CONTRIBUTORS / PARTICIPANTS
The proposed contributors/panelists (subject to confirmation of funding) are leading sector practitioners and researchers from Argentina, Alba (Scotland),  ire (Ireland), Bretagne (Brittany), and Cymru (Wales).
The current work of all proposed panelists reflects their commitment to social justice and democratic participation, and their research and practice in this field:
David Anderson (contact) is Honorary Fellow and Visiting Professor at Cardiff
University. A researcher and museum educator by background, he was Director
General of Amgueddfa Cymru - National Museum Wales from 2010 to March 2023.
Lynn Scarff is Director of the National Museums of Ireland. Her work is embedded in collaborative practice. Previous experience includes working in environmental
education projects, including the Ballymun Estate in Dublin.
Aude Campbell Le Guennec is a design anthropologist. She was Director of the Textile Museum in Cholet, the only museum of children’s fashion in France. She is now Research Lead of the Mackintosh School of Architecture at Glasgow School of
Art.
Americo Castilla is Director of Fundaci n TyPA, a radical cultural agency based in Buenos Aires. A former human rights lawyer and artist, between 2003 to 2007 he was National Director of Heritage and Museums in Argentina.
Aziliz Gouez is Vice President of the Nantes Metropole, and an elected member of the Breton Assembly sitting on the ‘autonomist’ opposition benches. She is responsible for science museums, and policy in the field of CSTI (Scientific,Technical and Industrial Culture).
All of the proposed panelists were leading organisers and contributors to the June 2022 Cultural Rights, Cultural Democracy (CRCD) programme for Celtic Nations in Caernarfon, Wales. We believe this programme has a strong synergy with the themes of the Global Dialogue. Key themes at the 2022 programme included:
1. Cultures and languages in museums
2. Traditional / indigenous practices and thought
3. Beyond the museum walls - museums in society
4. Cultural democracy - what do we mean in practice?
5. Government strategies and support for culture in Celtic nations
6. Cultural development of minority nations, within a dominant state.
PURPOSE, GOALS AND EXPECTED OUTCOMES
The " ICOM Mesa de Santiago" held 50 years ago in that city, proposed museums to be considered mediators of complex social issues. Half a century later, museum professionals in many nations refuse to remain neutral in the face of events and daily inequities, deciding that museums must become instead socially engaged platforms for clarifying ideas.
The proposed session is designed for participants who already have a strong personal and professional commitment to equalities, inclusion and social justice in cultural policy and practice, and a track record in achieving this.
Collectively, we propose that we step back from the colonial model of culture and the arts, in which many of our institutions have been complicit. Current conflicts in many regions across the world are traumatising and displacing large populations, including minority and marginalised communities, and muted categories such as children.
These developments, together with the emergence of global protest movements, require us to rethink culture from first principles, through unrestricted public dialogue on our role, and to make fundamental changes. We want to urge that cultural institutions in general and museums in particular have an urgent responsibility, and an opportunity, to address directly the social challenges our societies face. In exploring this, we can look outwards for inspiration
to other nations, and cultures.
We can also look within, to the diverse contemporary practices of our own societies, as well as to surviving traditional and indigenous ways of knowing that respect the connectedness and intelligence of all life forms, beyond the human.
Most thought, policy, staffing, structures and funding in the cultural sector has been based on the assumption that the “institution” is within a building, and “society” (as not-institution) is out there. This assumption restricts alternative, more ethical ways of thinking about the work and responsibilities of museums and the cultural sector, and prevents them from being democratised effectively.
The Welsh philosopher, essayist, novelist and social theorist Raymond Williams wrote, “Culture is ordinary, in every society and every mind”. If so, society is culture and culture is society, and the purpose of creative practice is not only institutional change but change in society.
The expected outcomes of the session are that participants will have an opportunity
to debate the urgent challenges and opportunities of extending cultural democratic
practice in the creative and museum sectors, and will have greater confidence in their own ability to achieve change.
How can societies create the democratic cultural policies they really need?
PROPOSED FORMAT: Including draft schedule, and explanation of how it will engage with the audience.
The discussions will be based on live, active exchange and debate of ideas between panelists and the participants, not on formally prepared and read-aloud papers. However, drawing on panelists’ own practical experience and values, each will very briefly propose a challenging personal reflection of 5 minutes, linked to key
themes of the Santiago 2023 meeting.
Americo Castilla: Coloniality (a theory of colonial European modernity as a frame of power to cancel local knowledge) as described by Latin American scholars.
Lynn Scarff: Disrupting colonial systems, structures and thought within museums and heritage towards a more inclusive museum.
Aude Campbell Le Guennec: Towards an ethical, inclusive and respectful heritage-based design practice.
Aziliz Gouez, Achievement of Breton language and cultural rights through activism in the political realm.
David Anderson: Culture, governance and corruption - the theft of the value of decisions, in plain sight.
The panelists will coordinate discussion on these key issues. Depending on available time and possible settings, we might break up around the room, using cabaret seating around a number of tables to enable the participants to discuss their preferred issues in groups, and each briefly report back to the plenary.
We would welcome discussion with the conference organisers on how a permanent record of the session can best be created.

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