Kids in Museums

MUSEUM I’D LIKE

The Great Museums Debate 2008

Imagine building a museum from scratch, with no-one telling you what to do. What would it be made of? What would it look like? What would you select to go in it? If you could have a museum of absolutely anything, what would it be?

National Museums Liverpool and Kids in Museums invite you to explore the world of fantasy museums in The Great Museum Debate: Museum I’d Like on Tuesday 9 September 2008 from 6 – 8.30pm at the Merseyside Maritime Museum.

Chaired by broadcaster John Waite, the debate has a distinguished panel including teen fiction author Bali Rai, Nick Poole Chief Executive of the Collections Trust, National Museums Liverpool’s Director of Urban History Janet Dugdale and historian Andrew Wheatcroft.

Nick Poole’s perfect museum would be a shop ‘which transacts in experiences and knowledge’, doing away with the need for public funding for museums while Andrew Wheatcroft would like to see more interactive museums featuring 3D virtual guides who can greet the visitor and show them round.

Bali Rai, a self-confessed lifelong Liverpool FC fan would like to see his museum showing his favourite goal ever set to a reggae tune.

Janet Dugdale would like to build a museum entirely from glass with no barriers to interaction and enjoyment. By touching objects, that were perfectly preserved to last for ever, visitors would be ‘transported through history to meet the person connected to the object’.

Speakers Biographies

John Waite is one of the most familiar voices on Radio 4. In a career spanning more than three decades, he has presented programmes such as Today, with John Humphrys, and You and Yours. He presents Radio 4’s investigative series Face the Facts. He has received three Sony awards as reporter/ broadcaster of the year.

Bali Rai is a teen fiction writer whose books include (Un)arranged Marriage, Dream On, The Angel Collector and the Soccer Squad series. Dream On was selected for the Booktrust’s inaugural Booked Up list, to be available free to every Year 7 school child in the UK. Bali’s second novel for young adults, The Crew won two regional awards and his third, Rani and Sukh and fourth The Whisper were both been short-listed for The Booktrust Teenage Prize.

Nick Poole is Chief Executive of the Collections Trust, the lead organisation in the UK for the provision of support, advice and training to collections in their management, use and exploitation of rights.Prior to joining the Collections Trust, Nick was a policy adviser to the Museums, Libraries and Archives Council, covering areas including Technology and Regional Policy. He is a Councillor of the Museums Association, and also sits on the Association’s Ethics Committee. He is a member of the Executive Committee of the Museums Copyright Group and a trustee of the eLearning Group for Museums. He has acted as an expert adviser to national and international funding programmes and currently represents the UK on the Member States Expert Group at the European Parliament.

Andrew Wheatcroft is the author of many pioneering books on early modern and modern history, including The Ottomans - dissolving images,The Habsburgs - embodying empire, Infidels - a history of the conflict between ‘Christendom’ and ‘Islam’. His latest book is The Enemy at the Gate (The Bodley Head August 2008). Previously a senior international publisher, he moved to the University of Stirling in 1992 where he is Professor of International Publishing and Communication and Director of the Centre for Publishing Studies.

Janet Dugdale is Director of Urban History at National Museums Liverpool. Currently working on the new Museum of Liverpool, she was formerly Keeper of the hugely popular Museum of Liverpool Life. She has also worked for Potteries Museum, Stoke-on-Trent and Museum of Lakeland Life & Industry, Kendal, Cumbria.

Spaces are limited, for a free place please contact
genevieve.robles@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk or call 0151 478 4747

Notes for Editors

Members of the media are invited to join the event. For a free place please contact Joanna.rowlands@liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

Merseyside Maritime Museum Albert Dock, Liverpool

Admission FREE

Open 10am-5pm every day

Information 0151 478 4499

Website www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk

Kids in Museums logo and banner illustrations all © Quentin Blake.

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