29 June Cardiff University, Glamorgan Building

09.00 Registration and coffee (sign up for afternoon activities)

09.45 Conference welcome, the Challenging History network

09.50 Opening Provocation: David Anderson, Director General, Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales ‘Avoiding Challenging History’

10.05 Keynote: Samantha Heywood, Director, Museum of World War II, Boston. ‘The challenges of challenging history in the ‘real’ world’

Samantha Heywood worked at Imperial War Museums for twenty years, starting out as an education officer and, by 2015, as the director of public programmes. During this time, she led IWM’s piloting of Inspiring Learning for All and the nation-wide learning programme, Their Past Your Future; worked on the development of IWM North, and led the teams in creating the new Atrium and First World War Galleries at IWM London that opened in 2014. She has worked closely with the ambitions of central government and Lottery funders and yet has delivered thoughtful and focused programmes with their backing. She is currently working in the USA with a project to build a new museum of World War II.

[Chair: Samantha Cairns]

10.50 Coffee

11.15 PAPERS 1: Difficult Objects PAPERS 2: Re-imagining PAPERS 3: Questioning professional [Chair: Joanne Sayner] commemoration practice [Chair: Alex Drago] [Chair: Miranda Stearn] Objects in their rightful place: the case of the potential return of Australian Aboriginal ‘Being There’: an exploration of locative The Role of Academics in the First World War Objects from overseas museums, Julie media art practices for public Centenary (and beyond), Amy Ryall, Sheffield Gough, Artist, and Carol Cooper, National University commemoration of the First World War, Museum of Australia Maria Alejandra Lujan Escalante, (Lancaster ‘Many considerations to make – many needs Whose heritage? – Forgotten Egyptian University), Corinna Peniston-Bird (Lancaster to balance’ Moral challenges museum objects and re-imagining identity – examples University); Oliver Wilkinson (Manchester employees face when working with sensitive from the regional Welsh community museum Metropolitan University) themes, Kathryn Pabst and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Katharina Zinn, University of Wales: Trinity Saint David Can empathy become activism in digital Making ‘good’ heritage, making ‘good’ engagement projects? Transcribing the Book women, Alida Payson, Cardiff University Reimagining Nation and Migration through of Remembrance, Ffion Fielding, Wales for object-centred methodologies, Claire Peace and Dafydd Tudur, National Library of Divided by distance, united by Sutherland Wales understanding? The art of engaging with challenging history, Alix Powers-Jones and Rethinking objects: Learning about objects Commemorating challenging histories, Andrew McKenzie, National Trust for Scotland from those with learning disabilities, Sioned Rebecca Nelson, WISE Hughes, St Fagans: National History Museum Cardiff Remembers, Rachel Silverson, Firing Line Museum of the Welsh Soldier

12.30 Lunch Screening of Tomalah [and other films] by artist Julie Gough [Tomalah is a response to visiting the Tasmanian Aboriginal 19th century kelp water carrier held in the British Museum]

PAPERS 4: PAPERS 5: Emotional Museums PAPERS 6: The Activist Museum [Chair: Jenny Kidd] [Chair: Alida Payson] [Chair: Amy Ryall]

Screening the First World War in the Fear God: Fear Nought, Adrian Deakes, V&A and Defining the ‘Activist Museum’ Jennie Carvill North West: Editing the Home Front, Sara Griffiths, The National Archives, Kew Schellenbacher Martin Purdy and Corinna Peniston-Bird, Lancaster University Heritage as Process at the Foundling Museum, Silence is not neutral and objectivity does not Rachel Emily Taylor, Sheffield Hallam exist, Nicole Deufel, Jura Consultants Guerrilla Museum - transforming the University/University of the Arts London Cardiff Story, Victoria Rogers, The Cardiff Is it appropriate to re-imagine the role of Story Museum ‘Be yours to hold it high’ Responsibility, museums and museum professionals as Community and Emotion in WW1 Centenary activists? James Griffiths, National Holocaust Re-Imagining value through stakeholder Interpretation, Hanna Smyth, University of Centre and Museum. impact in conservation decision-making, Oxford Jane Henderson and Tanya Nakamoto Holocaust by bullets: What happened and Encountering climate change through an how do we know? The challenges of creating immersive and interactive installation in the a learning resource for schools using sensitive museum setting, Irida Ntalla, City University materials and eyewitness testimony Rachel London Donnelly, Imperial War Museums

14.50 Workshop: Campfire session

Unpacking museums’ rhetorics of participation, Carrie Newman, Artistic Director of Found Arts and PhD Candidate, Cardiff University

15.40 Leave for off-site activities (sign up at registration) 1. ‘Refugee Wales’ at Oasis Cardiff, a support centre for refugees and asylum seekers

Refugee Wales is an exhibition and oral history project exploring the Sign up for one of our off-site sessions at registration. You have a personal narratives of people who have come to Wales as refugees and choice of three sessions. For options 1 and 3 transport will be asylum seekers. With volunteers and participants from Oasis Cardiff we provided from outside Glamorgan Building (CU). This will drop have recorded oral histories, made digital stories, and developed themes delegates back at the Temple of Peace ahead of the evening to create a touring exhibition. Oasis Cardiff is a community partner of events. National Museum Wales and the project is funded by the HLF.

