What is possible when dance and heritage organisations work in partnership over time?
Reflecting on 10 years since Trinity Laban/the Horniman Museum and Gardens’ formative ‘Dance and museums symposium’, we will invite you to imagine all that is possible when museums and dance artists/organisations are able to work together strategically over longer periods of time, rather than offering shorter projects and one-off performances.
Since The Imagination Museum’s relaunch in May 2024, we’ve heard a great deal from presenters and participants at our Advocacy Events about the ways that dance and museums contributes to a process of ‘de-centring’ traditional, hierarchical ways of understanding history and who it’s for, therefore creating space for possibility, reparation, transformation and change for example.
Looking to the future, we therefore also want to ask:
How can dance and museums contribute to a more radical approach to the role of museums today?
Working in partnership with the Horniman Museum and Gardens and Trinity Laban, our event on the 4th September will be facilitated by Emma McFarland, who authored the ‘Dance and museums symposium’ report 10 years ago. We will offer a programme including Case Studies, opportunities to participate in discussion, practical activities and a chance to network over lunch. Read on for full information about the programme below.
Venue: Creekside, London, England SE8 3DZ
10-4pm
For more information and to book, visit Eventbrite here.
Tickets £30 (for those representing organisations); £20 (for freelance practitioners or those representing smaller/volunteer-led organisations)
There are also a limited number of 10 x £5 Bursary tickets available to freelance practitioners and those representing smaller/volunteer-led organisations on a first-come-first-served basis.
We do not want cost to be a barrier to anyone attending our events so please get in touch, in confidence, with our Project Manager Alice on manager@imaginationmuseum.co.uk should you wish to discuss any alternative arrangements. We also have an access fund available if you require assistance with any of the additional costs (such as travel) that you may incur by attending the event.
Who is the London Imagination Museum event for?
Our online and in-person Advocacy Events will be open to anyone from dance, arts, heritage, community contexts with an interest in collaboration and finding creative ways of interpreting local sites, collections and stories through dance and movement.
You may have some experience of working with dance in response to heritage, museums, archives, galleries, or you may be completely new to this way of working.
We want everyone to feel welcome, and we are working with Access and EDI consultants to support us to make the events as inclusive as we can (and to learn about how to do this better in the future). Please get in touch if there is anything that we can put in place to support you to access this event.
We also plan to record any key presentations (where it is possible to do so) and will make these recordings available on our website after the events to enable more people to access the content on demand.
If you have any questions or need any further information, please contact our Project Manager Alice Odin on manager@imaginationmuseum.co.uk .
What is the full programme on the 4th September?
The event will be facilitated by Emma McFarland, a creative innovator and strategic designer who has worked at the forefront of innovation with organisations including the National Gallery and authored the Dance and Museums symposium report in 2014. The day will begin with a keynote presentation by Peronel Craddock (Head of Content) from the Horniman Museum and Gardens and Jasmine Wilson and Laura Woods (Community and Artist Development) from Trinity Laban, then feature a variety of expert speakers from across the dance and heritage worlds, offering opportunities to participate in lively discussion, engage in practical activities and network with like-minded people.
Guest speakers on 4 September will include globally respected creative director and producer Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE, a leading figure in mass movement and public engagement who has worked on iconic events including The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant and the Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace. Jeanefer will share how she has used dance as a way of exploring, embodying and giving power to individuals captured in the series of photographs Black Chronicles II exhibition by Autograph Gallery in 2014. She will introduce her work Black Victorians which took inspiration from hundreds of portraits of Black people in England during the Victorian era that had previously been airbrushed from society
A leader in dance created by artists with learning disabilities, Corali’s Artistic Director, Sarah Archdeacon, will be joined by Liz Ellis, Heritage Fund Policy Project Manager for Inclusion, to offer perspectives on how dance can be used as a tool to increase access to heritage sites, and discuss their collaborative relationship when Liz worked at Tate. For example, Corali’s Dancing To Art (2019) saw four company members create responses to art works at Tate Britain to show what happens when people have the freedom to enjoy the gallery however they want.
Dance artist and producer Bethan Peters will be joined by Joanna Salter, Senior Manager, Participation for the National Maritime Museum, to discuss the work they have undertaken together, including when Bethan was the first Royal Museums Greenwich Choreographer in Residence from 2015-16. Bethan’s practice has social engagement and individual expression at its core, and often explores environmental themes. She has also worked with Turner Contemporary and undertook The Arctic Circle, an Artist and Scientist Residency Programme which saw her work with artists, scientists, and educators in remote areas of the Arctic to develop projects in response to issues surrounding climate change.
There will also be a chance on the day to hear from Strategic Lead for The Imagination Museum Katie Green about what has been happening since the relaunch of the network earlier this year, and plans for the future.
For more information and to book, visit Eventbrite here.
The Imagination Museum is supported by the National Lottery through Arts Council England, and is currently being managed by Made By Katie Green. In 2024 it is being delivered in partnership with Colchester and Ipswich Museums, DanceEast, Wheal Martyn, Showtown, the Horniman Museum and Gardens and Trinity Laban, with additional support from an Executive Committee, and Advisory Organisations including the Association for Suffolk Museums and Arts & Heritage.