Impact case study database

Impact has been achieved by building highly collaborative relationships which provide rich and varied opportunities for exchange, and which bring together different beneficiaries – museums; medical professionals; disability equality campaigners; disabled artists; cultural policy makers; and museum audiences – and which collectively foster radically different ways of understanding physical and mental differences.

Stimulating debate and informing public opinion

Since 2014, RCMG’s collaborative research has generated new public narratives of disability engaging large audiences through wide-ranging museums, galleries and heritage institutions. For example, HumanKind at Calke Abbey, featuring the National Trust’s first disability-focused interpretation, was seen by over 350,000 visitors in 2019. In September 2019, the new permanent gallery, Being Human, opened at the Wellcome Collection, London, and in its first four months attracted 267,161 visitors—25% more visits year-on-year than its predecessor Medicine Now in 2018. During this period, 12% of the audience declared themselves disabled, compared with a 5% average among benchmarked organisations. The new narratives of disability featured in Being Human reached large audiences beyond those who visited the Wellcome Collection; an outdoor advertising campaign delivered 20,300,000 impressions and paid online activity delivered 2,400,000 million impressions. The Wellcome Collection’s Being Human webpage was viewed over 50,000 times in the first four months and the gallery was featured in 82 press articles [E1].

RCMG’s research has stimulated public and professional debate through high profile media. It won the Observer Ethical Award for Arts and Culture in 2014 (for work which changes the way people think and behave). Being Human featured in a New York Times article that asked ‘Is this the world’s most accessible museum?’ (6 September 2019) and in an Apollo Magazine special feature, ‘Do museums and galleries do enough for disabled visitors? (October 2019).

In 2016, an in-depth, mixed-methods evaluation (using self-completion response cards, filmed interviews, and social media analytics) captured and analysed responses from a sample of the 1,058 attendees to a series of events that shared the outcomes of RCMG’s collaborative research with medical museums. This included the Royal College of Physicians, Royal College of Surgeons, Science Museum, Thackray Museum of Medicine (Leeds), and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. The study generated “considerable evidence that thinking and debate was enriched by engagement with the project and its key messages, with participants taking up and discussing key ideas presented during the events. Excitingly, a number of participants were prompted by the events to express their demands for change and their intention to take some form of action to promote greater public understanding of and respect for difference” [E2].

Enriching medical professional thinking and practice

As well as stimulating and informing public opinion, RCMG also engaged medical professionals in reflecting upon their practice and, in particular, the potentially damaging implications of exclusively medicalised views of (and responses to) physical and difference that neglect to fully take account of disabled people’s lived experience. The research was described as ‘pioneering’ in a full-page article in The Lancet (vol. 387, June 4, 2016). In 2016, RCMG used the research to stimulate debate and foster reflection amongst current medical professionals (working in a variety of roles across the Barts Health NHS Trust [E2]. In the same year, RCMG ran an in-depth, week-long course for 13 trainee doctors in the University of Leicester’s Medical School to explore ways of supporting medical practitioners to develop more balanced and complex understandings of contemporary ethical challenges linked to disability, such as those posed by non-invasive pre-natal testing. Evaluation of these initiatives revealed that engagement with the research had prompted all participating medical professionals to make changes in their professional thinking and inspired a commitment to change their practice, for example, by not assuming that disabled patients will automatically want interventions designed to fix or cure their differences [E2]. Subsequently, a Scientific Collaborator who teaches second- and third-year medical students at the University of Geneva used RCMG’s research to support the aim of his course “ to show students how important it was to cultivate nuanced and critical thinking; to challenge the idea of medical progress and even more so to challenge the belief in stable scientific truths”. For him, discussing these issues with medical students is both ‘necessary’ and urgent’ [E3].

Supporting disability rights

The research raised awareness amongst disability advocates and rights groups of the important role that museums and other cultural institutions play in framing public understandings of disability. Tony Heaton, founder of the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive, of which RCMG is a key partner, commented in 2019: “At a time when disability equality is in danger of moving backwards not forwards, RCMG’s work is an important and powerful way to inspire and engender greater public and political support for rights for all and respect for difference” [E4]. In 2019 , the UK government’s Disability Sector Champion for Countryside and Heritage, Heather Smith, commented: “The Research Centre for Museums and Galleries has, ever since its inception, undertaken essential research to drive forward inclusive practice in the cultural sector.  At the forefront of thinking in the field, the Centre’s collaborative ethos and process has not only shaped the sector but also made a powerful and unique contribution to advancing equality and respect for all in the wider world” [E5].

