Save the Date and CFP: IMA Annual Conference 2026

We are delighted to announce that the IMA’s 2026 Annual Conference will be held in collaboration with Monaghan County Museum, at its new location within the Peace Campus, Monaghan.

Conference dates for your diary: Thursday 5 March and Friday 6 March, 2026

Under the theme, Shared Futures - Museums as Spaces of Belonging, the 2026 conference will explore the role of museums as truly inclusive civic spaces, where belonging is nurtured through action, collaboration, and shared responsibility.

Sessions will aim to highlight good practice in reshaping historical narratives, forging meaningful cross-community partnerships, drawing on border contexts for richer storytelling, and translating equity, diversity and social inclusion principles into lasting organisational change.

It will invite delegates to discuss how museums can reflect, question and even dismantle social divides while safeguarding public trust: What structural shifts are necessary to guarantee genuine power-sharing? How can institutions collaborate across internal ecosystems and with diverse communities, especially when the values of equality and diversity face organised pushback?

We hope you will join us in Monaghan next March as, together, we explore practical paths towards museums that are not only for the public, but of the public.