Your reps

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Northern Ireland

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Catherine has worked within the heritage sector for over 12 years in learning and engagement, curatorial, interpretation and events. In 2022 she began her role as Development Officer (Education and Outreach) at the Northern Ireland Museums Council.

She has worked on several National Lottery Heritage Fund projects specialising in improving access to collections and providing non-traditional engagement. This was the subject of her talk at the 2018 Museums Association conference.

Prior to her current role, Catherine volunteered with the British Museum and worked for the Heritage Environment Division and the National Museum of the Royal Navy creating a volunteer strategy, access plan and events for families, schools, community and SEND groups.

Email: cate_avspencer@hotmail.co.uk
Twitter: @CatherineDoran­_

Margaret is an independent exhibit designer currently based in Belfast, Northern Ireland and working at the intersection of design and social justice. Margaret has a degree in industrial design from the Rhode Island School of Design and 15 years of experience in the museum field. 

They developed the Family Inclusive Language Chart in 2014 and consult with museums on implementing family inclusive practice. Their writing has been published in the Journal of Museum Education, Exhibition (NAME), Dimensions (ASTC), and Museum magazine (AAM).

Email: margaret.k.middleton@gmail.com
Twitter: @magmidd

Scotland

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Matthew started in a front of house role at a university museum while studying for a postgraduate degree. With brief stints at a former local authority museum and the South Georgia Museum in the South Atlantic, with plenty of voluntary work in between, he joined the Scottish Maritime Museum in 2016 where he was a curator before becoming Museum Manager at HMS Unicorn in 2021.

Matthew is currently the Chair of the subject specialist network STICK (Scottish Transport and Industry Collections Knowledge Network), and is a Fellow of the Society of Antiquaries of Scotland.

Currently undertaking his AMA, Matthew’s previous roles have seen him focus on collections care and management and the oversight of several capital grants, an HLF-funded oral history project, as well as advocating for the importance of Scotland’s industrial and transport collections.

Email: matthew@hmsunicorn.org.uk
Twitter: @MrMatthewMoran

Laura has worked in front of house roles in the museum sector since 2017. Her first role was as a visitor assistant and tour guide at Braemar Castle in Aberdeenshire, Scotland’s only community-run castle. From there she moved into a visitor assistant role at Leisure and Culture Dundee, working at both Broughty Castle and the McManus Art Gallery and Museum.

She moved to her current role at National Museums Scotland in 2019, where she is also an internal communication champion. She is an active member of the Scottish museum sector and regularly attends events and conferences. Laura is particularly passionate about communication and values-led practice.

Email: lfalkinerrogers7@btinternet.com
Twitter: @laura_serafina

Shahnila is an art historian working at the Burrell Collection in Glasgow, interested in Continental European and Romanticism art (with a focus on Dutch/German), ethics, decolonisation and the impact of museums on health, wellbeing and social inclusion.

She is pragmatic and believes in inclusive museum practice and overcoming barriers to help ethnic minorities reach their potential. She is also a Museum Detox and ICOM member and encourages everyone to join a professional network for self-motivation, knowledge exchange, continuous learning and improved professional practice. She is passionate about cross-sector and intergenerational collaboration and believes in being the change you wish to see in museums.

In her spare time, she is a keen explorer of European culture and arts and likes visiting libraries, museums and historical sites, miniature painting and the countryside.

Email: shahnilashafiq@outlook.com
Twitter: @ShahnilaShafiq

Wales

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Steph joined Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales in 2014 as a project coordinator for the Paul Hamlyn Foundation funded Our Museum initiative. This role was focused on creating organisational change to give communities agency in museum decision-making processes. Steph has since gone on to work in Amgueddfa Cymru’s community engagement and learning teams. Steph believes in an activist museum sector and has sought roles that are focused on working with people to create a museum that is representative, welcoming and for all of our communities.

At present Steph manages the learning team at National Museum Cardiff, developing and delivering an exciting learning programme to schools, families and communities inspired by museum collections. She is also strategic lead for early years, family and intergenerational learning across all of Amgueddfa Cymru’s museums.

In 2022 Steph joined the trustee board of Llantarnam Grange Arts Centre and the advisory panel for Head4Arts with a hope to further support the development of cultural democracy in the heritage, arts and cultural sectors in Wales.

Email: steph.burge@outlook.com
Twitter: @Steffiburge

Ffion Fielding has worked in the museums and heritage sector in Wales for over 20 years, starting her career as a learning officer in St Fagans National Museum of History. She has a PGCE qualification in post-compulsory education, and her work there focused on informal and community learning, working in partnership with a wide range of organisations.

In 2014 she moved to a role as coordinator for ‘Wales Remembers 1914-18’ projects across Amgueddfa Cymru and in national partnerships, and in 2016 took a post as community and exhibitions coordinator with the lottery-funded ‘Wales for Peace’ project. There she worked with museums, libraries and archives across Wales to co-produce exhibitions and collect Wales’s rich peace heritage with volunteers.

