2. Isobel Hunter
19 March 2014
Stories of the World
Mainstreaming equality and diversity

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4. Stories of the World: what was it
• Major programme of the UK’s culture programme for Olympic Games
“Cultural Olympiad”
• Nearly 70 museums involved, 130 exhibitions, 3 million exhibition
audience, 5000 events
• Largest ever youth participation programme for museums. Involved
22,000 young people as “co-curators” to design major exhibitions
• Worked with world collections, explored UK’s links with the world
• Connected collections with communities, and reinterpretation process

5. Stories of the World: examples
Luton’s Pakistani truck
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6. Stories of the World: examples
Preston: contemporary fashion and 19th century
Indian textiles
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7. Stories of the World: examples
Museum of London: My Londiunium 2012
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8. Stories of the World: examples
Brighton: new gallery of world stories
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9. Stories of the World: examples
Colchester: loan exhibition from China
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10. Stories of the World: why?
• UK bid for Olympics included an ambitious culture programme
• Themes of 2012 Olympic Games:
o Welcoming the world
o Young people
o “Like never before”
• The right moment!
o Museums working well with families and schools
o But “missing” generation 14-24 year olds
o World collections and Britain’s imperial past. Desire for
reinterpretation and richer understanding
• We wanted to change museums forever
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11. Dressing London, Horniman Museum

12. Imagine if people of all backgrounds from every
part of the UK could work as curators of the
collections and objects held in our
museums, libraries and archives. Imagine if they
had the chance to come up with new ways of
representing this material, then put on their own
series of exhibitions.
imagine...
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14. Stories of the World: what did we do?
• Began with youth consultation
• Clear programme criteria for participation
• Project Board: challenged the museums and set high ambitions
• Core methodologies
• Training
• Conferences and celebrations
• Youth steering group
• Museums recruited their own young people including
homeless, young offenders, MA students, drama groups. Massive
range!
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16. Stories of the World: how?
Two core methodologies:
• Hear By Right, National Youth Agency
o Audit of policies and procedures across the museum
o Self-improvement tool
o Changes how young people participate and are involved in
decisions
• Revisiting Collections
o How to work with communities to explore collections
o How to capture their understanding in museum catalogues
o Changes how knowledge is created and shared
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19. What did the evaluation say?
YOUNG PEOPLE was a success
“Stories of the World has led to a significant shift in the ambition
and quality of museum’s participatory work with young people”
“ … in many cases these changes are being embedded. There is a
commitment to continued co-curation with young people and to
widening this work out to other audiences, in some cases backed
up by restructuring, rewriting of strategies and policies and
continued facilitation of advisory panels of young people”
The programme had positive impacts on young people, museum
practice and enthused and energised staff, institutions and
collections
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20. The revolution is here! My favourite moments
• Spontaneous dancing in a private
view at the Geffrye Museum
• “My home town is a dump. The
only good thing in it is the museum
and the Moorcroft pottery
collection”
• Two girls came into Leeds museum
on a Saturday to tell them they
wanted to do a sponsored run in
aid of the museum
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22. Success in 2012, but ….
• Curators felt work with collections not totally successful. Too much
loaded into one programme?
• Could not embed new knowledge in catalogues due to catalogue
access
• Some change embedded, eg new posts, revised policies, youth panels
and youth programming
• However, youth programmes now hard to find on websites – not as
prominent as in 2012
• Financial squeeze and changes in Renaissance programme funding –
fewer staff and smaller resources
• Strategic leadership from government and ACE – focus has changed
• No shared target
• Has the change really been embedded?
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24. LESSONS LEARNED
• High profile + high risk = high priority
• Keep things simple and have one set of objectives
• A mass movement can help individual institutions
• Change takes time
• Collections have the power to excite in a digital age
• All staff need to be involved
• Money helps, as this work needs expert people
• Leadership is essential to drive change and support ongoing work
• Participation brings real benefits to the institution – not just to
the participants
• You unlock one door, and find … more locked doors
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25. Isobel Hunter
isobel.hunter@nationalarchives.gsi.gov.uk
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