Lead: Mari Lowe, Refugee Wales

2. ‘Wales for Peace’ at The Temple of Peace 3. ‘Graveyard Voices’ performance at Cathays Cemetery

The reinterpretation of the Temple of Peace is one of the aims of University of South Wales Drama brings ‘history to life’ with performers the Wales for Peace project, as well as the digitisation and sharing enacting short dramatic scenes and monologues relating to the stories of of some of the hidden gems in the library relating to Wales’s the people buried in the UK’s third largest cemetery, ranging from the rich contribution to peace. This is an opportunity to explore the and influential, the philanthropic and heroic to the profoundly tragic and Temple and its history, and to contribute to the development of emblematic. this exciting part of the project. Lead: Richard J. Hand, University of South Wales Lead: Ffion Fielding, Wales for Peace

17.45 Drinks reception at The Temple of Peace, Cardiff

Featuring performance (18.00-19.00): Electro-funk storytellers ‘Harp and a Monkey’

To mark the ongoing centenary of WWI Harp and a Monkey have created a show that challenges stereotypes of the conflict. The Great War: New Songs & Stories is an exciting performance that includes both original songs and re-workings of traditional songs, field recordings of people who lived through the war and the poignant, tragic and humorous anecdotes of a bona-fide First World War expert. The work has been supported by Arts Council England and The Western Front Association.

20.00 Conference meal at The Clink, Cardiff Prison

Sign up for the conference meal when you register online.

The cost covers a three-course meal plus coffee and a welcome cocktail at The Clink, HMP Cardiff – delivering change and staffed by prisoners. A unique dining experience, within the grounds of this Category B prison.

30 June Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales

09.00 Registration and coffee

Launch of pop-up display [including performance]: The End of an Era: The decommissioning of Whitchurch Hospital

09.30 Welcome

09.40 Keynote: David Gunn, The Incidental, ‘Museums of Lies and Secrets’

[Chair: Jenny Kidd] 10.25 PANEL: Blood-Swept Lands and Seas of Red at the Tower of London PANEL: Re-Imagining the Workhouse: Moving people from memory and on Tour to action Megan Gooch, Tower of London, Joanne Sayner, University of Andrew Gritt, Nottingham Trent University, Chris T-T, writer and music Birmingham, Jenny Kidd, Cardiff University. maker, Jim Grevatte, The National Trust

[Chair: Sam Cairns] [Chair: Carrie Newman] 11.20 Coffee

11.40 PANEL: Object Journeys at the British The Failure Café Tour of ‘War’s Hell: The Battle of Mametz in Museum – re-imagining participation and [Chair: Sam Cairns] Art’ at National Museum, Cardiff cultural narrative through community collaborations Chatham House Rules apply!

Kayte McSweeney, British Museum, Abira Hussein, Community Artist, Julia Ankenbrand, CDA student.

[Chair: Jenny Kidd]

12.30 Lunch

13.30 Keynote: Stephen Bourne, ‘Black Poppies’

Stephen Bourne is one of Britain’s leading experts on Black British history. The author of fourteen books on the subject, Stephen has written for BBC History Magazine and is a regular contributor to the Oxford Dictionary of National Biography. The author of Mother Country – Britain’s Black Community on the Home Front 1939-45 (The History Press, 2010) and The Motherland Calls – Britain’s Black Servicemen & Women 1939-45 (The History Press, 2012), he has been shortlisted for awards such as The Voice Community Award for Literature and came runner up for The Raymond Williams Prize for Community Publishing. In 2012 Stephen was awarded a Wingate Scholarship to undertake research into Black theatre in Britain and for Black Poppies - Britain’s Black Community and The Great War (The History Press) he received the 2015 Southwark Arts Forum Award for Literature.

[Chair: Joanne Sayner]

14.15 PAPERS 6: Differently Digital PAPERS 7: Changing the Narrative PAPERS 8: Re-defining [Chair: Alex Drago] [Chair: Alida Payson] relationships [Chair: Miranda Stearn] Telling difficult stories of childbirth at the The memorialisation of Bomber Command: Thackray Medical Museum, Lauren Ryall-Stockton, an attempt to come to terms with heritage Co-curating Brighton Royal Pavilion ‘s Thackray Medical Museum, Laura King and Adrian dissonance, Dan Ellin, Heather Hughes, WW1 heritage, Kevin Bacon and Jody Wilson, University of Leeds Alessandro Pesaro East, Royal Pavilion and Museums, Brighton & Hove th Re-Imagining Graveyards: Performing and Reviving connections between 19 century Podcasting Cardiff’s Cathays Cemetery, Richard industrial museums, Sandra Kemp, V&A and Challenging memories from Care: Life Hand, University of South Wales, guedd Cardiff City Imperial College London Story work in the Museum, Delyth Council Edwards, University of Leicester ‘Death: the human experience’: curation Surprise, ambiguity and the uncanny: re-imagining designed to challenge, Nan Hu, Cardiff Building a Museum for Britain’s digital encounters of ‘othernesss’ through design- University Refugees, Amy Dimmock, Huguenot driven museum research, Areti Galani, Abigail Museum Durrant and Rhiannon Mason, Newcastle University The destruction of the Italian Auschwitz memorial in 2015, Gregorio Carboni Maestri, Recognize Black Heritage and Culture, Slavery, slate… scones: The experience of an artist Université Libre de Bruxelles Garry Stewart, Recognize residency in a hated castle, Lisa Heledd Jones, Storyworks UK

15.40 Coffee

16.00 Lightning talks

Alex Drago: Why are museums so slow to innovate? Sarah Hayward: Uncovering Stories from the Normansfield Archives Alix Powers-Jones: Ring cycle Iwan Ellis-Roberts: Experiences and Places at the National Trust Julie Hughes: Heritage Lottery Fund Brianna Wyatt: Re-enacting tragedy?

16.30 Closing reflections

16.45 – Drinks and canapés at the Firing Line Museum of the Welsh Soldier, Cardiff Castle (drinks will 18.30 be in the castle grounds if weather permits, with delegates having access to the museum also).

For anybody interested, there will be an overnight vigil in at the Welsh National War Memorial in Cathays Park to mark the Centenary of The Battle of the Somme. This forms part of a national programme of events.