In May 2025, the UMG hosted a conference at Trinity College, Cambridge, at which a breadth of university museums considered the theme ‘Innovation and Renewal’. This comes at a moment of contemplation and creativity for university museums, who are undertaking the sector-wide question of museum identity formulation in the increasingly digital twenty-first century. The papers presented at the 2025 conference highlighted the enduring nature of this question.
Several case studies from the conference are included here as examples of the kind of museum work UMG wants to engage.
From Exclusion to Connection: A Case Study in Collaborative Museum Practice
Dr Emily Bradfield, The Fitzwilliam Museum, University of Cambridge
Migrating Rocks: An Exploration of How to Ethically Return Rocks
Alyson Hallett, Freelance Poet & Claudia Hildebrandt, University of Bristol Curator
Gina Koutsika, Ashmolean Museum, University of Oxford
Innovation: Positioning and Practice – Learning from Lancaster Arts
Miranda Stearn, Lancaster Arts, Lancaster University
