Poster of the seminar

27 May 2021 Sold out
Online (Zoom)
9.30am-12.30pm and 2-4pm (GMT) | 10.30am-1.30pm and 3-5pm (CET)

Most people care deeply for other people and the places where they live. This is a simple but powerful, and typically underestimated, truth.

But – paradoxically – the majority of us underestimate the extent to which our fellow citizens care about these things. Yet when we hold more authentic perspectives of others’ values we are more likely to report deeper connection to our communities, support action on social or environmental challenges, show greater motivation to become engaged in wider, collective actions, and feel higher wellbeing.

As cultural organisations, we are among the few places where the values of compassion, connection and community may be expressed and strengthened. How might we convey and cultivate the values which matter to people, and create opportunities for them to express, share and experience these with others?

In this workshop, we will draw on learning from a year-long project run at Manchester Museum, where these insights fed into to a wide range of initiatives – from changes in volunteer programmes to invitations to donate; from dedicated exhibitions to new social media campaigns. We will explore how we might respond to these insights, and create opportunities tailored to our organisations and our communities. We will also learn about Battersea Arts Centre’s interpretation and forthcoming installations around the values that local people cherish.

Bionotes

Hilary Jennings is Director of the Happy Museum Project. She works as a consultant in the UK cultural sector including several years as an Associate of the Cultural Leadership Programme and extensively in the craft sector including founder Director for Craft with the government skills agency Creative and Cultural Skills.  She is a co-chair of the global grassroots sustainability Transition Network and a trustee of Bioregional, founders of One Planet Living.

Tom Crompton is Director of Common Cause.  Tom has worked for nearly a decade with some of the UK’s best known charities – including NSPCC, Oxfam, Scope and WWF – on values and social change. He has advised the UK, Scottish and Welsh governments on cultural values, and has collaborated with some of the world’s foremost academics working in this area. He has published extensively in this field, including the reports Weathercocks and Signposts: The Environment Movement at a Crossroads (2007) and Common Cause: The Case for Working with Values and Frames (2010). Tom read Natural Sciences at the University of Cambridge and holds a doctorate in the evolution of altruism from the University of Leicester, UK.