The Imagination Museum celebrates dance and heritage partnerships with Trinity Laban and the Horniman Museum and Gardens

On Wednesday 4 September, The Imagination Museum comes to Trinity Laban (Dance Campus, Creekside, SE8 3DZ) for its final in-person advocacy event of the year, to celebrate the legacy of longstanding dance and heritage partnerships. The event will reflect back on 10 years since Trinity Laban and the Horniman Museum and Gardens’ formative Dance in Museums symposium, and will uncover the benefits of meaningful, long-lasting partnerships between the sectors.

Looking at how dance and museums can contribute to a more radical approach to the role of museums today, this event will explore how partnerships between the two sectors can contribute to a process of de-centring traditional ways of understanding history and who it’s for, creating space for possibility, reparation, transformation and change.

The event will be facilitated by Emma McFarland, a creative innovator and strategic designer who has worked at the forefront of innovation with organisations including the National Gallery and authored the Dance and Museums symposium report in 2014. The day will begin with a keynote presentation by Peronel Craddock (Head of Content) from the Horniman Museum and Gardens and Jasmine Wilson and Laura Woods (Community and Artist Development) from Trinity Laban, then feature a variety of expert speakers from across the dance and heritage worlds, offering opportunities to participate in lively discussion, engage in practical activities and network with like-minded people.

Guest speakers on 4 September will include globally respected creative director and producer Jeanefer Jean-Charles MBE, a leading figure in mass movement and public engagement who has worked on iconic events including The Queen’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant and the Coronation Festival at Buckingham Palace. Jeanefer will share how she has used dance as a way of exploring, embodying and giving power to individuals captured in the series of photographs Black Chronicles II exhibition by Autograph Gallery in 2014. She will introduce her work Black Victorians which took inspiration from hundreds of portraits of Black people in England during the Victorian era that had previously been airbrushed from society.

A leader in dance created by artists with learning disabilities, Corali’s Artistic Director, Sarah Archdeacon, will be joined by Liz Ellis, Heritage Fund Policy Project Manager for Inclusion, to offer perspectives on how dance can be used as a tool to increase access to heritage sites, and discuss their collaborative relationship when Liz worked at Tate. For example, Corali’s Dancing To Art (2019) saw four company members create responses to art works at Tate Britain to show what happens when people have the freedom to enjoy the gallery however they want.

Dance artist and producer Bethan Peters will be joined by Jo Salter, Senior Manager,  Participation for the National Maritime Museum, to discuss the work they have undertaken together, including when Bethan was the first Royal Museums Greenwich Choreographer in Residence from 2015-16. Bethan’s practice has social engagement and individual expression at its core, and often explores environmental themes. She has also worked with Turner Contemporary and undertook The Arctic Circle, an Artist and Scientist Residency Programme which saw her work with artists, scientists, and educators in remote areas of the Arctic to develop projects in response to issues surrounding climate change.

There will also be a chance on the day to hear from Strategic Lead for The Imagination Museum Katie Green about what has been happening since the relaunch of the network earlier this year, and plans for the future.

The Imagination Museum is open to anyone who works in dance, arts, heritage and community contexts and will provide a space for people to connect with local partners and artists and expand their own practice and professional work.

The Imagination Museum’s initial pilot in 2019 saw it connect just under 150 well-established dance artists and heritage sites, gathering more than 50 case studies, from artists and companies including About Time Dance Company, Lea Anderson, Theo Clinkard and Leah Marojević, Light, Ladd & Emberton and Pell Ensemble, amongst many others.

Tickets for the event in London start at £5 for freelance individuals and volunteer-led organisations (book now to secure one of these tickets, as we only have a limited number of £5 places available!), £20 for freelancers, £30 for larger organisations. To find out more and book please see: https://imaginationmuseum.co.uk/events/

To find out more and signup to the network see https://imaginationmuseum.co.uk/about/.