Launch

On 20th January 2021 we launched this publication. In keeping with our approach we saw the publication launch as part of the research process. It offered a chance to generate a greater variety of perspectives on Tensions as Strengths and to look ahead to how the National Science and Media Museum could play a role in Bradford’s bid to be City of Culture in 2025.

To launch this publication, we invited everyone we’d worked with during Bradford’s National Museum – all museum staff, key people from the wider Science Museum Group, and partners from across Bradford, Chicago and Washington D.C..

The aim was to share the ideas of this publication with a wider network. Together, we listened to perspectives from eight museum staff and collaborators who were involved in the project and people in leadership positions – Sir Ian Blatchford, Director of the Science Museum Group and Kersten England, Chief Executive of Bradford Metropolitan District Council.

Below you can read quotes from everyone’s contributions. Their words allowed us to sharpen our understandings of Tensions as Strengths and helped us see how the ideas might work in the wider contexts of the relationship between local government and national government and of the wider Science Museum Group, where Bradford and the National Science and Media Museum are already influencing practice.