Heritage consultancy

I am a freelance heritage practitioner and consultant with experience in leading participatory heritage workshops, running tours, and curating exhibitions. I’m also available for heritage consultancy, workshops or discussions on how to find new and more diverse stories in your collections, and how to curate trans histories and identities in an inclusive way.

Please see below for a taster of what I can do, and get in touch if you’d like to discuss arranging a workshop or working together!

If you’re interested in the impact of these projects from an academic perspective, please see Impact and public engagement.

Consultancy | Gendering the Museum toolkit | Forgotten Battles: Gender in the Armouries | Curation

Consultancy

I am currently the Museum of London’s specialist LGBTQ+ advisor, reviewing interpretation and other materials for representation of LGBTQ+ history and rights. I’m available to review heritage materials on a one-off or longer-term basis – please contact me if you’d like to discuss options.

I also design and run bespoke workshops with heritage teams to discuss the representation of trans histories and identities and troubleshoot forthcoming exhibitions, including curation, interpretation and marketing: previous clients include the V&A, British Library exhibitions team, and Henry Moore Institute. Please get in touch if you’d like to discuss this, and see my training page for more information on my approach.

Gendering the Museum: A Toolkit

I am the co-author, with James Daybell, of Gendering the Museum: A Toolkit – a practical guide to finding hidden histories of gender in material objects and spaces, and diversifying representation of gender in museums through research, interpretation and public programming. You can find out more, and download a copy, at the Gendering the Museum website.

James and I have worked with several organisations, including the Royal Armouries, National Trust and Royal Museums Greenwich, to share the insights of the toolkit and put them into practice. We can offer workshops, consultancy and collaborative research opportunities. If you’d like to chat about this, please get in touch.

Forgotten Battles: Gender in the Armouries

In 2023, I was Community Project Lead on Forgotten Battles, a project funded by the National Lottery Heritage Fund as part of Leeds 2023. Forgotten Battles uncovered histories of gender and sexuality hidden within the collections of the Royal Armouries, and revealed them through an exhibition and object trail developed in collaboration with the local LGBTQ+ community.

You can see the object trail developed by our volunteers here. You can also read about our pilot project – a day of trans history celebrating spy and diplomat the Chevaliere d’Eon, in collaboration with artist Luna Morgana and local trans communities – and download the zine we produced here.

Curation

In 2016-17 I was the curatorial team lead for the exhibition York Out of the Closet: 50 Years of LGBT History (York Castle Museum). The exhibition combined oral histories, loaned objects and photographs to tell the story of LGBT life in York – focusing on social life, activism, crime, health and the history of York Pride – from 1967-2017.

In 2015-16, I curated the exhibition For All Time: Shakespeare In Yorkshire at the Treasures of the Brotherton Gallery. Showcasing the Brotherton’s English Literature collection, the exhibition explored Shakespeare’s engagement with English (particularly Yorkshire) history, and the ways in which directors and actors continue to use his work to ask questions about regional identity.

I’d love to talk about future opportunities to curate queer and/or early modern history – please get in touch if you’d like to chat about that!