A new series of case studies which document the experience of museums participating in the Travelling Together: Journeys Towards Inclusion and Collaboration project is now available in our online resource library.
Our project took eight museums on a Equality, Diversity and Inclusion (EDI) learning journey from September 2023 to March 2024. We supported them to make the changes needed to grow in accessibility and relevance for their communities.
A case study on each of the museums and how they participated in the project has been produced by the project’s external evaluators, Bright Culture, on behalf of Museum Development South West.
Museum of East Dorset: Accelerating the EDI Journey
The Museum of East Dorset joined the Travelling Together project with the aim of consolidating the work that it was already doing to improve EDI and to inform the creation of its Audience Development and Community Engagement plans.
Travelling Together gave the museum a structured programme in which to reflect on, discuss and start to take the next steps in its EDI journey.
Haynes Motor Museum: Taking Time to Reflect, Think and Move Forward
Haynes Motor Museum joined the project as part of the process of developing an EDI strategy for the Museum. The participating staff members were keen to look at how the EDI journey could support the museum’s ambitious plans to develop further and broaden its audiences.
The immediate impact of Travelling Together will be seen in improvements to its approach to access, but longer-term change will be seen across the museum’s interpretation and presentation of its motoring collection.
Torre Abbey: Small Steps, Big Progress
Torre Abbey was keen to join the Travelling Together project as the timing fitted well with their commitment to creating a new EDI policy and volunteer journey. The two members of the team who joined the project were both relatively new at Torre Abbey and welcomed the opportunity to share the experience together and with other regional museums.
Participating in Travelling Together was a positive and impactful experience for the two staff members, but they recognised that they couldn’t make the change and do the work alone: it needed the whole staff team to be on the journey with them. In practical terms, making the structural change and placing an EDI question within all event planning documentation is a ‘small tweak’ that will support the on-going cultural change.
South Somerset Heritage Collection: Understanding its Audiences
The decision to join the Travelling Together project was driven by a desire and commitment to grow and diversify the Heritage Centre’s audiences.
Participating in the Travelling Together project has offered the Heritage Centre, peer support, the time to create an EDI Action Plan and a bespoke piece of audience research that is linked to their Forward Plan and 2026 targets. It has encouraged the staff team to be ambitious about what is possible, to look at what resources and data they already have, and to think bigger.
The American Museum & Gardens: Moving Forward with Equity, Diversity and Inclusion
The American Museum was already making changes to its working practices and collection interpretation when it applied to join Travelling Together in 2023. However, senior museum staff felt ‘stuck’, that EDI was seen as being part of the curatorial and collection teams’ work and that it didn’t have cross-organisational ownership. By the end of the Travelling Together project, there was a visible excitement, commitment and energy to see the work progress.
The Roman Baths: Laying the EDI Foundations
They joined the Travelling Together project with the aim of improving understanding of EDI for all staff, especially new staff members, building staff confidence in applying EDI in the workplace and addressing how the principles of EDI impact on interpretation at the Baths.
Being part of Travelling Together has enabled the Roman Baths to move forward after a period of significant change at the senior level. The project has enabled them to upskill key members of staff, roll out training to the Senior Leadership Team, undertake a staff-wide survey that is now an internal baseline to monitor progress against, and to create an EDI Action Plan that will be monitored.