Developing dialogue in co-produced exhibitions between rhetoric, intentions and realities

In 2012 many UK museums were involved in Stories of the World, a national initiative aimed at working with young people to revisit world cultures collections in partnership with originating communities. At the heart of this programme were the ideas of dialogue, co-production and youth empowerment. This paper examines the different levels of agency that are created when museums are charged with ‘producing’ multiple participation and dialogue. Reflecting on the experience at Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums, UK, staff consider the gaps between intentions and the realities of the process as it developed towards the final co-produced exhibition. The paper considers what social relations and ethical considerations come into play when institutions are required to ‘produce’ dialogue. It examines this case in relation to wider practical and epistemological problems of participatory knowledge production.