Case Study One, The Volunteer Events Team

The first case study will situate experiences gained whilst working with Glasgow Museums on the CurioUs Project (2011–2013) which was also a time located when Whose Cake Is It Anyway? was first published. The project attempted to implement Lynch’s (2011)recommendations to change oppressive language used in participatory processes and began to think about developing strategies for intercultural dialogue through a pedagogic process of exploration, self-reflection, discovery and practice (CurioUS, 2012 to 2013). This process and the observations discussed in this chapter grounded the development of non-selective curation. This case study confirms the work of Lynch (2011) and the Paul Hamlyn Foundation (2012–2016) that the language being used by museums, at this time, creates binary separations of Us and Them. It is through dispositional presumptions of who is homogenous and who is not, or who is vulnerable and who is not. In participatory practice this appears to create an expectation in the practitioner to provide a ‘duty of care’ over some participants and not others. This also creates a level of confusion within the praxis when the practice does not feel in ethical alignment with the delivery methods of the project and the diversity of the community participant.