This article was written by Kristina Broughton, Strategic Director of ICOM UK. This article is part of our coverage of ICOM’s 2025 General Conference.
For someone who has worked in the UK museums sector for 15+ years but never, until recently, internationally, attending the world’s biggest museum conference was not even on my radar until a few months ago.
And what’s the point of travelling halfway round the world to attend a conference in Dubai that you could watch online? Why spare the time? Is it good value for money? Can the environmental impact be justified? Will the benefits outweigh the costs? These are all questions I asked myself but also for ICOM UK. Ultimately, we exist to represent and support our members and so this trip had to do just that.
Put simply, it felt incredibly important that the UK museums sector was represented and recognised alongside other professionals on the global stage and the ICOM General Conference was the perfect platform. It was an honour and a responsibility to represent my national committee and our members at an ICOM General Assembly. Imagine the UN for museums and you’ll understand why being present in the room was both humbling and itself an important statement about the UK’s position in the sector. By luck of the alphabet, we were sat between our hosts and new friends from ICOM UAE and our ‘special’ friends from ICOM USA. The richness of the mutually supportive relationship building that took place with these colleagues and many others over five days, is something that can only really flourish in person. We have plans to take this further by including international contributions to our own annual conference in April 2026 as well as bi-lateral partnership opportunities for museums in the UK.
Although the delegation from the National Committee of ICOM UK was just three – a small number compared to other European countries – we were delighted to connect with many ICOM UK members in attendance and we were determined to make an impact. This started well before the conference, with the UK co-ordinating support and travel arrangements across more than seven ICOM National and International Committees to bring delegates to Dubai from countries currently experiencing armed conflict. This initiative demonstrates ICOM UK’s leadership and commitment to supporting our museum colleagues around the world through the wider ICOM network. Meeting our colleagues from Palestine, Sudan and Ukraine in person in Dubai has strengthened our bonds and sown the seeds for future collaboration.
Only at the ICOM General Conference can you connect with around 5000 of the world’s top museum professionals gathered into one place. And what a place! Dubai and the UAE, as a whole, were outstanding hosts, embodying hospitality but more than this, demonstrating time and again how they recognise and celebrate the power of culture and heritage for their communities, tourism and the entire fabric of their society. I feel the UK has much to learn from their strategic commitment and investment in culture. The opportunity to experience the sheer drive of their cultural ambitions in person, was truly breathtaking.
While in Dubai, I had the honour of participating in a panel discussion organised by INTERCOM, ICOM’s international committee for museum management. The subject was freelancing and outsourcing in the sector. Speaking alongside colleagues from ICOM France, ICOM Cambodia and ICOM Croatia, what struck me was just how similar are the challenges we face, yet, by sharing multiple perspectives, we can carve a path to more logical and informed solutions.
Kristina Broughton’s Response at INTERCOM Panel
I’ve always been a big believer in partnerships and collaboration – that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts – so it’s really no surprise that my biggest take-away from the ICOM conference is that global connection and collaboration wins every time! To hear the ambition, commitment and fearless determination of so many museum professionals from around the world, to harness the power of culture and heritage through diplomacy, was inspirational. But more than this, the willingness to embrace international collaboration, to centre communities and multiple perspectives, to move away from Western notions of what a museum is, will improve museum practice and protect and celebrate our shared cultural heritage regardless of the cultural, geo-political and practical challenges that can come with it.
ICOM’s network provides the backbone to support these important international museum collaborations. Building on our work in Dubai and through our on-going organisational development in support of our members – ICOM UK is committed to continuing and growing its active role in the global museums’ network.
