101. WHAT ARE MUSEUMS FOR? - Esme Ward, Director of the transformed Manchester Museum, has the answers.

Break Out Culture With Ed Vaizey by Country and Town House

If anyone can persuade you how crucial a museum can be to the wellbeing of a city, it’s this week’s guest Esme Ward. In 2018 she was the first woman to be appointed as director of Manchester Museum, which re-opens on the 18th February after a £15 million overhaul. Esme is on a mission to make the 130-year-old museum more ‘inclusive, caring and imaginative’. The highlight is a new South Asia Gallery, in partnership with the British Museum, which is the first permanent gallery in the UK dedicated to the communities, experiences and histories of the South Asian diaspora.

The South Asia Gallery has been co-curated by 30 different community leaders, artists, historians, journalists and musicians of South Asian heritage and Esme passionately believes that its new immersive exhibits at the museum will give the community a strong sense of belonging - indeed there is a new Belonging Gallery.

As debate rumbles on about the return of the Elgin Marbles to Greece, Esme talks convincingly about the multiple benefits of sending back some of their ceremonial items to Aboriginal groups, and the museum now boasts its first ever Curator of Indigenous Perspectives.

Esme’s conviction of a museum’s power to spread a sense of well-being, alleviate loneliness and to act as a vibrant, unifying, cultural hub for the entire city is inspiring. With infectious enthusiasm, Esme will eradicate any lingering doubt anyone might have about culture’s role in making society a better place.