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Graham Black

Graham Black

Emeritus Professor of Museum Development

History

Staff Group(s)
History, Heritage and Global Cultures

Role

Emeritus Professor of Museum Development

Graham Black retired from his post at Nottingham Trent University in September 2021. In retirement, he has no specific role at the University but remains an active member of the University’s research community.

Research areas

Graham remains an active researcher and continues to be in demand as a speaker at conferences and workshops. His research is concentrated on two fields:

  1. The nature and impact of Interpretation in the 21st century museum.
    Here, he combines his roles as an academic and an Interpretation practitioner to explore the changing nature of Interpretation in what he defines as this ‘Age of Participation’.
  2. Community engagement with museums.
    This links to his external activities as an Interpretation practitioner, now focused on working voluntarily with community groups to develop museum exhibitions. Recent papers have demonstrated the expertise community groups can bring to the museum ‘table’, and his strong belief that museums must transform their attitudes and mind-sets to work with communities in partnerships of equals.

External activity

Prior to his retirement, Graham worked as a Heritage Interpretation consultant alongside his academic role. Exhibitions in which he was involved twice won the prestigious £100,000 Art Fund prize alongside many other awards. Graham now spends most of his working time assisting community groups to develop museum displays and associated programming.

He spent most of 2022 working with the Ugandan Asian community in Leicester, initially to create the highly successful Rebuilding Lives: 50 Years of Ugandan Asians in Leicester exhibition which was on display at Leicester Museum and Art Gallery from July 2022 to March 2023. It was described by one seasoned museum commentator as:

‘The Rebuilding Lives exhibition is superb – truthful, engaging, emotive, and full of people celebrating life.’

The exhibition was accompanied by over 90 events and an active education programme. The project eventually expanded to working on additional exhibitions with Ugandan Asian communities in Loughborough, Peterborough and York.

Publications

Graham has published three books and numerous articles and book chapters. The books: The Engaging Museum (2005); Transforming Museums in the 21st Century (2012); and Museums and the Challenge of Change (2021) were all published by Routledge.

Articles include:

Can Social Design help diversify museum audiences? A thought-piece. Academia Letters, Article 79, 2021

Engaging Audiences with Difficult Pasts: the Voices of ’68 Project at the Ulster Museum, Belfast, Curator 63(1), January 2020, pp21-38, with Chris Reynolds

Meeting the audience challenge in the ‘Age of Participation’, Museum

Management and Curatorship, 33(4), September 2018, pp302 – 319

Museums, Memory and History, Cultural and Social History 8 (3), 2011, pp415-427

Museums and Civil Engagement, Museum Management and Curatorship 25(2) June 2010, pp129 - 146

All publications:

Museum Spaces and Changes, in De Molli, F. and Vecco, M. (eds) (2021) The Metamorphosis of Cultural and Creative Organisations, Abingdon: Routledge, pp124 – 138.

The Museum Experience in the Age of Participation, Museums Ireland Vol 26, 2019, pp8 – 15, published January 2021

Museums and the Challenge of Change: old institutions in a new world, 2021, Abingdon: Routledge.

Can Social Design help diversify museum audiences? A thought-piece. Academia Letters, Article 79, 2021.

Engaging Audiences with Difficult Pasts: the Voices of ’68 Project at the Ulster Museum, Belfast, Curator 63(1), January 2020, pp21-38, with Chris Reynolds.

Coalville Heroes, in O’Neill, M. & Hooper, G. (eds) (2020) Connecting Museums, Abingdon: Routledge, pp152 – 169.

Museum Informal Learning in the ‘Age of Participation’, neuesmuseum die österreichische museumszeitschrift 18(4), October 2018, pp46-55.

Meeting the audience challenge in the ‘Age of Participation’, Museum

Management and Curatorship, 33(4), September 2018, pp302 – 319.

It’s the Principles that Matter, in Soares, B.B., Brown, B & Nazor, O. (eds) (2018) Defining Museums of the 21st Century: plural experiences, Paris: ICOFOM, pp198 – 205.

Museum informal learning in the ‘Age of Participation’, Standbein Spielbein, Bundesverband Museumspadagogik, (2018), Vol 109(1), pp10- 21.

Ch 17, Museums and Tourism: time to make friends, in Hooper, G.(ed.) (2016) Heritage and Tourism in Britain and Ireland, London: Palgrave/Macmillan, pp263-278.

A New Audience for an Old Favourite, Sir John Soane’s Museum Annual Review 2015-16, London: Sir John Soane’s Museum (2016), pp34-39.

And my favourite interpretive device is... the object label, Journal of the Association for Heritage Interpretation, 21(1), Summer 2016, p8-9.

Remember the 70%: sustaining ‘core’ museum audiences, Museum Management and Curatorship, online version, March 2016, pub 31(4), October 2016, pp386 – 401.