Stimulating and informing new approaches to museum practice and policy

Our research has attracted considerable national and international attention from museum, gallery and cultural practitioners and cultural sector policy makers. The lead researchers have accepted invitations to present the research findings for practitioners and policy makers in 12 countries including Germany (German Association for Education in Museums), Argentina (Federation of International Human Rights Museums); Canada (Canadian Museums Association), Mexico (El Museo Reimaginado) and New Zealand (Te Papa Tongarewa, National Museum of New Zealand). RCMG’s research features as an exemplary case study underpinning the UK Museum Association’s major sector-wide policy since 2015, Museums Change Lives ( E7) .

An independent study of international sector professionals carried out in 2020 found that ‘RCMG’s disability research is highly regarded, widely considered unique in the sector and has created tangible and broad impact’. 88% (of 115 survey respondents) stated that RCMG had influenced their own organisations or individual practice and 94% agreed that RCMG had had a positive impact on the museum and heritage sector as a whole ( E6). For example, the Curator of Medicine at the Science Museum, London, stated that the Museum’s new £7m Medicine Galleries that opened in 2020, ‘would not be so human-centred, so diverse, so enriched by lived experience or designed in such an inclusive way without the RCMG’ ( E6). Furthermore, the study revealed extensive international impact: respondents described the positive impact on their practice and their organisations as a result of engagement with RCMG work including the Metropolitan Museum, New York and the Smithsonian Institution’s National Museum of American History. Subsequently, the Wien Museum, Austria, is using RCMG research to inform how it approaches opportunities for inclusive practice within the museum and with its communities and collaborators in its large-scale redevelopment of the entire museum ( E8) . Kultur for All (the state funded agency supporting inclusion and access across the Finnish culture sector) has translated into Finnish and shared RCMG’s guidance on interpreting disability with museums, galleries and arts bodies across Finland (E9). In September 2020, the History Trust of South Australia’s Migration Museum welcomed over a hundred members of the Deaf community to the opening of their exhibition ‘Expressing ourselves: being Deaf in SA’ citing RCMG’s work with Calke Abbey and the Wellcome Collection as “groundbreaking ”(E13).

RCMG was invited to present the research to staff at the UK’s leading museum policy body, Arts Council England (ACE) where the Director of Museums Collection Development commented that RCMG’s research continues to be used by ACE to embed their landmark policy, The Creative Case for Diversity, stating RCMG’s work ‘brought together innovation in research process with a bold vision for the social role and impact of museums that offered the sector a new model of public engagement’ ( E10). RCMG is the research partner for Everyone Welcome, supporting and informing the National Trust’s major shift in policy and practice that champions inclusion and access at the heart of the organisation’s work since 2019 ( E6, G7).

Driving change in the museum and heritage sector

In recognition of RCMG’s research in this field, the Wellcome Collection appointed Sandell to their Inclusion Advisory Group (2019-2021) (E11) to advise the institution on its policy and practice in the field. In 2020, Sandell also accepted an invitation to join the Curating for Change (CfC) Strategic Disability Museums Network (E12) which aims to support museum sector organisations across the UK to tackle the under representation of disabled people. These appointments ensure the changes driven by RCMG research will continue to be supported and embedded across the sector.

Impact has been created through a collaborative approach that brings researchers, culture practitioners, LGBTQ communities and equality campaigners together to shape new research-led practice that explicitly and purposefully tackles contemporary inequalities, prejudice and discrimination and builds knowledge, capacity and confidence amongst cultural organisations.

Inspiring and shaping new museum thinking and practice internationally: The research has stimulated increasing attention amongst museums, galleries and heritage institutions around LGBTQ history and culture that has been previously overlooked or avoided. An independent study of culture sector professionals carried out in 2019/20 (n.83 survey respondents/10 in-depth interviews) found extensive evidence of the impact of RCMG’s research on thinking and practice in the UK and internationally [E1]. 86% of respondents said that RCMG had influenced them or their organisation. Specifically, 79% of respondents stated that the research had developed their confidence in this area of work and 71% of respondents stated that the research had supported them to do more and/or better LGBTQ-related activity. 96% stated that the Centre’s research had positively impacted the museum and heritage sector [E1]. Founder of the award-winning LGBTQ tours at the Victoria and Albert Museum states that, without RCMG research , “we wouldn’t have the LGBTQ working groups, we wouldn’t have the LGBTQ tours”. A curator at Historic Royal Palaces describes the research as “transformative” [E1]. Professor Sandell was appointed to advisory boards at the Burrell Collection, the Pitt Rivers Museum and the Royal Air Force Museum where he advised on LGBTQ interpretation. He accepted invitations to share his research with LGBTQ staff working groups at the Victoria and Albert Museum, National Museums Liverpool and National Trust. Head of Interpretation and Volunteers at the British Museum asked Sandell to review object selection and help to shape interpretive text for the Museum’s first ever LGBTQ-themed exhibition, Desire, Love, Identity. He stated: “Professor Sandell's research into how museums shape, inform and facilitate dialogue about difference has been extremely beneficial to recent work at the British Museum to develop displays and public programming with LGBTQ themes. In particular, [R4] ‘Museums, Moralities and Human Rights’ informed work on the recent British Museum exhibition and trail I co-curated, 'Desire, Love, Identity: exploring LGBTQ histories', shaping our thinking for the display during the formative stages” [E2]. It is estimated that half a million people encountered some part of the project at the British Museum. The exhibition was adapted and toured to five other UK museums where it was seen by a further 260,000 people [E1].

