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This video records a forum for students, researchers and museum professionals on Museums and Aging Populations that was convened in 2016 by the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester (Leicester, UK). It features two leaders in the related fields of cultural access and museum programming:  Claire Keatinge, then First Commissioner for Older People of Northern Ireland, and Esme Ward, then Head of Learning and at the Whitworth Art Gallery (Manchester, UK).  Ms. Ward is currently Director of the Manchester Museum (Manchester, UK).

Ms. Keatinge provides an excellent overview of the challenges and opportunities inherent in an aging society, and, in particular, the need for museum professionals to see the potential in older adults as creative and contributing members of society.  Ms. Ward discusses her work to re-imagine museum programming in the context of demographic change, with an emphasis on making museums more welcoming, more caring, more relevant and more supportive of older adults as creative individuals and allies in efforts to advance cultural equity.  During Ms. Ward’s tenure at the Whitworth Gallery, she oversaw the research and development of Danger! Men at Work, an exhibit on masculinity co-curated with a group of older men, the publication of A Handbook of Cultural Engagement with Older Men, and numerous age-friendly program initiatives. Both presentations are highly relevant to museums today, not only those in the UK, as they work to incorporate creative aging practices into their core staff training and public programming.

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