Museum, arts and heritage workers named in New Year Honours

Museum, heritage and culture professionals have been recognised on the 2024 New Year Honours list.

The current leader at London’s Horniman Museum & Gardens, and incoming chief executive of English Heritage, Nick Merriman, became an OBE for services to the arts and to heritage, while Museums Association board member Steve Miller, the head of Norfolk Museums Service, was made an MBE for services to heritage and tourism.

René Olivieri, chair of the National Trust, was made a CBE. Olivieri was appointed chair of the charity in February 2022 and was recognised for services to the charitable sector. Meanwhile Diane Ruddock, the trust’s external affairs manager in Northern Ireland, was made an OBE for services to the environment, heritage and the community.

Further OBEs went to Nicholas Cullinan, director of the National Portrait Gallery in London; Nicola Van Der Drift, chief executive of the International Bomber Command Center in Lincoln; Brian Gorski, board chairman at the Fusilier Museum, Bury, and colonel heritage for the Royal Regiment of Fusiliers; and Neil Greenwood, executive director of finance and corporate services at the Natural History Museum in London.

MBEs were awarded to Nathaniel Hepburn, the chief executive and director of Charleston, the East Sussex home of the Bloomsbury Group artists; Joseph Galliano-Doig, director and founder of the UK’s first LGBTQ+ museum, Queer Britain; and Nicolas Hill, national conservation projects manager at Historic England.

The highest honour awarded to someone in the museum sector went to Felicity Dahl, wife of the late author Roald Dahl, who founded the Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre and Roald Dahl's Marvellous Children's Charity. She was made a Dames Commander for services to philanthropy, literature and young people.  

In the wider heritage sector, Gerard Lemos, the chair of English Heritage, was awarded a CBE for public and voluntary service.

Philanthropist Richard Broyd received a CBE for services to heritage and conservation. Broyd has been involved in the conservation of built heritage through Historic House Hotels (now part of the National Trust), and other projects involving houses, gardens, landscapes and railways.

Joyce Tyldesley, professor of Egyptology at the University of Manchester, received an OBE for services to Egyptology and heritage, while Edward Album, founder of the Settle and Carlisle Railway Trust, received an OBE for services to railway heritage and to communities. Christopher Blandford, the president of World Heritage UK, also received an OBE.

Melanie Gardner, fine and decorative arts curator at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery in Carlisle, received a British Empire Medal (BEM) for services to arts and culture in Cumbria. Harbaksh Grewal, vice chair of the UK Punjab Heritage Association, received a BEM for services to Punjabi and Sikh heritage and to charity.

A number of civil servants in the Department for Culture, Media and Sport were also honoured, including Ruth Hannant and Polly Payne, both director generals of policy, and head of communications José Riera.

Baroness Catherine Fall received an MBE for her work as non-executive director of the post-Covid Cultural Recovery Board.