Congratulations to Dr Amy Brookes on securing British Academy funding for her innovative project ‘The Speculative Space of Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums’.
The project will formalise a creative-critical network connecting speculative fiction with Gallery, Library, Archive and Museum (GLAM) spaces and collections across the UK. Using speculative fiction as a creative practice for critical reflection, the initiative supports GLAM institutions engaged in decolonisation and decarbonisation efforts that respond to social and climate justice demands.
Building on seven successful pilot workshops, Dr Brookes has developed an original methodology of creative networking events centred on small-scale collective making. This approach prompts sustained engagement and creates necessary space to address issues of significant complexity and nuance, including re-evaluation of curation, collection and exhibition processes.
The British Academy funding will establish the formal ‘Speculative Space Research Group’, enabling knowledge and method dissemination, extending participation, and fostering long-term collaborative opportunities. This represents an important intersection of creative practice, institutional critique, and environmental justice – areas increasingly relevant to contemporary urban cultural spaces.
The project demonstrates how speculative approaches can support cultural institutions in reimagining their roles and practices in response to pressing social and environmental challenges.