My background is in museums, tourism and community cultural development within a regional setting. This means I rely on and enjoy a partnership approach to projects with an emphasis on cross-community consultation.

My particular expertise lies in strategic planning, policy development and project management with an interest in working with community museums to address issues of sustainability. I also offer assistance with curatorial projects, exhibition development, volunteer management and training and event management.

Having spent time living and working in regional areas means I have a realistic approach to working with small and medium size volunteer-run museums. I genuinely enjoy working with volunteers and people who are passionate about telling their local story and identifying why it’s important to do so. It’s very rewarding to work with communities to develop lateral approaches to problems and ultimately see them realise their ambitions.

Advisors Projects

I am the current Museum Advisor for the Lockhart Shire Council and am working intensively with the Greens Gunyah Museum. Our major project is the redevelopment of the museum following two floods where the waters reached over 1 metre inside the museum!

The museum has been successful in gaining funds to move the collection to higher ground to a new building nearby. So it’s a big project and there’s plenty of work preparing the site for construction, relocating the collection and designing for the best possible facilities.

It’s been great to work with the museum and council because they have adopted a flexible, ‘can-do’ approach to the project. Because funding has come from a variety of sources they have adopted a staged approach to the development; using flexible building modules and accepting a reduction of outdoor display areas necessitating possible deaccessioning of objects. Always a difficult decision!

Personal statement

Access to the Museum Advisors program for me brings great personal rewards. The opportunity to come together with a network of like-minded professionals to share information, develop a strategic approach to lobbying and advocacy and simply to problem-solve is a great opportunity!  I think the outcomes for museums who are involved with the program are somewhat similar―access to information and to a network of expertise. Put quite simply, this is someone with fresh eyes and expertise that can make suggestions and support the great work of local volunteers and councils in an ongoing capacity.