We are delighted to announce that the participants of Travelling Together: Museum Journeys Towards Inclusion and Collaboration have been onboarded and that the project will now enter its next phase.
Funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund and Arts Council England, Travelling Together is our 2023-24 project which invests in the skills, confidence, and aptitudes of our museum sector to help museums to reach a wider range of people to engage with collections and stories in new ways. This is South West Museum Development’s first dedicated diversity and inclusion development programme.
Following a popular expression of interest process, we have finalised the eight organisations who will form the project participating cohort. They are: American Museum and Gardens, Haynes Motor Museum, Museum of East Dorset, Museum of Gloucester, The Roman Baths, Royal West of England Academy, South Somerset Heritage Collection and Torre Abbey.
Team members from these museums are embarking on a series of intense training workshops and peer networking opportunities to support them to grow in accessibility and relevance for their communities. Sharing and learning together, these museums will design new ways to challenge the barriers faced by their audiences. A grant of £1,500 and access to relevant experts and mentors will help kick-start these projects to make lasting change.
Alongside the cohort are seven Champions, individuals who will benefit from this project’s investment to start their own personal learning journey as well as create opportunities to share good practice with others through a series of peer network sessions. The Champions are joining us from Aerospace Bristol, BANES Heritage Services, Cornwall Museums Partnership, Museum of East Dorset, National Museum of the Royal Navy, Royal Cornwall Museum and Torre Abbey. Our seven champions will use their own lived experiences to spark new discussions and encourage a deeper understanding of what true inclusivity looks like in the Heritage sector.
To ensure this project genuinely benefits from a range of perspectives, we’ve recruited a Steering Group who will inform the content of the training and act as mentors to our Champions and cohort. Our Steering Group are: Sam Munday-Webb, a Creative Collaborative Facilitator and Equity, Diversity and Inclusion consultant, Louisa Adjoa Parker, a writer, poet and Equality, Diversity and Inclusion consultant, and Nina Thomas, an advisor on disability and trustee for Stagetext.
The Steering Group, participant museums and Champions will now embark on a programme of training until the end of November, led by equity, diversity and inclusion consultancy Inclusive Recruitment and our own specialists at South West Museum Development. Sign up to our newsletter to keep up-to-date with the latest news on Travelling Together.