Re‐Membering Childhood: The Agentic Force of Memory in Museum Practice

This article explores the agentic force of childhood memory in shaping contemporary museum practices. Drawing on feminist new materialism and Barad's (2017) concept of re‐membering, it contends that memory is not merely passive recall but a material–discursive process that reshapes relationships among past, present, and future within institutional contexts. Through autobiographical reflection and diffractive engagement with interviews from a doctoral project in a Queensland art gallery, the paper shows how practitioners' childhood experiences with art, education, and museums continue to influence curatorial, educational, and pedagogical approaches. Re‐membering emerges as both a theoretical and methodological practice that offers possibilities for rethinking linear temporalities and for developing more responsive museum practices. The writing demonstrates how affective residues of childhood experiences become entangled with professional identities, affecting how exhibitions are envisioned, programs are designed, and children are welcomed into museum spaces.