In this blog, Mia González Janes, Young Producer at the Fitzwilliam Museum, shares her experiences of co-creating a one-day museum festival.
Mia is one of 12 Young Producers at the Fitzwilliam Museum – a group of 18-25 year olds from around Cambridgeshire who meet at the museum to socialise, create artworks and collaborate on exciting projects and events. This summer, the group worked together to curate Fitz Fest – a one day festival held at the museum. The event responded to the recent rehang and interpretation of the Renaissance galleries.
Aimed at the Fitzwilliam’s core Saturday audience, the group developed a day of activity that was appealing to families, young people and adults. The Producers worked up their ideas with help from the marketing, curatorial, learning and public programmes team over three months.
The festival took place on the Museum green, in the Renaissance galleries and across the education spaces. It included live music from Cambridge Early Music Consort and musician Anne Heemskerk, participatory workshops with Antonio Roberts and Maymana Arefin, costume workshops and a chill out space developed by the Young Producers themselves.
Here, Mia shares her experience of co-creating the festival.
Mia González Janes
Mia is a member of the Fitzwilliam Young Producers and a freelance artist based in East Anglia. She produces workshops for a diverse range of communities, aiming to make art more accessible. With a background in theoretical physics, she is interested in integrating her experience in STEM into her creative output.
On a sunny Saturday in August, the Fitzwilliam Museum held Fitz Fest 2026, a free festival event developed by its Young Producers.
I am a member of the Young Producers. We are a small collective, aged 18–25, living permanently in and around Cambridge, and from backgrounds underrepresented in the cultural sector.
Creating the festival
We were inspired by the rehang of the Renaissance gallery, which explores 300 years of creativity, culture and connection in Italy. Dr Juliet Carey, Senior Curator of Historic and Modern Paintings at the Fitzwilliam Museum, gave us a tour of the space during its redevelopment. We identified interesting themes that surfaced, including innovation, religion and tourism, and we incorporated those into the event development.
Many different teams and individuals working at the museum assisted us throughout the project. We learnt about all of the elements that go into producing a successful event.
During the early stages of production, I took an interest in developing concepts for the event and researching guest artists. Later, I was part of the group that developed a costume making workshop with artist Anna Brass.
On the day
On the day of the event I assisted Antonio Roberts with his digital postcard workshop.
It was great to watch families get adorable group photos. Photos were taken on a 1990s camcorder, in front of a DIY green screen that transported them to Canaletto’s renaissance Venice. The families received the photos after the event. I like to imagine they have been printed out and framed, or popped into a photo album.
At the end of the day, the team gathered together on the front lawn and it finally felt like the work of the Young Producers and the staff at the Fitzwilliam had come to fruition. To be part of such an event, working alongside so many inspiring and dedicated people has been incredible.
Read about the Young Producers’ other recent work at the Fitzwilliam Museum.
The Young Producers programme continues with a current project exploring behind the scenes at the Museum.