Following a period as exhibitions project manager and strategy engagement coordinator at Amgueddfa Cymru, she is currently project manager of a significant National Lottery Heritage Fund project, managing a partnership of national and community organisations celebrating the centenary of the Welsh women’s peace petition to America.

Email: fielding.ffion@gmail.com
Twitter: @FfionFielding

Will is currently Arts Development Manager at Arts and Business Cymru where he works with over 150 members from the arts sector in Wales to support their ability to develop their organisations income and skills as part of a nationwide network of arts and business members.

In previous roles Will has worked across a wide range of roles including working as an archaeologist, front of house and most recently as Museum Manager for Cynon Valley Museum.

He has taken an active role in the museum sector – in 2017 he Co-founded Front of House in Museums, a network established to advocate, celebrate, and campaign for FoH in the museum sector most recently working with the MA to create the Front of House Charter for Change. He is a member of Heritage Volunteering Groups Advisory Panel and a alumnus of the MA Transformers programme.

Through his career Will has centred his work on the belief museums must be for all.

Email: will.tregaskes@aandbcymru.org.uk
Twitter: @TregaskesW

England: North

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Emma Heslewood has worked in the museum sector in the north of England for over 20 years. She had extensive experience in collections development, fundraising, capital projects, exhibitions, interpretation, programming and working with communities.

Since 2015 Emma has worked for Blackpool Council on Showtown, Blackpool’s first museum of fun and entertainment, opening in 2022. Aimed at a family audience and featuring a unique mix of immersive spaces, it will explore Blackpool’s role in seaside holidays, magic, circus, illuminations, shows and dance culture.

Emma is also a member of the Institute of Apprenticeships and Technical Education’s Creative and Design Route Panel, which includes museums and cultural heritage apprenticeships and qualifications.

Email: Emma.Heslewood@lancashire.gov.uk
Twitter: @EmmaHslwd

Hannah is currently working for Tees Valley Museums as a cultural participation and community curator. Her work is focused on access to collections and museum engagement.

Hannah is passionate about cross-sector collaboration, co-curation and networking, she also frequently speaks at museum and university events. She organises Museum Hour, a worldwide monthly online discussion in which people discuss and debate issues relating to the museum sector.

Email: hannah.mather@stockton.gov.uk
Twitter: @HannahRMather

Victoria has worked in museums for almost ten years. While studying at the University of Sheffield, Victoria fell in love with the world of museums and became a volunteer at a variety of museums and historic sites.  

In 2012 Victoria landed her first museum job while working in Canada.  Since then, Victoria has worked at a variety of museums, delivering, designing and managing community engagement programmes. She has experience of working in local authority and independent museums in both England and Canada.

Victoria currently manages the History, Health and Happiness wellbeing programme at Heritage Doncaster.

She has a particular interest in the role museums can play in improving health and wellbeing and tackling social isolation in communities. Her work also aims to engage with groups that are traditionally underrepresented in museum exhibitions and activities.

In 2018 Victoria co-founded the Yorkshire Emerging Museum Professionals Network.

Email: victoria.ryves@doncaster.gov.uk
Twitter: @vickyryves

England: Midlands

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Lucy is currently a marketing campaigns executive working for the National Trust, delivering national campaigns focused around membership retention and their Everyone Welcome strategy.

Since starting at the Trust in 2014, Lucy has worked in a range of roles focusing on her passion for engaging diverse audiences, effective storytelling and helping to provide access for all. Her other roles within the Trust include welcoming visitors as a member of front-of-house staff at Wightwick Manor and Gardens, developing the marketing strategy for a recently opened Shugborough Estate as marketing officer, and specialising in digital marketing as the assistant marketing consultant for the National Trust’s Midlands region.

Lucy also has a masters in International Heritage Management from the University of Birmingham.

Email: lucy.bickley@outlook.com
Twitter: @lbickley95

Olivia started volunteering in museums in 2014 and completed a masters degree in Museum Studies in 2020 with the University of Leicester. She is most passionate about visitor experience and the visitor journey, with experience working at two National Trust sites. She is currently the welcome and service assistant manager at the Children’s Country House at Sudbury.

She has a wealth of knowledge from her degree and practical experience of working in customer service roles since 2012. She is also passionate about effective collaboration and communication between teams, inclusive practice and the role museums can play in wellbeing and community relations.

Email: oliviamitchell100@gmail.com
Twitter: @liv_mitchell

England: South East

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Rebecca has worked and volunteered in the museum sector for ten years in front of house, learning and curatorial roles.

She has worked in local authority, independent and military museums in Cambridge, Essex and Kent, and is currently the visitor engagement manager at the Royal Engineers Museum, which she joined in 2015.

She is responsible for planning and developing exhibitions, and running community outreach and learning. She is interested in working with communities to encourage wellbeing and mental health.

She has an MA in archaeology and is working towards her AMA, and has run the Kent AMA Support Group. 

Email: exhibitions@re-museum.co.uk
Twitter: @RMBlackburn

Melanie has worked in the museum sector for 16 years, starting as an outreach volunteer whilst studying for her history degree. Since then, she’s been a visitor services assistant, a freelance education facilitator, a mobile museum project officer and a learning and engagement officer, always driven by a belief that learning is at the heart of museum work.

