Dr Mark O’Neill, “Museums for all? A utopian fantasy?”

6.00pm, 15 November 2023 in the Advanced Research Centre (ARC), Room 237B+C

Mark O’Neill was until recently Chair of Jury of the European Museum of the Year Award. Now an international consultant and researcher, Mark was Head of Glasgow Museums from 1998-2009. In that role he led large-scale, award-winning projects. These included setting up St Mungo’s in 1993, the only museum of world religions in the UK. In 2006, he oversaw the £35 million refurbishment of Kelvingrove Art Gallery & Museum. He also worked on setting up the £74 million Riverside Museum (European Museum of the Year 2013).

From 2009 to 2016, Mark was Director of Policy & Research for Glasgow Life, the charity which delivers arts, museums, libraries, and sports services for the City of Glasgow, the largest organisation of its kind in Europe. In that post, he developed a new perspective on the possible roles and impacts of museums in delivering cultural access and social inclusion. Mark has lectured internationally, publishing works on museum philosophy and practice, as well as on strategic planning for heritage, tourism, and urban regeneration, and on the health benefits of cultural participation. From 2017 to 2022 he was a judge for the European Museum of the Year Award and will draw on this wide-ranging experience in his talk.

The lecture will be chaired by Philip Schlesinger, Professor in Cultural Theory at the University of Glasgow.