{"id":668714,"date":"2026-01-02T10:00:10","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:00:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/668714\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T10:00:10","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T10:00:10","slug":"power-to-the-people-uk-museums-embrace-citizens-assemblies-to-frame-their-futures-the-art-newspaper","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/668714\/","title":{"rendered":"Power to the people: UK museums embrace citizens\u2019 assemblies to frame their futures – The Art Newspaper"},"content":{"rendered":"

UK museums are asking members of the public to help them define future policy and direction\u2014even encompassing funding decisions\u2014as part of a growing trend towards embracing citizens\u2019 assemblies.<\/p>\n

The National Gallery in London launched its NG Citizens panel last year, aiming to put audiences at the heart of its decision making. It follows other institutions, including Birmingham Museums Trust (BMT), which launched a \u201ccitizens\u2019 jury\u201d comprising 26 local residents in 2024. The Imperial War Museum and London\u2019s Migration Museum have also announced plans to set up assemblies.<\/p>\n

To the National Gallery, \u201cit is a culture-shaping step that deepens our relationship with audiences across the UK and ensures we remain relevant, inclusive and genuinely reflective of the public we serve\u201d, Jane Knowles<\/a>, the museum\u2019s director of public engagement, said in a statement. \u201cThis isn\u2019t a consultation, it\u2019s a collaboration.\u201d<\/p>\n

Citizens\u2019 assemblies have been gaining momentum in countries around the world, making decisions on issues ranging from national constitutions to electricity supply, from public transport to municipal budgets. Advocates say they can help raise awareness of policy-making in the general public, increase the public\u2019s sense of democratic agency, build bridges between diverse communities, and give institutional policy-makers greater insight into the views of informed citizens, representing a cross-section of society, after debate.<\/p>\n

Lucy Reid at Democracy Next, a Dutch research and advocacy group, says that museums can play a particularly important role in advancing the use of such panels. \u201cMuseums are relatively trusted compared to many institutions, which means they have a responsibility\u2014and an opportunity\u2014to model what democratic decision-making can look like,\u201d says Reid, whose organisation has advised BMT and two German museums, the Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, and the Decorative Arts Museum of the Dresden State Art Collections, in setting up assemblies.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a museum demonstrates that randomly-selected \u2018ordinary\u2019 citizens can grapple with complex trade-offs and produce thoughtful recommendations, it challenges assumptions about who is seen to be capable of making decisions,\u201d she says. \u201cWe need to see major cultural institutions like museums, funders and, for instance, the BBC following Birmingham\u2019s lead. These are publicly-funded institutions\u2014and the public should have genuine power in shaping their future, for all of us.\u201d<\/p>\n

But the trend has alarmed some. \u201cI do not want the National Gallery to be asking a selection of individuals including those with no knowledge of art or who lack cultural formation of any kind to be deciding on the exhibitions I go to or on acquisitions,\u201d the cultural commentator Melanie McDonagh wrote in The London Standard<\/a> newspaper last year.<\/p>\n

Shaping principles, guiding decisions<\/p>\n

The National Gallery assembly will not directly select exhibitions or individual works, a spokesperson says. \u201cInstead, it will help shape the principles that guide the gallery\u2019s decisions: its purpose, priorities and approach to public value.\u201d<\/p>\n

To form the National Gallery panel, invitations were sent out to 15,000 households across the UK. More than 50 participants were then selected via a \u201ccivic lottery\u201d run by the Sortition Foundation, which used a selection technique to draw a representative sample of citizens.<\/p>\n

The first session of NG Citizens took place at the gallery last November, bringing together 51 people from across the UK. \u201cIn the first session, assembly members spent time getting to know one another and beginning to connect with the gallery itself,\u201d the spokesperson says. Themes explored include \u201cCan art ever be open to everyone?\u201d and \u201cWhat is the social value of art?\u201d.<\/p>\n

The assembly is due to meet from November 2025 to March 2026, hearing from experts, artists, staff, and community representatives during five sessions, and will work collaboratively to develop a set of final recommendations. The Citizens\u2019 Panel, a smaller, long-term group of around 20 members, will be formed after the assembly concludes in March this year, the gallery spokesperson says.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this is a welcome approach to better understanding audiences\u2019 and citizens\u2019 interests,\u201d says Maurice Davies, a UK museums consultant. \u201cPublic museums are funded from taxes paid by everyone, so it is appropriate that systems are in place to hear a version of everyone\u2019s views.\u201d<\/p>\n

The interesting question is the extent to which the museum then acts on the opinions and decisions of the citizens\u2019 juries and panels, he concludes.<\/p>\n

Reid at Democracy Next agrees. \u201cThe limitation isn\u2019t citizens\u2019 capacity\u2014it\u2019s whether institutions are brave enough to genuinely share power,\u201d she says. \u201cBirmingham Museums Trust was willing to ask genuinely difficult questions at a critical moment: what do the people of Birmingham need and want from their museums? How should they prioritise resources when the museums are in real peril?\u201d<\/p>\n

BMT\u2019s co-chief executives, Zak Mensah and Sara Wajid, have described the jury as\u201ccritical in developing a strategy and plan\u201d. Its recommendations included continuing to drive for corporate sponsorship\u2014a Netflix-sponsored exhibition based on the TV series Peaky Blinders was suggested\u2014along with challenging the city council\u2019s planning rules that prevent the museums from carrying out promotional activities at its entrances.<\/p>\n

Input into funding allocation<\/p>\n

Crucially, the citizens\u2019 jury also had an influence on how funding was allocated. Last October, BMT received \u00a3995,000 from the Museum Renewal Fund aimed at UK museums most at risk from acute financial pressures caused by rising operating costs. The jury\u2019s recommendations helped shape how the funding was allocated, a trust spokesperson says.<\/p>\n

The New Art Exchange gallery (NAE) in Nottingham was also a forerunner in this field, claiming its \u201cVoice Assembly is the first permanent citizen-led assembly embedded into a cultural institution globally\u201d. The assembly met over ten months starting in May 2024. Its recommendations, which included developing an international artist residency programme, are incorporated into NAE\u2019s strategic plan with 65% delivered, a spokesperson says.<\/p>\n

Meanwhile in Germany, museums have used citizens\u2019 assemblies as a way of exploring how to be more democratic. The Bundeskunsthalle in Bonn, and the Decorative Arts Museum of the Dresden State Art Collections launched a joint \u201csocial forum\u201d in 2023. The citizens\u2019 assembly for each institution comprised about 30 people, selected by lottery and broadly representative of local communities, who met over four days. Recommendations for the Bundes\u00adkunsthalle included inclusivity training for staff and simpler jargon-free language in exhibitions.<\/p>\n

The National Gallery has also pledged to give its assembly real weight in decision-making. \u201cIt\u2019s a collaborative process where participants play an active role in shaping ideas,\u201d the spokesperson says.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"UK museums are asking members of the public to help them define future policy and direction\u2014even encompassing funding…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":668715,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[7757],"tags":[74569,748,108096,115460,393,4884,257,4729,7584,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-668714","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-london","8":"tag-birmingham-museum-and-art-gallery","9":"tag-britain","10":"tag-cultural-policy","11":"tag-dresden","12":"tag-england","13":"tag-great-britain","14":"tag-london","15":"tag-museums","16":"tag-national-gallery","17":"tag-uk","18":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115824927276012405","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668714","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=668714"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/668714\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/668715"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=668714"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=668714"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=668714"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}