Participation Works

There is a new youth engagement programme undertaken by museums in the UK.

Stories of the World is an innovative new project that enables people of all backgrounds, from across the UK, to become 'curators' of the collections and objects held in museums, libraries and archives.

This programme, which is part of the Cultural Olympiad, encourages young people to visit museums. There are 50 museums involved in the campaign, 23 of them in 17 London boroughs. The aim of this programme will be for young people to engage on how museums are run and gain skills in marketing, design, public speaking and photography and help organise major exhibitions and events that will be held in 2012.

Exhibition themes will include fashion, music, travel and immigration – all portrayed and described in original ways and with huge curatorial input from young people.

There are already over 1000 young people aged 14 to 24 involved in the programme and the Museum of London has set up a youth panel called Junction. It is hoped that by the end of the programme over 1500 young people will have engaged with the programme and that young people’s perceptions of museums will have changed with more and more young people visiting museums and other cultural events.

For more information on Stories of the World visit the MLA and London 2012 websites.

Hear by Right in Museums. A briefing from National Youth Agency shows how Hear by Right the participation framework for young people can help ensure compliance and best practice on the safe, sound and sustainable participation of children and young people in museums.
Download Hear by Right in Museums (PDF)
Stories of the World. A new publication from the National Youth Agency and Museums, Libraries and Archives explores Stories of the World a unique and exciting project that uses the agency¹s Hear by Right participation framework to inspire museums to work with young people to dig into the past and dust it off.
Download Stories of the World (PDF)

Wed, 16/02/2011 - 11:02