As research partner to the National Trust on their ground-breaking national programme in 2017, RCMG transformed the organisation’s capacity and confidence to tackle LGBTQ stories for the first time. The Trust’s National Public Programmes Research Manager stated: “[Sandell] was involved from the very earliest thinking about what Prejudice and Pride might look like nationally. […] We agreed to bring RCMG in to help us, particularly around working with property teams and to supply them with some kind of support and guidance, and particularly confidence, to programme LGBTQ activity” [E1]. The success of Prejudice and Pride had a transformative effect across the National Trust. Building on the programme, the Trust developed Everyone Welcome, an organisation wide drive to advance equality and inclusion that specifically features LGBTQ work, appointing RCMG as research partner [E1]. In 2015, inspired by and drawing on RCMG research, a new queer museological initiative Museo Q was founded in Colombia, which aims to recover and display histories and memories of LGBTQ+ people as an essential part of the national story. This led, in 2019, to the opening of the first permanent exhibition to feature LGBTQ objects and themes at the National Museum of Colombia, showcasing the first T-Shirt that Museo Q used in 2015 at Pride in Bogota, along with other LGBT-collections [E3].

In 2020, RCMG accepted invitations to share insights from its LGBTQ research with museums outside the UK through its role as international partner to The Federation of International Human Rights Museums Asia Pacific (FIHRM-AP), hosted by Taiwan’s National Human Rights Museum [E4], and as contributor to the lab.Bode: Initiative to Strengthen Museum Education. lab.Bode is a laboratory inside the Bode-Museum in Berlin, created by the German Federal Cultural Foundation and the Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, that comprises a national training programme at twenty-three museums, and accompanying public discussion programmes that together serve to showcase leading education work in museums and what it can achieve) [E5].

The Head of Human Rights at the Montreal Holocaust Museum in Canada drew attention to the convening power of RCMG’s research: the invaluable role it has played internationally in enabling people to come together around good practice, a feature that was seen to be particularly beneficial for people who were doing LGBTQ work in isolation within an organisation. He commented: “I find that it provides that frame of reference and articulation to really bring everything together … That’s important, because sometimes in our institutions it feels that we’re the only ones doing this work. We feel alone, we feel hopeless, we feel that we’re not going anywhere …The RCMG has an important role in being a hub for all of us to come and join forces” [E1] .

Enriching and informing public opinion and attitudes towards LGBTQ people/equality: The research has engaged large and diverse audiences and significantly shaped public attitudes and opinion on LGBTQ equality. Through collaboration with the National Trust (2016-2018), 12 Trust properties in England and Wales presented new stories reaching 353,553 visitors and promoted these at 17 Pride events that were attended by 2,022,950 people. The programme generated over 500 press and media mentions [E6]. Although some accounts in national newspapers claimed that the Trust’s tackling of LGBTQ themes was hugely unpopular with members, volunteers and the wider public, the Trust’s large-scale survey of visitors between March and November 2017 (n. 4,195) revealed a positive impact (an unprecedented increase from 44-51%) in terms of strengthening perceptions of the National Trust as “telling stories of diverse culture and heritage” [E6]. A detailed mixed-methods study of audience responses (n. 1,683) showed that 71% supported the Trust’s celebration of sexual and gender diversity and revealed the extensive – sometimes transformative – impact on visitors’ thinking and attitudes towards LGBTQ people [E7]. For example, a 76-year-old wrote after encountering the installation at the National Trust house Kingston Lacy that it “had a profound effect on us. That such a display should have proved so controversial must indicate the residual strength of homophobia in this country. Things are changing and in our view will be greatly helped by such strong displays as that at Kingston Lacy” [E7].

Informing cultural policy: In a study of sector professionals in 2020 (n.83 survey respondents/10 in-depth interviews), over a third of respondents reported that RCMG’s research had supported their organisations to develop strategy or policy relating to LGBTQ equality [E1]. In the UK, this included the National Trust for Scotland, National Lottery Heritage Fund, Amgueddfa Cymru National Museum Wales, and the Association of Leading Visitor Attractions. Beyond the UK this included the National Museum of Ireland, the Centre of Democracy in Australia, and the Technisches Museum Wien in Austria [E1]. For example, in response to recognition that LGBTQ heritage was underrepresented in their funding awards and a growing concern around rising LGBTQ hate crime, the Project Manager, Business Innovation and Insight at National Lottery Heritage Fund (NLHF), invited Sandell to share his research through a blog for the NLHF website. As she comments, the blog generated huge engagement and this success enabled her “to lobby internally for a higher profile of LGBTQ heritage” in the funder’s communications. This led to a two-month season in 2019 to mark the 50^th anniversary of the Stonewall riots allowing the NLHF to “reach a wider range of communities and to challenge discrimination” [E1].

