About me
I’m a UK born museum educator, trainer, facilitator, author, coach and podcast host based in the Netherlands.
I love teaching people the secrets of facilitating engaging experiences with art and objects. I enjoy sharing techniques to help people to engage and connect with museums, art, objects and ideas.
I work online and in-person with educators, guides, teachers and creatives worldwide to help them to confidently design and lead engaging inquiry-led museum experiences for any audience.
I have my own podcast The Art Engager where I share a variety of easy-to-learn flexible techniques and tools to help create participant-centred, inquiry-driven experiences that bring art and objects to life.
I have just published my first book, The Art Engager: Reimagining Guided Experiences in Museums. The Art Engager provides museum professionals and educators with the tools and techniques to facilitate engaging discussions and connect audiences with art and museum objects.
I’m an ILM Level accredited coach (Level 5 in Effective Coaching and Mentoring) and have a Master of Museology from the Reinwardt Academy in Amsterdam.
SPEAKING
Host a workshop at your organisation, an event in your area or request me to support a conference. Over the past decade I’ve facilitated hands-on workshops and delivered keynote speeches at a large number of conferences worldwide.
I design and facilitate all of my speaking engagements to be participative, interactive and thought-provoking whilst providing practical and relevant steps to inspire participants towards action and change.
I’m happy to tailor a presentation or workshop to meet the needs of your unique audience. My areas of expertise include: slow looking, fostering curiosity and engagement with art and objects, the Thinking Museum® Approach , questioning strategies, how to connect and engage with audiences, how to transition from traditional to interactive guided tours, how to create great guided experiences.
Some of the international conferences I’ve spoken at: MuseumNext Live (x4), ICOM CECA (x2), Project Zero Perspectives (x2), Museum Congres Netherlands, ECSITE, Stories that Move International Conference, British Museum Objectively Speaking Conference, Museums Guides Now, and many more.
Most recently, I’ve delivered (interactive) keynote talks at the Telus Spark Science Centre (Sept 2023), the Swedish Association of Museum Educators Annual Conference (FUISM) in Stockholm (Nov 2023) and at ICOM CECA annual conference in Singapore (Nov 2023).
In 2024, I presented a workshop at the American Alliance of Museums (AAM) conference in Baltimore and MuseumNext Live in London on slow looking.