Welcome sceptics. Most of our resources are aimed at people who are already on board and moving towards participatory community engagement, but we know that some people are more reticent. Often, conversations can get stuck in polarised arguments, so we have selected a few resources to inspire genuine dialogue on common issues of concern.

This work can sometimes appear to be a bit of a ‘community jolly’ rather than a robust practice. We hope these films and their associated resources will help us develop our practice together while building on years of theory, practice and methodology in many sectors.

One of the biggest reasons given for withdrawing from community engagement recently is the perception that it is costlier. We think it is more about approach and finding business models that work:

There’s more on the finances of participatory work here: http://ourmuseum.org.uk/resources/governance-leadership/financially-viable/#go

Big changes sometimes feel insurmountable; we found these resources helped us feel it was something we could actually do:

(follow the ‘you might like’ links to see his full talk in seven videos)

More on change here http://ourmuseum.org.uk/resources/structures-mechanisms/change-process/#go

When involving non-museum or gallery staff in decision-making, questions around expertise often arise. These might get you talking about your own roles:

We didn’t make a video that focussed on quality of products, because this wasn’t an issue for organisations that worked in more active partnerships and were really committed to the process. But a couple of people mention quality in these resources: