The ITP attends the Museums Association Conference 2025 next week
Written by Amelia Kedge, ITP Coordinator (Legacy Projects)
Our week-long programme around the Museums Association Conference begins next week, and we can’t wait to get started!
A regular feature on the ITP calendar each year is attending the Museums Association Conference. This year’s conference is being held in Cardiff, and we are looking forward to welcoming 6 ITP fellows joining us for a week-long programme based around the conference with visits to museums in and around the city.
Joining us this year are:
Abdelrehim Moussa, Senior Curator, Museum of Islamic Art, Cairo, Egypt (ITP 2012)
Abdulrahman Al-Khafaji, Head of the Database Division, Iraq Museum, Iraq (ITP 2024)
Marie-Antoinette Al Gemayel, Curator, Ministry of Culture, National Museum of Beirut, Lebanon (ITP 2016)
Olena Shevchenko, Senior Researcher and Head of the Archaeological, Collections Management & Research Department Odesa Archaeological Museum, National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, Ukraine (ITP 2025)
Richard Ohene-Larbi, Museum Educator, Ghana Museums and Monuments Board, Ghana (ITP 2024)
Sayed Ahmed, Director of the Museum Display, The National Museum of Egyptian Civilization, Cairo, Egypt (ITP 2016)
To see the fellows’ full biographies and their thoughts on attending this year’s conference, see our previous blog post HERE.
The conference will take place on 07 – 09 October 2025 at St Fagans National Museum of History. This year’s conference theme is perthyn, the Welsh word meaning to belong and will celebrate how community, solidarity and friendship bring people together in museums to make them such special and engaging places.
Alongside the conference we will be visiting two amazing museums, exploring Wales’s rich history:
Big Pit National Coal Museum
Big Pit National Coal Museum is a UNESCO World Heritage Site that works to preserve South Wales’s rich coal mining heritage. Once a working coal mine, Big Pit offers visitors a powerful insight into the lives of miners and the industry that fuelled South Wales’s economy for over a century.
Visitors can take part in a ‘Job-A-Knock’ – an underground tour guided by former miners 300 feet below the surface through original tunnels, sharing first-hand stories of mining life and working conditions.
Above ground, the Big Pit Mining Galleries present an audio-visual experience with exhibitions of modern mining equipment. Set into the hillside above the colliery, the galleries house simulated underground workings and a multi-media presentation telling the story of how the Welsh mining industry evolved. Restored buildings such as the winding engine house, blacksmith’s forge, and miners’ baths reveal the broader social history of coal communities.
Caerleon Roman Fortress and Baths
Located in the historic town of Caerleon near Newport, South Wales, the Caerleon Roman Fortress and Baths are among the best-preserved Roman sites in Britain. Known as Isca Augusta during Roman times, the fortress was established around AD 75 as one of only three permanent legionary bases in Britain. It housed the Second Augustan Legion, a garrison of more than 5,000 soldiers, and played a vital role in securing Roman control over Wales.
The fortress included barracks, workshops, an amphitheatre, and extensive defensive walls, much of which can still be explored today. One of its most remarkable features is the Roman Baths complex, where soldiers relaxed, socialised, and exercised after their duties. Visitors can view the remains of the heated changing rooms (apodyterium), hypocaust underfloor heating systems, and an open-air swimming pool.
The site also includes a well-preserved amphitheatre – often called ‘King Arthur’s Round Table’ in legend – and museum collections of artifacts unearthed locally.
We will be sharing updates from the programme on our Instagram page @britmusITP, follow along to see what we get up to!