Bringing diverse people and perspectives together in dialogue and exchange is a key need when forming collectives to grapple with complex shared problems and agendas. This requires more than a comprehensive understanding of the issue at stake and a recognition of the relevant stakeholders who can contribute — it’s also vital to build the right collaborative conditions to nurture meaningful shared conversation. Cobeo can help do this by drawing on our expertise in holding space and convening networked dialogues.
We’ve done this recently by convening a series of Local Assemblies, in partnership with the Australian Museums and Galleries Association, via the ASSEMBLY project — which is exploring new collaborative research opportunities for Australian museums and galleries. These Local Assemblies are collective gatherings of up to 25 people taking place across the country, together seeking to explore how museums and galleries and their stakeholders might value and enable new forms of collaborative research for public value in local contexts. For each Local Assembly, Cobeo supported a process of shared reflective dialogue between relevant stakeholders — particularly representatives from museums, galleries, universities, strategic agencies, and artists — focused on a locally specific question that underpins the ASSEMBLY project agenda.
Local Assembly conversations have been convened so far, hosted by a range of partners, around the following questions:
- Local Assembly (Sydney 1): How do creative practice research collaborations between universities and the GLAM sector currently run, and how can these be better enabled and leveraged for mutual value? (Hosted by The Visualisation Institute, UTS, October 2025)
- Local Assembly (Adelaide): How can we unlock the value of collaborative knowledge sharing between museums and other stakeholders in South Australia? (Hosted by the Australian Museums & Galleries Association, SA Branch, November 2025)
- Local Assembly (Perth): The Creative WA Cultural Policy identifies capacity challenges in our museums and galleries sector. How might we collaborate to better understand and enable the knowledge and practices that could help our sector thrive? (Hosted by the Australian Museums & Galleries Association, WA Branch, November 2025)
- Local Assembly (Sydney 2): How can museums align diverse expertise to drive collaborative research and knowledge creation? (Hosted by The Powerhouse Museum, March 2026)
- Local Assembly (Brisbane): What collaborative research opportunities exist between Queensland regional art galleries and local universities, why are they valuable, and how can they be enabled? (Hosted by Queensland Gallery of Modern Art (GOMA), March 2026)
- Local Assembly (Riverina Region): How do regional galleries and artists collaborate around knowledge exchange and needs, and how can they better understand and articulate the value of these relationships to research? (Hosted by Wagga Wagga Art Gallery and the Creative Practice Circle @ Charles Sturt University, May 2026)
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f you are planning a networked conversation around a shared issue or problem and would like to talk about how Cobeo can help you convene it in a meaningful and collaborative way, please do get in touch.