Our 2024 annual conference was held in Belfast, where, under the theme ‘Common Ground’, we connected a full house of delegates with international ideas for dealing with local complexities, and covered a lot of ground across South Asia, Rwanda, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and all four nations of the UK, with a particular focus on Northern Ireland. This summary covers just a handful of the topics and speakers who shared insights with UK museum experts.
William Blair, Director of Collections at National Museums Northern Ireland, explained in his welcoming address that the role of the museum is not to establish narratives nor provide solutions, but to offer opportunities for conversations. During the day, we learned about many opportunities for conversations being created by museums in their communities across the world. The first keynote speaker, Maeve McLaughlin, Manager of Bloody Sunday Trust in Derry, told us what this can look like by illustrating her use of the conflict resolution dialogue model, and outlining the importance of remembering even for the third generation after a significant event.
Remembering is not easy if the narrative is contested. Both Chantal Umuhoza, Curator at the Institute of National Museums of Rwanda, and Elma Hasimbegovic, Director at the History Museum of Bosnia and Herzegovina, outlined how physical and mental borders can be erected by groups through storytelling and owning the narrative, eventually resulting in conflict, even armed conflict and genocide. Recovery from such events is possible, and the antidote to such highly polarised experiences is the promotion of shared memories and a unified identity.
Sometimes, old wounds can only heal if it can be accepted that narratives are contested. This involves dealing with complex pictures, creating spaces for conversations. These spaces need to feel safe, and this extends as much to creating a welcoming atmosphere as considerations for displays, as Karen Logan, Senior Curator of History at National Museums Northern Ireland, and Brenda Malone, Curator at National Museum of Ireland, reminded us: there are sensitivities related with some collection items and it is better not to display them in many circumstances.
Museums are not neutral, and our speakers illustrated how modern museums have the absolute intention to play an active role in dialogue and reconciliation in communities. Museums no longer simply display information, but consider communication needs, what is and what is not appropriate to display, and work proactively with their communities. We heard about many positive examples of community engagement, participation and co-curation.
The second keynote speaker, Nusrat Ahmed, Lead Curator (South Asia Gallery) at Manchester Museum, demonstrated how much effort and thought it takes to successfully persuade members of our communities into the museum we had not previously seen. In Wales, the Wellbeing of Future Generations Act has created a helpful framework which many museums outside of Wales do not have the luxury of working under.
One of ICOM’s purposes is to connect people and provide a network for sharing knowledge and best practice. If we have achieved that – connected delegates with someone new to them or given them a good idea which they can take back to their own museum and try – then it’s been a successful day.
ICOM UK wishes to thank all the speakers and panellists for giving their time to share their experience; National Museums Northern Ireland and specifically Ulster Museum for hosting the event; and our partners National Museums Directors Council, ICOM Ireland, the Irish Museums Association, Northern Ireland Museums Council and Barker Langham for supporting our annual conference.
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