M+H Show

Unlock new engagement strategies at the Museums + Heritage Show

Image: Bernard Donoghue speaks at the Museums + Heritage Show 2024

Discover talks on inclusion at the May 2025 Museums + Heritage Show, featuring sessions on accessibility, youth engagement, civic museum sustainability, and equitable community partnerships.

There are more than 70 talks programmed at the Museums + Heritage Show this May.

Among the topics set to be covered by industry leaders are inclusion and engagement strategies.

This year’s event, which takes place on the 14th and 15th May 2025, will see speakers talk about collaboration with creative industries, improving accessibility, responding to visitor expectations, amplifying youth voices, addressing civic museum sustainability, and fostering equitable partnerships with communities.

These will be just some of the sessions taking place in a packed programme which is available to browse in full here.

A session about collaboration and innovation will kick off the free two day event. The first talk explores how heritage intersects with creative industries.

The Heritage Alliance’s CEO Lizzie Glithero-West, Policy and Advocacy Manager Neil Andrews, Policy and Advocacy Manager will present a session called ‘Heritage Creates: Exploring the Impact of Heritage on the Creative Industries.

It will explore how better collaboration between the heritage and creative sectors offers new opportunities for community engagement and innovation.

Case studies across film, fashion, gaming, and music, will be presented, showing how heritage sites inspire creativity and foster partnerships.

Also on the first day, a session given by Historic England will focus on making heritage more accessible to d/Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people.

‘Historic England’s Disability Access to Heritage Project: building a better accessible future for the heritage sector’ will be presented by Pen Foreman, Senior Inclusive Heritage Adviser, and Sean Curran, Head of Inclusive Heritage at the organisation.

They will detail a project to make the heritage sector – jobs, volunteering, and participation – more accessible and inclusive for d/Deaf, disabled, and neurodivergent people. This session will outline the findings of their initial research and their proposed actions and work towards enacting change.

Two sessions on Wednesday will focus on visitor-centred approaches, and will highlight the importance of listening to audiences, particularly young people.

Bernard Donoghue OBE, Director of The Association of Leading Visitor Attractions (ALVA) will present ‘What visitors are telling us they want’.

Donoghue will share the latest ALVA visitor figures and customer sentiment research to help shape the offer and experience.

Kellie Edwards and Hannah Grant, from the Kids in Museums Youth Panel will present ‘What we think you should know about what young people think about museums – one year on’, which will detail what young people want from museums and what they have learned from a year of advocacy for sector-wide change.

A civic museums session will discuss sector-wide advocacy and sustainability. ‘The Future of Civic Museums’ will feature Stephen Bush, Columnist and associate editor at the Financial Times alongside Jon Finch, Head of Culture and Visitor Economy at Barnsley Museums, Sara Wajid, Co-Chief Executive Officer of Birmingham Museums Trust, and Esme Ward, Director of Manchester Museum.

This session will explore how the English Civic Museum Network, with other sector bodies, campaigned for the government’s help in alleviating the civic museum crisis.

Rounding off the first day in Theatre 1, the final session on equitable partnerships will underscore a shift towards co-creation with communities.

‘Better together – how to work more equitably with community partners’ will be presented by Sarah Briggs, Grants Manager at Museums Association.

Using insights from the Esmée Fairbairn Communities and Collections Fund, the Museums Association has launched a new guide to support equitable relationships between museums and community partners. This session will explore this resource to enable you to evolve participatory practice into community led practice.

To see the session in person this May, book your free pass here.

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