As a former Museum Curator and Learning Manager, I have a broad experience in project management in everything from running large Lottery funded capital programmes to developing and running public events.
I started ‘SEND in Museums’, in 2017 as a Museum Development Officer for South East Museums Development (SEMD) running a successful pilot project partnering three special needs schools with three museums in Kent and Medway. The results from this project fed into the Special Schools and Museums toolkit which I wrote in 2018.
In 2019 I ran a much larger version of this project across the whole of the Southeast of England with SEMD securing partnerships with 13 SEND groups and 13 museums. This involved children and young people with different access needs and ages from pre-school to college students and one home educator group. The museums ranged from small independents to Windsor Castle and Portsmouth Historic Dockyard.
Here are the Case studies – Send in Museums from this project
The project finished with a one day SEND in Museums conference where I invited partners, other interested museums and national funders to a day combining talks with bite sized training tasters on Makaton, Sensory Maps, Open Ended play and Autism. This was a catalyst for my starting the ‘SEND in Museums’ national campaign which later launched my work freelance work full-time in 2022.
I have since worked as a consultant on many different projects supporting organisations to develop their accessible programming for families and schools, advising on accessible exhibition design and interpretation and largescale capital redevelopment. I work with small independents through to Nationals and cultural giants including National Trust, The British Museum and the National Portrait Gallery. I have also advised international clients such as KANAL Centre Pompidou in Brussels and the National Museum of Korea.
Do get in touch to discuss your project needs and chat about how I can support you in making your venue a great place to visit for SEND families and schools. Be it a small one off starter project, a public consultation or larger redevelopment – lets make sure SEND are part of your audience profile.