ABSTRACT
Increasing representation of BAME audiences in UK museums has been near top of the agenda of many government and institutional policies for years. Despite strategic efforts, continued low levels of engagement among diverse communities have many suggesting museums as a whole should be re-thought. Collaboration, co-production, and radical trust through programming have emerged as a strategy to further engage with under-represented audiences. Recent programmes now reveal collaborative and co-produced events hosted within the traditional museum space can provide a platform for a more inclusive and representative institution, shaping new levels of engagement that are more tailored to communities they wish to engage. With a specific case study dedicated to the 2016 Friday Late: gal-dem at the Victoria and Albert Museum, seen as a historic moment in museum event-based programming by many in attendance, this chapter aims to examine how co-production, collaboration, and radical trust through event programming can allow under-represented audiences often marginalised within the traditional museum setting to take ownership of the museum and create their own visibility.
