is having a negative impact on our workforce
Ash Mann shares the findings from a new research report
Museums must recognise class inequality in their EDI work
Some of the most disadvantaged groups are being overlooked, says Alexander Goodger
In practice
The guide | Benchmarking your governance
Keith Arrowsmith explains how your governance framework can support cognitive and cultural diversity
Case study | A community-centred approach to storytelling
Hardish Virk shares advice on sharing power with communities
Case study | Embedding accessibility into the visitor experience
National Galleries of Scotland shares its work integrating accessible measures at its sites
Case study | Addressing colonial histories
Ingrid Lewis shares how an international partnership is linking Derbyshire’s cotton mills to the island of Carriacou
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Features
Building the museum before the building exists
Five years on from the Black British Museum/Museum X takeover edition of Museums Journal, the question is no longer whether a Black British Museum is needed. The question is what kinds of social relationships, infrastructures and experiments are required to build one
Climate action | Sewing seeds of hope
A deep-dive into how ecological art has moved from the creative fringes into the mainstream, generating a positive public response
People
Q&A | ‘We are not anti-museum – we’re trying to build something new from the ground up’
Community curator Adassa Dixon tells us how the UnMuseum programme is creating a new framework for Black heritage
Q&A | ‘Despite their global importance, natural science collections remain difficult to access’
Sarah Addezio tells Museums Journal about DiSSCo UK, an ambitious new initiative to unite the UK's natural history collections in a single digital space
Q&A | ‘It sounds a wee bit trite, but really great things happen when different people get together’
Museums Journal hears about a collaborative health and wellbeing project with Scotland’s submarine community
Q&A | ‘Living heritage continues, even when disrupted by colonialism’
Rachel Gefferie tells us how the Powell-Cotton Museum has redisplayed its Zulu collection with the help of the community
Reviews
Sound waves | The Music is Black: A British Story, V&A East, London
This joyful exhibition celebrates the huge impact that Black music has had on British society
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Watch and listen
Radical Museums | S3E4: Nelson Cummins
Simon Stephens travels to Glasgow to meet Nelson Cummins, curator of legacies of slavery and empire at Glasgow Museums
Radical Museums | S3E3: Marian Gwyn
Sharon Heal speaks to Marian Gwyn, whose transformative initiative has worked to diversify and decolonise local museums in Wales
Radical Museums | S3E2: E-J Scott
Simon Stephens travels to south London to interview E-J Scott, founder of the Museum of Transology
Radical Museums | S3E1: William Mitchell
Sharon Heal meets William Mitchell, project director for the Action for Community Transformation (ACT) Initiative in Belfast
Radical Museums | S2E4: Agrippa Njanina
Sharon Heal travels to Belfast to meet Agrippa Njanina, a community engagement officer at National Museums Northern Ireland
Radical Museums | S2E3: Ken Paranada
Simon Stephens meets Ken Paranada, the curator of art and climate change at the Sainsbury Centre
Europe after empire
Europe after empire
Gary Younge introduces a series of articles that explore how decolonisation is being approached in European museums
‘Return the bones. Empty the museums’
Museums need to address the issue of the ancestral remains in their collections with transparency, openness and accountability, argues Dan Hicks
A whole new world
The Wereldmuseum Amsterdam has been working with artists and other creative practitioners to explore the impact of Dutch imperialism, but Carol Ann Dixon says more needs to be done to empower its own staff to contribute to meaningful change at the organisation
Representations of Blackness at Vienna’s Belvedere Museum
How Tayla Myree is bringing a much-neglected discussion to the public with her tour exploring Black iconography in the museum's artwork
We are committed to publishing accurate, engaging, challenging and constructive content on the issues, ideas, debates and practices that help museums serve the public better.
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