Instrumental museum and gallery policy: issues and opportunities

Three workshops sponsored by the Arts and Humanities Research Council

Museums Association Conference, Glasgow (October 24th 2007)

International Centre for Cultural and Heritage Studies, Newcastle University (December 3rd 2007)

City University, London (March 17th 2008)

The workshops will focus on responses to issues associated with instrumental museum and gallery policy. The rationale for this is that such policy regulates most aspects of practice in UK museums and galleries and its consequences are inadequately researched. This has attracted the interest of the cultural policy research community and questions about the impact of policy upon practice were discussed at the Fourth International Conference on Cultural Policy Research held in Vienna in July 2006. This initiative is the result of a growing interest in the benefits of collaboration between academic researchers in cultural policy, museum and gallery practitioners and policy makers. The proposed workshops will, for the first time, bring together these parties to identify and address matters of common concern.