In brief | Latest projects, announcements and moves from the sector

Science Museum Group appoints 'AI champion'

Janey MacRae-Tym has joined the Science Museum Group as chief digital officer following an external recruitment process.

MacRae-Tym will lead the museum’s digital team, after a decade holding senior roles in digital agencies and working for organisations including Diageo, Nike and Vision Express. 

A statement from the institution said that, as AI becomes more embedded in society, MacRae-Tym will act as its AI champion and advocate, “utilising her experience in implementing AI at scale to enable the Science Museum Group to unlock the full potential of this transformative technology”.

MacRae-Tym will manage the group’s digital department, which encompasses websites for the six sites in the Science Museum Group, the online collection, video content across the museums and online stories, games and apps.

MacRae-Tym will also be responsible for delivering the next phase of the group’s digital strategy. The institution’s digital content has a global audience, with more than a million annual views of the online collection and 100,000 subscribers to the National Railway Museum’s YouTube channel.  

MacRae-Tym said: “I’m honoured to be joining the Science Museum Group at such a pivotal moment as emerging technologies transform how the world interacts with information and culture. Drawing on my background working at the intersection of digital innovation, customer experience and AI, I’m excited to help shape how these technologies can enhance the way we engage our audiences.”

New curatorial programme to explore hidden disability histories

Screen South’s Accentuate Programme is seeking expressions of interest from English museums for a proposal curatorial programme exploring hidden narratives in collections, led by deaf, disabled and neurodivergent curators and communities.

The programme is currently subject to funding, but will build on two previous projects, Curating for Change and Curating Visibility by delivering meaningful and lasting positive change for museums, communities and disabled people pursuing curatorial careers.

Museums who are able to host curatorial fellows and wish to develop their professional practice and skills are invited to submit an expression of interest by Monday 30 March. museum collections and displays.

• Download more information including details of how to apply

Guide aims to support relationship between chairs and chief executives

Arts Council England, in partnership with Clore Leadership and the Cultural Governance Alliance, has published a new guide to support stronger, more effective working relationships between chairs and chief executives across the arts and cultural sector. 

Developed by Fiona Allan, the guide offers practical advice, resources and templates to help organisations build effective governance, clarify roles, and create the conditions for productive leadership at the top of cultural institutions.

It was commissioned in response to widespread sector calls for support in building and fostering effective relationships.

“For too long, we have treated the chair–chief executive dynamic as a private matter between two individuals,” Allan said.

“This guidance moves the conversation on, reminding us that the whole board holds collective responsibility for creating the conditions in which that leadership partnership can thrive”.

The Vindolanda Trust gets funding to catalogue Hadrian’s Wall archive

The Vindolanda Trust, leading a partnership with Durham University and North East Museums, has been awarded £149,996 through the Archives Revealed Consortium Grant to support the cataloguing and public access of five nationally significant archives relating to Hadrian’s Wall, its archaeologists, sites and material culture. 

This is only the second Archives Revealed Consortium Grant ever awarded and represents the largest dedicated archival cataloguing grant currently available in the UK. 

“We are excited about this partnership and the opportunity it presents for people to connect to the history of Hadrian’s Wall from a different perspective, through its archival record, complementing the archaeological remains,” said Veryan Johnston, chair of Trustees of the Vindolanda Trust.

The Materialitas project will result in publicly accessible online catalogues for all five archives by April 2028.

New archaeology gallery opens at Derby Museum

Unearthed, a new permanent nature and archaeology gallery, has opened at Derby Museum and Art Gallery.

The gallery is the first major redisplay of the service’s archaeology collections in more than 30 years, and includes displays such as the Allenton Hippo (a 120,000 year old hippopotamus skeleton found by workmen in 1895 and donated to the museum); a bronze age longboat made 3,400 years ago from a single 10m long tree trunk; a late-bronze age spearhead found in Derbyshire but believed to have come from Ireland as part of long-distance trade and exchange networks; and a touchable badger prepared by ethical taxidermist Jazmine Miles-Long.

Sadie Scott, the project manager for the Unearthed galleries, said: “Through project labs, co-curation discussions and on-gallery exercises, visitors and volunteers made it clear that the new displays should focus on our local area, putting our histories and our landscapes into a wider national and global context.”

The new galleries, which were funded through a £249,795 National Lottery Heritage Fund grant, are expected to welcome more than 85,000 visitors annually.

V&A East Museum unveils new sculpture by Thomas J Price ahead of April opening

An 18-foot bronze sculpture by Thomas J Price has been unveiled outside the V&A East Museum on East Bank in Stratford’s Queen Elizabeth Olympic Park, ahead of the museum’s public opening on 18 April.

A Place Beyond depicts a fictionalised young person in casual dress, mobile phone in-hand, looking out to a horizon full of possibilities, and was created from an amalgamation of images, 3D scans and observations.

“A Place Beyond symbolises those historically excluded from public monuments, challenging our preconceptions about representation, perception and identity,” said Gus Casely-Hayford, V&A East Director. “I can’t think of a more powerful work to greet our visitors on their way into V&A East Museum.”

Niels de Vos steps down as chair of Birmingham Museums Trust

Niels de Vos has stepped down as chair of Birmingham Museums Trust after six years in the role. Over that time, he led the organisation through a period of significant change, including the pandemic, the reopening Birmingham Museum & Art Gallery after being closed for essential maintenance work, and a new five-year strategy.

He also played a key role in supporting the trust and the English Civic Museums Network in successfully lobbying government for the £20m million Museum Renewal Fund for civic museums.

He is succeeded by Stephen Hughes, whose appointment as new chair of trustees was announced in October 2025.

Zak Mensah and Sara Wajid, co-chief executives of Birmingham Museums Trust, said: "We are enormously grateful to Niels for his dedication and guidance as chair of the trust. Over the past six years his leadership helped us navigate unprecedented challenges and emerge stronger, more ambitious and more connected to our communities.”

New art commission explores impact of AI on creativity

The National Videogame Museum has unveiled a new art commission that explores mage-making, game development, and creative labour in the age of AI.

Created in collaboration with the Open Data Institute, The Space and the University of Cambridge’s Leverhulme Centre for the Future of Intelligence, Image Empire isa new digital artwork by artist and researcher  Alan Warburton. The three-minute animated film has been created specifically to stimulate conversation on LinkedIn and draws on the rapid expansion of AI technologies across the world of work.

“The National Videogame Museum is honoured to commission Image Empire – a pioneering new digital artwork – with the support of The Space and Arts Council England.” said John O’Shea, the creative director and co-chief executive officer at the National Videogame Museum. “Image Empire provides unique insights into mysterious processes happening ‘behind the screens’ in the videogame industry.

“Through the use of the LinkedIn platform, we want to convene dialogue between players, makers and technologists about the future of videogames, and the value of human creativity.”