Ken Arnold

Short presentation

Ken Arnold is Director of Medical Museion, a PI and member of the leadership team at the NNF Center for Basic Metabolic Research (CBMR) and professor in the Department of Public Health.

His job is to orchestrate this exceptional museum by combining adventurous research with innovative exhibitions, events and other public activities. The result is health and medicine re-imagined across the past, present and future, both for and with as wide a range of visitors and interest groups as possible.

His research focuses on the enduring significance of museums, with a particular focus on their role as trusted institutions for learning and cultural engagement: sites of active learning that can bridge academia out into different parts of society. He’s interested in how their spaces, objects and curatorial approaches can be used to make exciting exhibitions and events, as well as to host collaborative activities and creative conversations.

Up until summer 2022, he worked at Wellcome in London, where he was at the center of establishing the museum Wellcome Collection, directing its first decade of programming from 2007. At Wellcome he also led a number of international cultural initiatives and oversaw a transdisciplinary research hub.

He regularly writes and speaks on the interactions between arts, humanities and sciences, as well on museums(including Cabinets for the Curious: Looking back at Early English Museums.)