Helen Charman - Speaker
Listen Up! Young Voice at the V&A: Agency and Empowerment
Director of Learning, National Programmes and Young V&A, Victoria and Albert Museum
Abstract:
Co-working is at the heart of how the V&A engages with young audiences, spanning co-design, co-curation, co-production, and co-programming. In this session, Helen Charman reveals how these approaches reframe communication with young audiences — from early years to early adulthood — making the museum more responsive, relevant, and inspiring.
Helen shares how the transformation of the Young V&A in Bethnal Green — a six-year capital project shaped by children’s voices — demonstrates the power of analogue engagement in an increasingly digital landscape. She explores how co-working challenges traditional communication practices, strengthens agency, and delivers benefits for both audiences and institutions.
About Helen:
Helen Charman (she/her) is Director of Learning, National Programmes and Young V&A at the Victoria and Albert Museum, London. With over 30 years of experience in cultural learning, Helen’s career spans museums, festivals, local authorities, and charities — always driven by a commitment to inclusion and co-creation.
She was part of the founding team at Tate Modern, and later led education and learning strategies at the Design Museum, London (2007–2018). Since joining the V&A in 2018, she has overseen the transformation of the Museum of Childhood into the award-winning Young V&A — recently recognised as Art Fund Museum of the Year 2024.
Helen sits on advisory boards for the Cultural Learning Alliance and The Durham Commission, and she is a trustee of Chelsea Physic Garden. Internationally, she contributes to the UNESCO Framework on Culture and Arts Education and the Association of Children’s Museums Advisory Council.
Through her leadership, Helen champions the agency of young people and believes in the transformative power of museums to support health, wellbeing, and lifelong curiosity.
🎟 Join us at CTA Amsterdam 2025
📅 17–19 June, 2025