GEM CONFERENCE 2009 - THURSDAY
Tuesday 8 September to Friday 11 September 2009
Birmingham
Engaging Diverse Communities
Thursday 10 September
How can heritage learning bring sites,
collections and diverse communities closer together?
Recognising, evaluating, sharing and sustaining good
practice in engaging diverse communities in heritage learning programmes,
the day will focus on practice and how to embed diverse communities into
your organisational ethos and learning programmes with case studies and
realistic examples.
MORNING PROGRAMME
Lakeside Conference Centre
08.30 Registration for day delegates
Refreshments
09.00 Welcome & Opening Remarks
Vicky Woollard, Deputy Chair, GEM
09.15 Keynote address
title
to be confirmed
Professor Nick Stanley, former Director of Studies:
Birmingham Institute of Art and Design
09.45 Keynote address
title
to be confirmed
Rita McLean, Head of Museums & Heritage Services,
BM&AG and Chair of Renaissance West Midlands Programme Board
10.15 Q&A with keynote speakers
10.30 Refreshments
11.00 Breakout Sessions
These sessions will explore in more detail some of the
issues raised in the morning’s keynote speeches. See Call for Papers.
(a) How to
integrate diverse voices into education work
Jenni Waugh, Learning Project Manager (West
Midlands), BBC & Reethah Desai, Communities Engagement Manager, Bristol’s
Museums, Galleries & Archives
(b)
How do you demonstrate the impact of community engagement in learning
programmes (looking at evaluation techniques and GLOs).
(c)
What are the keys to good community engagement?
With the Cornershop Project & Chandan Mahal, Head
of Audience Development, Women’s Library.
12.30 Lunch
13.30 Coaches depart
AFTERNOON PROGRAMME
a) Community engagement
Explore work ranging from a ‘disability and art’ AV
tour to an Islamic art interpretation trail and an exhibition exploring
hair, culture and identity.
Liz Braby, Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery
b) Birmingham’s diverse communities
Find out about the innovative work the service has been
engaged in with the city’s communities.
Izzy Mohammed, Birmingham Archives & Heritage
Centre. (On foot)
c) Audience communication
The Ikon learning team will discuss how their programme
is communicated to audiences and how communities participate in it.
Kaija Kaitavuori, Ikon Gallery. (On foot)
d) On-site workshops at Lakeside (delegates
will attend both)
(1) Developing your practice
Diversifying your organisation to support social and
cultural change. A discussion looking at good practice. GEM member’s
contributions welcome.
(2) Informal adult learning
Find out about the new adult learning movement and the
Challenge Fund to encourage the sector to support self-organised learning
groups in their community.
Natasha Innocent, MLA
16.30 Free time
EVENING PROGRAMME
17.15 “Get to know the people in your area”.
Drinks
and networking.
18.30 Leave for Highbury Hall
19.00 Annual dinner & AGM and explore all the ground floor rooms.
21.30 Return to Lakeside Centre.