Orly Orbach is Project Curator for EMKP and responsible for several aspects of the programme including grantees, museum and collections engagement, and EMKP volunteers. Orly’s research interests include placemaking and diaspora studies, intergenerational memory, symbolic anthropology, dramaturgy and multimodal storytelling.

Orly is an artist and anthropologist with a background in participatory curating. Prior to joining the EMKP, Orly created numerous collaborative exhibitions and museum displays including: ‘Songs from home- a Mixtape for the Museum’ (2022) – a collaborative film that explores intangible heritage practices as a form of intergenerational care, ‘What’s in a Name?’ – workshop design and temporary display for the Petrie Museum of Sudanese and Egyptian Archaeology (2022), ‘The Whispering Forest’ – an installation about Brazilian folk tales at the Museum of London (2019), ‘The Collaborative Diary’ (2017) – a portable display and learning resource commissioned by the Anne Frank Trust, ‘The View From My Bedroom Window’ – a participatory exhibition made together with the Children in Care Council, Warwickshire, and ‘Edible Histories’ – a learning resource and participatory pop-up exhibition commissioned by Counterpoints Arts for Refugee Week UK.

Her PhD examines children’s changing roles in co-constructing heritages in diaspora. Using multimodal, visual and collaborative methods, the research is based on case-studies of heritage partnerships between the Museum of London and Brazilian, Tamil, Iranian, Lithuanian and Albanian supplementary schools. The thesis explores how heritages in migration intersect with the heritage of childhood, paying attention to children’s growing agency in the creation of new mnemonic communities.


Orly Orbach