‘What makes a great museum?’ V&A Annual Review, 2013 – 2014, London: Victoria and Albert Museum (2015), pp66-71.

‘Developing audiences for the 21st century museum,' in ed. McCarthy, C. (2014) Museum Practice: The contemporary museum at work, Volume 4 of the International Handbooks of Museum Studies. Oxford and Malden MA:  Wiley-Blackwell, p123-151.

Book Review: Hill, K. (ed.) (2012) Museums and Biographies: stories, objects, identities, Woodbridge: The Boydell Press, in Reviews in History, accessed on 23/07/2013

‘Museums and Participation’, Art Today, Beijing: Today Art Museum (2012) pp137-142

Book Review: Jackson, A. & Kidd, J. (2011) Performing Heritage, Manchester University Press, in Museum & Society, March 2012

Transforming Museums in the 21st Century (2012), London: Routledge

Ch 22 Museums and Civil Engagement, in Anderson, G. (ed) Reinventing the Museum, 2nd edition (2011) pp271-290

‘Museums, Memory and History’, Cultural and Social History 8 (3), 2011, pp415-427

‘Museums and Civil Engagement’, Museum Management and Curatorship 25(2) June 2010, pp129 - 146

‘Informal Learning in the 21st Century Museum’, Informationen des Sächsischen Museumsbundes e.V. Vol38 (2010)

‘A meaningful connection to the past demands active engagement – an interpreter’s thoughts on the display of archaeology’, in Swain, H. (2008) Presenting the Past, The Museum Archaeologist Volume 31: Conference Proceedings Bristol 2005 and Lincoln 2006, London: Society of Museum Archaeologists, pp6-14.

‘Creating a visitor-friendly museum environment’, Informationen des Sächsischen Museumsbundes e.V. Vol36 (2008) pp19 - 42

‘Developing new audiences for museums’, neues museum, die österreichische museumzeitschrift, Vol 8(3), October 2008, pp13-19.

‘Creating a Museum Learning Environment’, in Kraeutler, H. (ed.) (2008) Heritage Learning Matters. Museums and Universal Heritage, Vienna: Schlebrügge, pp63 – 76.

‘Beyond Information’, Interpret Scotland 15 (summer 2007) p9.

Book Review: Lang, C., Reeve, J. & Woollard, V. (eds) (2006) The Responsive Museum: working with audiences in the 21st century, Ashgate,in Museum and Society, 5 (2), July 2007, pp128-130.

The Engaging Museum (2005), London: Routledge.

‘The Conservation of the Built Environment in the UK’ in Phelps, A., Ashworth, G. & Johansson, B. (eds.) (2002) The Construction of Built Heritage, Aldershot: Ashgate, p13-2.

‘Nottingham Lace Market’ in Phelps, A., Ashworth, G. & Johansson, B. (eds.) (2002) The Construction of Built Heritage, Aldershot: Ashgate, p73-86. ISBN

‘Bolsover – after King Coal’ in Phelps, A., Ashworth, G. & Johansson, B. (eds.) (2002) The Construction of Built Heritage, Aldershot: Ashgate, p149-162.

‘Buying Power’, Museums Journal, March 2002, p36-37, with Angela Phelps.

‘Quality and Concept Development’ in ed. Drummond, S. & Yeoman, I. “Quality Issues in Heritage Visitor Attractions”, Oxford: Butterworth-Heinemann, Dec 2000, pp. 97-135.

‘The Thackray Medical Museum: engaging a general audience’ Actes du 9e Colloque des conservateurs des musees d’histoire des sciences medicales, autumn 2000, p97-103.

‘Coming back for more’, Museums Journal, May 2000, p28-29.

‘Keeping the Punters Satisfied’, Lottery Monitor, May 2000, p8-9.

‘The Repeating Granny Syndrome’, Lottery Monitor, April 2000, p4-5.

‘The Five Year Itch’, Lottery Monitor, March 2000, p4-5. ISSN 1364-6737

‘Perspectives on visitor targets’, Beds Museums Bulletin, Issue 26, Jan 2000, p1-2

‘Perspectives’, Lottery Monitor, January 2000, p14-15. ISSN 1364-6737

‘Pulling in the visitors’, Museums Journal, December 1999, p14-15. ISSN 0-027-416-X

‘Developing the concept for the Thackray Medical Museum’ in ed. Leask, A & Yeoman, I, Heritage Visitor Attractions: an Operations Management Perspective, 1999, p251-259.

‘Issues in Urban Geography: The Nottingham Lace Market II’ Trent Geographer ,17, 1998, p3-12.

‘Heritage and Urban Regeneration: The Nottingham Lace Market’, in Dingsdale, A & van Steen, P.J.M., (eds) The Management of Urban Change in Europe, 1997.

‘Issues in Urban Geography: The Nottingham Lace Market’, Trent Geographer, 16, 1996, p43 - 54.