Join us in Liverpool for the 2025 ICOM UK Conference ‘Regenerative Museums for Sustainable Futures’
About this Event
This conference will focus on how museums can address climate and social emergencies. Museum colleagues from around the world will share practical examples of regenerative development in museums. The event emphasizes moving beyond sustainability and net-zero goals toward restoring ecosystems, rebalancing value systems, and using cultural heritage to foster climate action. Museums act as regenerative forces, engaging communities in solutions that integrate sustainability, resilience, and ancestral knowledge to combat environmental collapse and climate injustice.
The 2025 ICOM UK Conference is a collaboration between ICOM UK, National Museum Directors’ Council and RegeneraMuseu, with kind support from Barker Langham, British Council, Narro Associates, National Museums Liverpool, and University of Liverpool Museums and Collections.
Our media partner for the ICOM UK conference 2025 is blooloop. blooloop is the leading media for the museums and science centre industry, read by directors and professionals at institutions around the world. blooloop’s sustainability conference, greenloop, takes place online 13&14 May. Tickets are from just £10 so please join us to hear the latest science, hot topics and top speakers. Find out more here. blooloop’s awards recognise best practice and excellence, including celebrating professionals in the blooloop 50 Museum Influencer Awards and the latest exhibitions and technologies in the blooloop Innovation Awards.
See this link for the Conference’s detailed programme.
Biographies of the Speakers and Moderators can be found here.
Programme
Wednesday 30 April 2025
Informal meet-up and networking between 18:00 and 21:00 at the Shipping Forecast in Slater Street
(delegates to pay for own food and drink)
Thursday 1 May 2025
Location: The Spine Building, 2 Paddington Village, Liverpool L7 3FA
09:00 – 10:00 Arrivals & Registration, refreshments (provided), informal networking
10:00 – 10:20 Welcome Address
Laura Pye, Director, National Museums Liverpool, UK
Christian Baars, Co-Chair, ICOM UK
10:20 – 10:25 Address by Narro Associates
10:25 – 10:45 Keynote 1: Regenerative Museums: Sustaining Life. An adaptive resilience pathway in response to climate and social collapse.
Lucimara Letelier, Director of RegeneraMuseu and Vice Chair of ICOM Sustain, Brazil; Researcher at University of Leicester, UK.
10:45 – 11:40 Session 1: Panel Discussion – Regenerative experiences in dialogue – how can museums create sustainable futures through regenerative design.
Esme Ward, Manchester University Museum, UK
Jenny Newell, Australian Museum, Australia
Richard Piaccentini, Phipps Conservatory & Botanical Gardens, USA
Moderator: Lucimara Letelier, RegeneraMuseu, Brazil
11:40 – 12:00 Break (refreshments provided), opportunity to meet our sponsors
12:00 – 12:45 Session 2: Care for People. Integrating social justice into the sustainable practices of museums for regenerative development (Case Studies)
Saadu Hashim Rashid, National Museums of Kenya, Kenya
Sonia Solicari, Director of Museum of the Home & Naila Yousuf, Partner at Wright & Wright Architects, UK
Arafat Ali, National Museum of Science and Technology, Bangladesh
Moderator: Elise Foster Vander Elst, Head of Exhibitions & Environmental Impact Lead, Design Museum, UK
12:45 – 13:40 Lunch (provided), informal networking, opportunity to meet our sponsors
13:45 – 14:30 Session 3: Care for Places and Cultures. Eco-museums and inclusive museology: Diverse cosmologies for territorial regeneration (Case Studies)
Victoria McMillan, Nottingham Trent University, UK
Luiz Souza, Conservation Science Lab – Federal University of Minas Gerais, Brazil
Ibrahim Tchan, Director of Tata Somba Ecomuseum, Africa
Moderator: Nerys Rudder, ICOM UK Trustee and Collections Services Lead, National Museums Liverpool
14:35 – 15:20 Session 4: Care for the Planet. Museums adapting and restoring biodiversity to harmonise with the environment (Case Studies)
Mamdouh Farouk Mohamed, Imhotep Museum, Egypt
Gleyce Kelly Heitor, Instituto Inhotim, contemporary art museum and botanical garden, Brazil
