Article by Gareth Harris: “UK museums are asking members of the public to help them define future policy and direction—even encompassing funding decisions—as part of a growing trend towards embracing citizens’ assemblies.
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 “citizens’ jury” comprising 26 local residents in 2024. The Imperial War Museum and London’s Migration Museum have also announced plans to set up assemblies.
To the National Gallery, “it 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”, Jane Knowles, the museum’s director of public engagement, said in a statement. “This isn’t a consultation, it’s a collaboration.”
Citizens’ 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’s 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.
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. “Museums are relatively trusted compared to many institutions, which means they have a responsibility—and an opportunity—to model what democratic decision-making can look like,” 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.
“When a museum demonstrates that randomly-selected ‘ordinary’ citizens can grapple with complex trade-offs and produce thoughtful recommendations, it challenges assumptions about who is seen to be capable of making decisions,” she says. “We need to see major cultural institutions like museums, funders and, for instance, the BBC following Birmingham’s lead. These are publicly-funded institutions—and the public should have genuine power in shaping their future, for all of us.”..(More)”.
