Old stuff for some, sacred belongings to others – how do we include new audiences in museum practice?
What does it mean to care for objects that are sacred to others? How do museums confront histories of empire and extraction? And how can they become spaces of inclusion, relevance and repair as audiences change in their demographics and how they approach museum spaces and collections? Two leading museum directors explore the tensions between traditional collecting practices and the urgent need to engage new, often marginalised, audiences.

Dr Gus Casely-Hayford OBE is the founding Director of V&A East, a museum and collection centre. He was previously the Director of the Smithsonian National Museum of African Art; he is a curator and cultural historian who writes, lectures and broadcasts widely on culture. Professor Laura van Broekhoven is Director of Oxford’s Pitt Rivers Museum and Professor of Museum Studies, Ethics and Material Culture at the University of Oxford and a leading expert on museum ethics and on finding new, more inclusive ways for ethnographic museums to work.
Date: 18 November 2025, 17:30
Venue: Trinity College, Broad Street OX1 3BH
Venue Details: de Jager Auditorium, Levine Building
Speakers: Dr Gus Casely-Hayford (Smithsonian National Museum of African Art), Dr Laura Van Broekhoven (Pitt Rivers Museum, University of Oxford)
Organising department: Trinity College
Booking required?: Required
Booking url: https://www.ticketsoxford.com/events/gus-casely-hayford-laura-van-broekhoven
Cost: £10 / students £5
Audience: Public
Editor: Jane Hunt