Museum work

I have an interest in facilitating workshops on neurodiversity/disability history and experiences, working with young people and participatory art.

Geffrye Museum – 2014

I worked on an HLF Young Roots heritage project called ‘Centenary Celebrations’ interpreting the 100 years history of the Geffrye Museum and 300-year history of the almshouses. I assisted the youth led steering group who decided on the design of the exhibition and interactive timeline. I also worked with young disabled people who interpreted the collection with art that was displayed in the exhibition. A main part of my role was sourcing Young Tour Guides who delivered monthly tours to visitors to the museum. I developed a self-guiding teaching resource by creating ‘themed’ research packs to enable young people to write and deliver their own tours of the exhibition.

TOWIEthics – 2016

Working with Emergency Exit Arts and the Bishopsgate Institute I put together a toolkit for best practice for working with young people on heritage projects.

I was previously a member of TOWIEthics for the ‘Radical Citizenship’ project. Exploring citizenship in the UK and across the world from the 1950s to today using the newly enquired Mondcivitan Republic (a world citizens political movement established in 1956 influenced by the World War II for a world without boarders) archive at the Bishopsgate Institute. The project came about as the Bishopsgate Institute wanted to allow the opportunity for the archive to be interpreted, accessible and used by the general public. TOWIEthics were the first to look through the 12 boxes of archive material since being re-homed at the Bishopsgate Institute. As a team we delivered events based on the Mondcivitian Republic and developed citizenship learning resources for schools. I worked on developing learning resources for primary schools. We worked with an illustrator to design ‘Challenge Cards’ that could be used by teachers to have engaging debates with students. We had cards that focussed on worldwide issues such as war or climate change to cards that supported conversations around citizenship in the school playground such as bullying or body image.

https://eea.org.uk/whats-on/projects/the-only-way-is-ethics-towie

Tate Exchange – 2018

During my MA we spent a week at the Tate Modern as part of their Tate Exchange. In groups we had a day to plan an activity each and then 4 days to deliver the activities. Visitors wrapped wool around a gazebo frame covering every inch in wool and they took a photocopy of their hands then tided them on to the frame. Over the week we could see how many people were involved in creating the structure.

Wellcome Collection – 2018

In April 2018 I delivered a session at the Wellcome Collection ‘Open Platform’ titled ‘To label, or not to label, that is the question? How does neurology affect how we experience the world and how others experience us? Join a conversation about neurodivergence’.  I displayed my neurodiversity timeline showing a brief history alongside Wellcome Collection library books and archive material, I made 13 statements for example ‘focusing on neurodivergent celebrities has a positive impact’ we debated about the statements and to end the event visitors wrote a message to Percy F the first ‘dyslexic’ and placed it on his plinth.  

I also participated at the Museum Association Festival of Change in Manchester, 2017. I created the ‘Museum of the Labelled’ and made a start on my timeline telling the outline of the history of neurodiversity. I also wrote the ‘labels’ on luggage tags of the previous names used for example dyspraxia has previously been known as clumsy childhood syndrome to help museums find objects in their collection.

‘Unsophisticated Art’ at the MERL – 2021

For the 51 Voices project which was supported by the University of Reading Diversity and Inclusion Fund. I ran three workshops for participants to come and explore ‘unsophisticated art’ through photography and projection mapping. Taking inspiration from “Black Eyes & Lemonade” an exhibition that took place at the Whitechapel Art Gallery in London during the Festival of Britain in 1951. The exhibition showcased everyday objects made in Britain for example birthday cards, needle work, cakes, toys, corn dollies to souvenirs from museum gift shops…Objects you wouldn’t see in museums and art galleries. We used our phones to take photographs of everyday objects to then project into the eye of a scanned and enlarged exhibition catalogue.

‘Paralympic Mascots’ at the National Paralympic Heritage Trust – 2022

Working with the National Paralympic Heritage Trust and a local school to design their own Paralympic mascots.