Culture& is working in partnership with the ANTITHESES project at the University of Oxford, funded by the Wellcome Trust, to undertake research and practice to reimagine museums. ANTITHESES is a Wellcome Discovery Research Platform that addresses an urgent need for research that can meaningfully engage with radical value disagreements, polarisation, and informational uncertainty that is characteristic of contemporary medical science, practice and policy.
Reimagining Museums, developed and managed by Dr Errol Francis (CEO & Artistic Director) and Professor Victoria Tischler (Research Consultant), is being undertaken by Dr Chloe Asker (Research Fellow), who brings expertise in medical humanities, social sciences, and critical participatory and creative research approaches. In this post, we provide an overview of and update on the project.
The project will investigate the site of the museum as a locale that is at the heart of ethical disputes, which reflect urgent socio-political and cultural issues. Controversies include: the display of human remains; dealing with objects acquired during the colonial period; and the killing of animals for scientific study and natural history display.
This theme takes as its starting point the idea that polarisation of opinion on these and other issues can inform positive and productive sites of deliberation, with the potential to arrive at new theories and practices to shape museums of the future.
We will experiment with new methods to explore how divergent ethical positions can be engaged. A curated series of contrasting experimental displays (using artist commissions, 3D printing, and/or virtual reality) will be tested with public engagement events and focus groups with contrasting positions, where we can inquire into what the museum collection of the future might look like.
Reimagining Museums is developing collaborations with museums across all four nations of the United Kingdom, with the hope that these collaborations will develop into strong partnerships within and beyond this project.
Alongside this, we are creating an Advisory Panel comprising of 6 experts in the field to support project steering and governance, this panel will also be complimented by an Ancestral Group who will provide guidance from lived experience.
Over Autumn 2025, the project will begin the development of an ethics review, which will support the safeguarding, protection, and rigour of the research undertaken. We are also undertaking a scoping review to explore the key contemporary radical ethical concerns for and value conflicts in museums.
Image: Victoria and Albert Museum, London. Photo by Dembee Tsogoo (@tsdembee)
More on ANTITHESES:
Research Projects – ANTITHESES
