As Head of Partnerships and Engagement at Manchester Museum, Ciaron Wilkinson works across communities in Manchester to build relationships, create access and bring people together through culture.  

For Ciaron, museums are civic spaces that can build understanding between cultures and create opportunities for people to learn from one another, particularly at a time of increasing polarisation. This belief is reflected in Manchester Museum Celebrates, a programme he is particularly proud to lead working with a range colleagues right across the Museum. 

The initiative began back in 2019 with a community Iftar during Ramadan, when around 1,000 people gathered for a shared meal. The programme has since expanded to include Diwali, Lunar New Year, Vaisakhi, Africa Day and Eid, with plans this year to mark Jewish Culture Month. At a recent Iftar, 100 unaccompanied asylum-seeking young people and refugees attended through Greater Manchester Muslim Alliance for Refugees, many experiencing Ramadan outside their home country for the first time. 

Ciaron feels privileged to work at an institution whose values of care, imagination and inclusion align closely with his own. Inclusion reflects his belief that cultural spaces should be open to everyone. Childhood visits to museums, libraries and theatres with his mum shaped his understanding of their value as shared spaces for learning, curiosity and belonging, and today inform his commitment to ensuring children and communities across Manchester have access to the same opportunities. 

Care runs through both Ciaron’s personal life and his professional practice. He reflects that fatherhood has deepened the values that guide him as a leader. Recognising how differently his children think and respond has reinforced his belief in patience, adaptability and meeting people where they are. Those same principles shape how he supports his team and how the Museum works alongside communities, particularly when people may have complex needs. 

These values are reflected in the Museum’s collaborative approach. Much of its work is co-curated, developed with communities from the outset. The award winning South Asia Gallery, a contemporary take on South Asian and British Asian culture, was designed and built with members of the communities it represents through the South Asia Gallery Collective. Ciaron oversees the engagement programme for both the South Asia Gallery and the Chinese Culture Gallery, which provide a vital platform for strengthening connections and deepening understanding between different cultures. Ciaron is proud to have welcomed everyone from local community members to senior Government officials into the galleries who wish to learn from the Museum’s approach.  

For Ciaron, collaboration is not only about creating space for communities to learn and connect, but about allowing those relationships to shape the Museum and the city itself. That principle is reflected in The Top Floor, the Museum’s social justice and environmental action hub, used flexibly by around 35 changemaking organisations. Among them is Pinc College, which provides arts-based education for neurodivergent young people aged 16 to 24. 

As Pinc College has become part of the Museum community, the way the Museum engages with neurodivergent visitors has evolved. Over time, the proportion of visitors identifying as neurodivergent has increased, demonstrating how opening up the institution strengthens it in return. 

Through his role, Ciaron continues to help shape a Museum that truly serves its city, listening, adapting and growing alongside the communities it welcomes.