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MuseumNext took place this week in Rotterdam this week with the theme ‘Changemakers’. The conference welcomed delegates from around the world, including a large group from Museum Detox.
Museum Detox is a UK based group of Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic museum workers who champion fair representation and inclusion of BAME cultural, intellectual and creative contributions.
MuseumNext provided the group with free tickets to the conference to encourage them to join us in Rotterdam.
Detox on the Stage
As with every MuseumNext conference, the first day offered delegates the opportunity to participate in museum visits and fringe events organised by our community. Museum Detox partnered with TENT Rotterdam to hold a fringe events sharing ideas from their members (you can read an essay based on the talk by Stefanie van Gemert on Dutch Museums and Diversity here).
This event provided the perfect ending to the first day of the conference.
The second day of the conference saw delegates gather at Rotterdam’s concert hall to hear plenary sessions from museum change makers. This too gave delegates the opportunity to hear from Museum Detox members. Sara Wajid, one of the founders of Museum Detox spoke about shy activists, those working in museums to make change happen in terms of representation of under represented communities.
Sara’s talk was followed the next day by four memorable presentations from Detoxers, with Caroline Hussey-Bain, Thanh Sinden, Charlotte Holmes (pictured above) and Shaz Hussain taking to the stage.
Welcoming these passionate change makers to MuseumNext Rotterdam brought a contagious energy and enthusiasm to the event. The work that Museum Detox is doing to raise issues of representation and decolonisation within the museum sector is vital and we look forward to working with them again at future events.
