Meet our speakers at the Wessex Museums conference
The Wessex Museums Conference, Museums Matter: Being more relevant, inclusive and sustainable, is attracting keynote speakers from leading professionals in the museum, arts and heritage sector. Here is the list of our speakers – new ones will be announced each week.
To find out more about the Wessex Museums Conference click here.
Conference numbers are limited so book your place now. £25 per delegate to include lunch and refreshments.
Our speakers:
Tony Butler
This year our keynote speaker in Tony Butler.
Tony has been Executive Director of Derby Museums since January 2014. Derby Museums includes the Museum if Making at Derby Silk Mill, the site of the world’s first factory and a UNESCO World Heritage Site and recently re-opened following at £18m refurbishment, and Derby Museum, and Art Gallery which contains the world’s finest collection of works by the 18th century artist Joseph Wright of Derby. The Museum of Making was shortlisted as a finalist for Art Fund’s Museum of the Year 2022.
In 2011 he founded the Happy Museum Project, which created an international community of practice to explore how museums could contribute to a society in which well-being and environmental sustainability were its principle values. Happy Museum has affiliates throughout the world and has supported over 60 UK museums to develop projects which build mutual relationships with audiences and ‘steward the future as well as the past.’
He was the Museums Fellow on the Clore Leadership Programme in 2007-08 and is a Trustee of the Might Creatives, the cultural learning agency for the East Midlands. He sits on the UK National Museums Director’s Council and its Executive Group. He is a member of the small steering group leading the English Civic Museums Network.
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Katherine McAlpine
Katherine McAlpine has been the Director of the Brunel Museum since January 2021. She leads the small team to deliver the Museum’s mission to share the Brunel’s London story in Rotherhithe and beyond. In August 2021, the Museum launched its Sustainability Plan.
Katherine will be delivering a keynote speech ‘What museums can do about the climate emergency’ discussing sustainability at The Brunel Museum.
She has over ten years of experience with a specialism in learning and audience development. She has previously held roles at Imperial War Museums, Royal Museums Greenwich and the Royal Institution.
Follow Katherine on Twitter and Instagram
Follow Brunel Museum on Twitter and Instagram
Roshi Naidoo
Roshi Naidoo is the Decolonising Programme Officer at the Museums Association and is heading up the Decolonisation Skills and Confidence Programme. The programme aims to support museum professionals beginning decolonisation, as well as developing next-level sector thinking and practice in the field.
Roshi has worked with museums and archives, in academia and in campaigning. She has written about the relationship between the stories told in our museums and how a nation imagines itself. She co-edited (with Jo Littler) The Politics of Heritage: the legacies of ‘race’, and more examples of her book chapters, articles, blogs, policy pieces and journal contributions can be found on her Academia.edu page.
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Louisa Adjoa Parker
Louisa Adjoa Parker is a writer and poet of English-Ghanaian heritage who lives in southwest England. Her first poetry collections were published by Cinnamon Press, and her third, How to wear a skin, was published by Indigo Dreams. Her debut short story collection, Stay with me, was published in 2020 by Colenso Books. Her poetry pamphlet, She can still sing, was published by Flipped Eye in June 2021, and she has a coastal memoir forthcoming with Little Toller Books.
Louisa’s poetry and prose has been widely published. She has been highly commended by the Forward Prize; twice shortlisted by the Bridport Prize; and her grief poem, Kindness, was commended by the National Poetry Competition 2019. She has performed her work in the south west and beyond and has run many writing workshops.
Louisa has written extensively about ethnically diverse history and rural racism, and as well as writing, works as an Equality, Diversity and Inclusion consultant. She is a sought-after speaker and trainer on rural racism, black history, and mental health.
Alison Bowyer
Alison has worked in the cultural sector for nearly 20 years with previous roles at LAMDA, the National Youth Orchestra, Southbank Centre and the Academy of Ancient Music.
She has a longstanding interest in museums, having been a volunteer at Handel and Hendrix in London and completing degrees in Cultural Memory at the University of London and History at the University of Cambridge.
Alison has been Executive Director of Kids in Museums for six years. During that time, the organisation has become a Sector Support Organisation funded by Arts Council England, introduced a new programme of museum training and delivered exciting partnership projects including with Walker Books around Where’s Wally?
Outside work, Alison is a Listening Volunteer for Samaritans and a member of the LeadershipTeam at the Croydon and Sutton branch.
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Nicola Bird
Nicola Bird is the Project Manager of MultakaOxford at the History of Science and Pitt Rivers Museum. She has managed MultakaOxford since the project was developed in 2017.
Nicola joined Oxford University Gardens, Libraries and Museums (GLAM) ten years ago, after managing community learning programme in Oxford where she was also a tutor for English as a Second Language, Maths and English. This programme was community-led and based in community venues all over Oxford city, working in partnership across different sectors.
Since joining GLAM, Nicola has worked in community engagement, focusing on person and community-led practice. Within this role she has supported GLAM venues to approach aspects of their work: processes, systems, staffing, events, displays and interpretation so they are inclusive and collaborative, putting mutual benefit at the core.
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Corinne Fowler
Corinne Fowler is a Professor of Colonialism and Heritage based in Museum Studies at the University of Leicester. She co-edited the National Trust report on its properties’ links to colonialism and directs a project called Colonial Countryside: National Trust Houses Reinterpreted. Her most recent publication is Green Unpleasant Land: Creative Responses to Rural England’s Colonial Connections (Peepal Tree, 2020) and a forthcoming book called The Countryside: Ten Walks Through Colonial Britain (Penguin, 2023).
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Follow Colonial Countryside on Twitter
Daniel Lane
Daniel Lane will be taking part in our panel discussion ‘Communities taking the Lead – My World, My Future’. Daniel was involved in the world my Future campaigns that took place across Wessex Museums.
Daniel is a student and aspiring teacher with a passion for the environment and a local to the area for many years. An academic interest in history and geography has helped to cultivate a love for museums like the Dorchester museum, recently helping with some environmental activism and awareness projects aimed at young people in the Dorset area.
The conference would not be possible without the support of Arts Council England. Its funding is allowing us to deliver the conference at a highly subsidised rate.