Mohsen Ghanooni, ICOM Resolutions Committee Member, Iran
Moderator: Jamie Larkin, ICOM SUSTAIN Board member, University of Warwick, UK
15:25 – 15:55 Refreshments (provided), informal networking, opportunity to meet our sponsors
16:00 – 16:40 Keynote 2: Share to Spread Hope – A hopeful reality amidst the Climate Change Crisis
Ineza Umuhoza Grace, CEO of The Green Protector, Co-ordinator of the Loss and Damage Youth Coalition, 2023 Global Citizen Prize winner, Rwanda
16:45 – 17:00 Closing Remarks
17:00 Departure to Evening Reception
18:00 – 20:00 Evening Reception at Museum of Liverpool, sponsored by Barker Langham (address by Eric Langham)
* The programme is subject to change at short notice
Friday 2 May 2025
Locations: World Museum and Victoria Gallery and Museum
09:00 – 10:30 Session 1 Workshops and Walking Tour
- Loss and Damage, or: the negative impacts of the climate crisis and what global leaders are not telling you. Ineza Umuhoza Grace, The Green Protector, Rwanda
- What shall we do with all this stuff? Environmentally and ethically motivated collections management. Hilary Jennings and Gaby Porter, The Happy Museum, UK
- Action Plan for Sustainability. How to build your museum´s sustainable development plan. Learn about the framework proposed by ICOM with ICOM’s International Committee on Sustainability (ICOM SUSTAIN). Jamie Larkin, Clémence Aycard and Lucimara Letelier, ICOM SUSTAIN Board Members
- Liverpool Landmarks Guided Walking Tour – A 90 minute walk covering approximately 2 miles starting at the World Museum.
11:00 – 12:30 Session 2 Workshops and Walking Tour
- Looking inward: how to talk about activism with your colleagues, Marit van Dijk, Reinwardt Academie, Netherlands
- What our people have told. How to develop a collections inventory in partnership with communities to preserve their traditional, nature-integrated ways of life. Gleyce Kelly Heitor, Instituto Inhotim, Brazil
- Revive and Thrive – Sustainable Design for Existing Spaces. Narro Associates, UK
- Liverpool Landmarks Guided Walking Tour – A 90 minute walk covering approximately 2 miles starting at the World Museum.
12:30 – 13:30 Lunch (not provided)
13:30 – 15:00 Session 3 Workshop and Walking Tour
- Sustainable futures and design thinking: Perspectives of the New Generation! led by the ICOM UK Student and Emerging Professionals Working Group, Huaiyuan (Robert) Ren, ICOM UK
- Liverpool Landmarks Guided Walking Tour – A 90 minute walk covering approximately 2 miles starting and finishing at the World Museum.
Running alongside Session 3:
13:30 – 14:15 Guided Tours of Museum Galleries
Tour 1: Rise like a Phoenix! Displaying a war-torn collection (Ashley Cooke, Head of World Museum) (meet at the World Museum visitor reception; places limited, booking required)
Tour 2: Bees and butterflies as canaries in the coal mine – (Tony Hunter, Curator for Entomology) (meet at the World Museum visitor reception; places limited, booking required)
Tour 3: Medieval, Renaissance and Baroque galleries at the Walker Art Gallery (Kate O’Donoghue, Curator for International Fine Art) (meet at the Walker Art Gallery visitor reception; places limited, booking required)
Tour 4: British Painting and Sculpture (Melissa Gustin, Curator for British Art) (meet at the Walker Art Gallery visitor reception; places limited, booking required)
* The programme and timings are subject to change
CONFERENCE ORGANISING COMMITTEE
Curatorship, Programme Planning and Production
Alice Maganin, Head of Business Development and Communications, Barker Langham
Andy Harrison, International Bidding Manager, Marketing Liverpool
Abeer Eladany, Trustee, ICOM UK | Curatorial Assistant, University of Aberdeen
Christian Baars, Co-Chair, ICOM UK | Head of Collections Care Department, National Museums Liverpool
Duncan Dornan, Trustee, ICOM UK
Huaiyuan Ren, Trustee, ICOM UK
Kathryn Simpson, Policy and Projects Manager, National Museums Directors’ Council
Katie Hardgrave, Membership and Administration Manager, ICOM UK
Lucimara Letelier, Director RegeneraMuseu | Vice Chair, ICOM SUSTAIN
Nerys Rudder, Trustee, ICOM UK | Collections Services Lead, National Museums Liverpool
Xiao Du, Conference Assistant, ICOM UK | Manchester University