Dodd and Sandell’s research has directly informed cultural policy that has aimed to encourage cultural institutions in the Netherlands and Sweden to develop more inclusive and equitable approaches to LGBTQ communities, culture and equality. Sandell was interviewed by the Swedish Museums Agency in 2014 and cited throughout their report, Museums and LGBTQ: An analysis of how museums and other exhibitors can highlight lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and queer perspectives [E8], helping the government-funded agency to identify the barriers to engaging with LGBTQ themes and strategies for overcoming them. In the following year, Sandell was invited to contribute to Queering the Collections, a symposium and publication initiated by IHLIA, a Dutch government-funded organization that collects and presents LGBTQ heritage with the Reinwardt Academy, The Amsterdam Museum and the International Council of Museums’ International Committee for Collecting [E9].

Enriching the work of LGBTQ equality campaigners and service providers: RCMG’s research has revealed the untapped potential for museums and cultural institutions to be engaged in broader efforts to secure equal rights for LGBTQ communities. At a time when homophobic and transphobic hate crimes have been on the rise, equality campaigners have been inspired and supported to see the unique role that museums and heritage sites can play in stimulating debate and building broader public and political support for contested equality issues. The research collaborations have generated widespread debate in national and international media. Working with the National Trust the team researched the life of Robert Wyndham Ketton Cremer, the last squire of Felbrigg Hall, producing a six-minute film, narrated by Stephen Fry, that acknowledged his homosexuality and discussed this in the context of his life and times. The launch of the film in July 2017 sparked a national level media debate, which, at its height, was in more than 100 news outlets. The significance of this was recognised by the Chief Executive of Stonewall, the UK’s leading LGBT equality body who in 2017 commented : “[Prejudice and Pride]’ is a really important moment in the National Trust's history and we at Stonewall are really proud of what the National Trust has achieved in collaboration with Leicester University. It's really important to celebrate LGBT equality and LGBT lives. ...The more positive depictions of LGBT people, the more we talk about LGBT people, the more we can say we exist and we always have done and always will do, the better our communities feel” [E10].

The Equality activist, co-founder of Stonewall and former Secretary-General of the International Lesbian and Gay Association invited Sandell to present RCMG’s research at the Welsh Senedd for LGBT History Month in 2019 to an audience of Assembly members, school pupils and equality activists. She reported “excellent formal feedback, a very high level of engagement, interest and satisfaction”, and commented that the impact of RCMG’s research was that it enabled her to “see that crossover line between academic history and engaging people in lively, new forms of showing history” [E1]. “ It's only recently that we have started to lift the veil on our past and that young people have had examples of being both queer and leading a full and creative life. It's vital that these stories are uncovered … LGBT history that reaches out to people, like Girl Boy Child [part of Prejudice and Pride, initiated and led by RCMG], that presents us in ways that are accessible, inspiring and entertaining alongside educational are vital. This work helps to develop us as strong and confident people who are connected to the world and is more vital today than ever before” [E11] .

A Sexual Health Adviser and Educational Specialist at the Dorset County Hospital NHS Foundation Trust has used RCMG’s research and public engagement at Kingston Lacy, a National Trust property in Dorset, in educational sessions addressing sexuality and homophobia that, since November 2017, have been delivered at schools across Dorset to various age groups ranging from Year 8 (12 years of age) upwards; and reaching over 1,000 pupils to date (4 March 2019) [E12].The research has been life-changing for many LGBTQ people, especially young people, who value the visibility of LGBTQ narratives in the public realm and the support of heritage bodies. A National Trust visitor wrote to express their thanks “for helping to give voice to LGBTQ+ history. As a young gay man I had so few visible role models. I hope that any young LGBTQ+ people visiting your Prejudice and Pride events get the important message that they are not alone. Our history is importants [sic] and it’s right that we are talking more about it” [E7].

Driving forward change in the heritage sector: In February 2020, RCMG was invited to be a founding partner – alongside Historic Royal Palaces, Historic England, English Heritage and the National Trust of the Queer Heritage and Collections Network, a sector-wide network to provide training, networking and peer support to people working with LGBTQ+ collections and histories, established with a grant from the Art Fund. Within its first few months, the network had 56 institutional members across the UK and overseas members in Germany and the Netherlands [E13].