Watch the recording of the debate
In his book Museums as agents of social change, Mike Murawski presents the potential of museums to be “transformative spaces of human connection, care, listening and deep learning.” As he analyses concepts such as community, neutrality, justice or leadership, he challenges us to think: “What if love, above everything else, was the core value that steered the radical change needed in museums today?”.
In the book, Mike refers to Emily Pringle’s 2014 article Art Practice, Learning and Love: Collaboration in Challenging Times. Emily is currently Head of Reserach at Tate and in the article she writes about a process undertaken by Tate Learning in order to unpick the team’s motivations and what they saw as the rationale for their practice: “(…) a breakthrough moment came when we acknowledged that for us, the fundamental value underpinning what we do is ‘love’.”
Join us for a conversation with Mike and Emily on 14 September at 6.30 pm Western European Summer Time (Lisbon/London) | 10.30 am Pacific Daylight Time (Los Angeles).
Bionotes
Dr Emily Pringle trained originally as a painter and worked for several years as an artist, educator, programmer, researcher and writer. She joined Tate as Head of Learning Practice and Research in 2010, with a responsibility to develop inclusive practice-based research across the Learning department. In 2018 she stepped away from Tate for a year to undertake an AHRC Leadership Fellowship and research and write on research in the art museum. The publication that emerged from this – ‘Rethinking Research in the Art Museum’ (Routledge, 2019) – interrogates how research can support museums to situate themselves as sites of equitable knowledge co-production. In 2019 Emily was appointed Head of Research at Tate.
Mike Murawski is an independent consultant, educator, & author of Museums as Agents of Change: A Guide to Becoming a Changemaker (2021). Mike is the co-producer of Museums Are Not Neutral, a global advocacy campaign calling for equity-based transformation across museums, and serves as Founding Editor of ArtMuseumTeaching.com. In 2016, he co-founded Super Nature Adventures LLC, a place-based education and design project aimed at expanding learning in the outdoors and public spaces. With more than 20 years of experience in education and museums, he brings his personal core values of deep listening, collective care, and healing practice into the work that he leads within organizations and communities. When he’s not writing, drawing, or thinking about museums, you can find Mike on long trail runs in the forests and mountains of the Pacific Northwest.
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