Melanie is currently a collections and learning curator for Colchester and Ipswich Museums, creating a range of experiences which encourage people to think critically and creatively about the world around us. 

In 2021 she was part of the team behind Power of Stories, a catalytic heritage project which championed co-curation, representation, community empowerment, decolonisation and legacy. This was reflective of the work she enjoys most – making museums more relevant to more people, interrogating their function and practice, and showing that museums can change lives.

When she’s not working for positive change in museums, Melanie can be found parenting, walking the dog or growing an absurd number of roses.

Email: melanie.hollis@hotmail.com
Twitter: @meloonameloona

David Juler is a trusts and foundations officer with a focus on the gardens, libraries and museums (GLAM) of the University of Oxford. He was previously the museum development officer at the Museum of Oxford, a local authority-run museum in the midst of a major transformational project.

David has worked at the university since the beginning of 2022 and previously worked with the Museum of Oxford for close to a decade, undertaking roles in visitor services and retail before moving into volunteer management.

He helped the Museum of Oxford gain ACE accreditation, raised close to £2m, worked with museum designers and architects, and developed interpretation. His current role in the University of Oxford includes raising funds for a variety of projects across GLAM, developing relationships with trusts and foundations and supporting GLAM colleagues with successful reporting and management of projects.

Alongside this, David has a passion for supporting early career professionals and those wishing to gain employment in the sector, having appeared on various panel discussions at universities and colleges, giving talks and supporting volunteers 1:1.

He was a committee member for three years with the South and East Museums Federation, as well as the web officer for a further three years. This experience has given him the opportunity to meet with museum professionals from all over the south east.

Email: davidjuler@googlemail.com
Twitter: @DavidJuler

England: London

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Roz is a curator who believes in supporting communities to make people’s voices heard. She currently works at Islington Museum, most recently leading an NLHF-funded project to work with the women of the closed Holloway Prison to bring their voices to a wider audience. She was shortlisted for the Museum Association ‘Radical Changemaker’ award for her work on the project.

Previously she worked at the Jewish Museum London where she led the merger with the Jewish Military Museum. Her exhibition ‘For King and Country?’ explored the complexities of fighting the First World War as a Jewish person in Britain.

As a curator her experience encompasses exhibitions, project management, strategic planning, evaluation and engagement, and collections care and management. She is passionate about collaborating closely across the museum, in particular with learning and front of house teams.

She has also undertaken consultancy work exploring collections significance and the potential for storytelling at Fenton House and Gunnersbury Park Museum, among others.

She is an accreditation, governance and collections mentor, co-founder of the Contemporary Collections Group, and active within the Social History Curators Group and London Museums Group.

Email: roz.currie@gmail.com
Twitter: @Disruptcurator

Freya is currently working as a learning facilitator for the Museum of London, helping engage new young audiences with the collection. Since 2017 she has worked and volunteered in a range of London museums, including Leighton House Museum, the London Transport Museum and the V&A. In 2021, she graduated from an MA in the history of design at the V&A/RCA.

Recently, Freya completed a curatorial traineeship with North Hertfordshire Museum and Curating for Change. As a result, she curated an exhibit on sports and disability in the local area, working with the local community to highlight different experiences of sport. Freya is particularly interested in increasing access to museums and recognising the expertise of lived experience.

She can be found on social media or by email and is always happy to chat about museums, objects and social history.

Email: freya.purcell@alumni.rca.ac.uk
Twitter: @FolderolFreya

England: South West

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Julie is a front of house team leader at M Shed, Bristol Museums, and project team member for the Front-of-House Charter for Change. She was nominated in two categories for the Museum & Heritage Awards 2022: Visitor Welcome (shortlisted) and Partnership of the Year – Colston Statue consultation display (runner up).

She builds strong relationships across her service and local authority to ensure front of house knowledge, skills and experience are integrated into cultural projects, planning, review and delivery. Her commitment to ensuring museum ‘visitors’ are embedded into service policy, product and activity development is supported by sharing front of house direct experience and observations.

Julie mentors and champion through sharing, recognising and celebrating achievement, ensuring profiles are raised and colleagues feel part of the whole service. The most important workplace motivator for her team is good communication, and through her role as England: South West rep she hopes to share opportunities, provoke discussion and cultivate ideas linked to MA campaigns, sector change and challenges by inviting MA members to exchange opinions, experiences, skills and knowledge.

Email: julie_tk@icloud.com
Twitter: @JulieTKArt

Stefanie worked as an archaeologist for several years before transferring her skills into the museum sector. Since then she has worked with a number of mixed collections.

She is passionate about opening up collections to a wide audience and offering interpretation from a variety of viewpoints. This includes making collections accessible to staff and volunteers across the organisations she works with. Stefanie is an AMA mentor and loves offering support to and connecting colleagues who can learn from each other.

Email: stefanie.sv.vincent@gmail.com
Twitter: @StefanieSv