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