Playing a part in policy developments

How can museums contribute to policy development?

What’s the situation?

Policies are the decisions and frameworks that connect action with wider goals and objectives. Museums can seem far removed from either lofty global goals, or action in local communities. Effective connections to policy and policy development are one of the key tools to make this a reality, but this doesn’t have to be in a top-down way.

How I work with policy development:

Policies might sound like ‘grey literature’ that are only relevant to bureaucrats. This is a big mistake to make. Inclusive sustainable development means a rapid and smooth flow of information between wider policy goals, local action, and monitoring and communication. More than this, inclusive sustainable development recognises that people and communities should be involved in decisions that will affect them. Indeed, they have a variety of rights that say they should expect this, and governments have committed to creating opportunities for people and communities to take part in decision making. I’ve worked with policy shaping, development and delivery in quite a few ways, bringing the perspectives of museums to policy making, and empowering museum workers to understand policy goals and how they can be delivered. I’ve outlined some of these ideas on policy relationships, notably with climate action and biodiversity conservation, human rights agreements, and the SDGs as a governance mechanism, in a variety of articles.

“…inclusive sustainable development recognises that people and communities should be involved in decisions that will affect them”

What this means for you:

I can help you understand and contribute to policy agendas, whether that is understanding the goals and objectives, ‘finding your place’ in relevant agendas and policy developments, ‘bringing your voice’ into policy arenas based on your experiences, and/or public engagement, awareness and participation through public events and exhibitions.

How Curating Tomorrow can support you:

• Understanding the potential of museums and museum work to contribute to, and get in the way of, the development and implementation of policy programmes
• Supporting the bottom-up aspects of policy development and scrutiny
• Speaking at conferences
• Online and/or in-person workshops for staff or groups of staff
• Advice
• Strategy, policy and plan development
• Contributing to public-facing activities (exhibitions, events, consultations) on policy agendas, whether global, national, regional or local

Some policy-related activities are included on my ORCID record.