Engaging communities of young people with museums as spaces of hope and imagination

Funded by the British Academy and partnering with Manchester Museum, this project runs from April 2026-December 2027 and captures so much of what Helen has worked towards over the last 25+ years: connection, creativity, pedagogy, imagination, hope, collaboration, learning and social justice.

Working closely with Hannah-Lee Chalk, Learning Curator at Manchester Museum and staff and students from three educational settings in Manchester, young people will be invited to travel to 2060 and imagine what artefacts would be in that museum if we achieved the social change to which we aspire. Exploring questions about social relationships, the relationships between people and planet, and what we imagine the future IS (because we have created it), we then co-design the manifesto that helped us get there. Taking these manifestos to the wider community through the inflatable Manchester Museum, the wider public in Manchester will be asked to hope and imagine with us.