The Equity of Recruitment - A "Fair" Process?
A Curating for Change Sector Forum
About this forum
Join us at this free online sector forum, which aims to equip delegates with tools on how to deliver an inclusive recruitment practice for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent applicants.
Curating for Change tackles the serious under-representation of D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people within our museums. With the support of The National Lottery Heritage Fund and Art Fund we have appointed 8 Curatorial Fellowships and 7 Traineeships in 20 partner museums across the country.
Our aim is to demonstrate that any museum, whatever its size, type or location can open-up access to all within their workforce.
This sector forum will explore the lessons learnt from the recruitment phase of the programme. We will bring together, lead advocates for inclusive recruitment practices in the museum sector, CfC partner museums who have enacted change within their organisations and our Fellows and Trainees with that lived experience. Through a mixture of presentations, panel discussions and reflection this event will offer practical approaches to inclusive and equitable recruitment. Ideas and experiences explored at this forum will contribute to guidance we are writing for the sector, which will be launched early November 2022.
We encourage those leading on recruitment in human resources teams, senior leadership and line managers designing roles, and hosting interview panels within museums to attend this free forum.
When
Thursday 13th October 2022
10:30am - 3pm
Breaks will be included
Online Event
Links will be sent out to those who book a ticket through Eventbrite
Click here for the Eventbrite link
Tickets for this sector forum are free
Meet the Sector Forum Speakers:
The Screen South Team:
Jo Nolan’s producing and company management experience covers a wide spectrum of film, media and arts; including, Features, Shorts, Theatre, Publishing; Design, Exhibition and Training nationally and internationally. Jo oversaw the set of the Screen South’s Accentuate programme as the lead programme for the South East Cultural Olympiad offer in 2012. She has worked closely with Esther Fox, Screen South’s Head of Accentuate supporting delivery of History of Place and Curating for Change for over 12 years. She has a BA Hons Expressive Arts, Brighton, and PG Dip New Media & Film Birmingham. Jo is a voting member of BAFTA and a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts. More recently Jo has been lead producer for BBC Arts New Creatives South
and C4’s Radom Acts delivering over 170 shorts and Interactive projects
by new talent for Broadcast.
Jo Nolan
Screen South, MD
Esther Fox is a Programme Director, Artist and Researcher, interested in exploring the synapses between medicine, art, museums and ethics. Esther is the Head of the Accentuate programme, creating opportunities for D/deaf, disabled and neurodivergent people to participate and lead in the cultural sector. She is currently taking the strategic lead on Curating for Change, working with over 20 Museums across England to deliver a programme for disabled people wanting to pursue a career in Museums. Esther is also a trustee for Hastings Contemporary.
Esther Fox
Head of Accentuate, Screen South
Emily Goff joined Screen South as Curating for Change Project Manager in June 2022. Emily is an experienced volunteer manager and museum educator who has worked for a range of independent, national and university museums and collections over her 12-year career.
Emily has recently achieved Qualified Teacher Status through a PGCE in Primary Education at Canterbury Christ Church University, which builds upon her MA in Museums and Galleries in Education.
Emily Goff
CFC Project Manager, Screen South
The Sector Forum Chairs:
Tamsin's career has focussed on workforce and organisational development, in public and private sectors, moving to the cultural sector over 20 years ago. Starting as head of training for the Science Museum Group, Tamsin led the function and implemented innovative leadership development at National Museums Scotland, highlights include the development of their Competency Framework. Tamsin's role at the Museums Association looks at workforce, from research to funding, strategy to delivery, providing career workshops, speaking on ethics, equity, and wellbeing; and leading formal professional development, mentoring and online learning programmes.
One of Tamsin's career highlights is Sticks and Stones: Bullying in Museums which highlighted the scale, extent and diversity of bullying experience. The report and recommendations aim to affect sector change.
Tamsin continues to volunteer in the sector: on behalf of Scottish Government on their Recognition Scheme Panel, with Arts Council England sitting on the UK Accreditation Committee, as an executive Board Member, leading on inclusion, for Heritage Volunteers Group, as a steering group member for GLAM Cares, a care and support network for the sector.
Tamsin Russell
Workforce Development Office, Museums Association
Transforming perceptions throughout his 35 year career in the creative industries, Andrew Miller is recognised as one of the UK’s most influential disability advocates with extensive experience of the arts, film and broadcast sectors.
Starting out in broadcasting, Andrew belongs to the first generation of disabled presenters of British television and went on to produce and direct tv arts documentaries. Subsequently becoming the first wheelchair user to run a major UK arts venue, he is now a prolific cultural commentator and his consultancy supports major new cultural infrastructure such as the University of Oxford Schwarzman Centre for the Humanities and Coventry City of Culture.
Andrew is a National Council member of Arts Council England, a trustee of the Royal Shakespeare Company and BAFTA. He is Chair of the BFI Disability Screen Advisory Group and in 2020 co-founded the UK Disability Arts Alliance #WeShallNotBeRemoved, where he developed the Seven Inclusive Principles which helped shape the cultural sector’s pandemic recovery.
Between 2018-21 Andrew was the UK Government’s first Disability Champion for Arts & Culture, establishing the role as a powerful campaigning platform for greater inclusion across the arts, museums and film. His pioneering career has been recognised by the National Diversity Awards, The Stage Awards, The Shaw Trust Disability Power 100 Top 10, The Stage 100 and in the 2021 New Year Honours.
Andrew Miller
Cultural Consultant
The CFC Fellows and Trainees:
Iris has a background in researching digitisation as a way of creating accessible museum displays. Her dream is to curate an exhibition on disability history in Estonia, her native country, and to be a voice for both disabled people and migrants in the British museum sector. She is also an artist and community organiser in Greater Manchester, doing charity work and making art about her experiences with chronic illness, growing up neurodivergent, and being a working-class immigrant in the north of England. She is extremely excited to be a part of Curating for Change, and can't wait to share fascinating, diverse stories with you all.
Iris Sirendi
CFC Fellow at Museum of Liverpool
Andrew is currently Curating for Change Trainee at Imperial War Museum, Duxford. Andrew is a History graduate, has a Masters in Museum Studies and has some voluntary work experience in museums. He has a keen interest in Military and Social History and the stories that can be told from collections, research and oral histories. He is gaining experience in curatorial work and exploring these interests further at Duxford. Andrew is due to complete his traineeship at the end of October and is hoping to pursue a career in curation.
Andrew Permain
CFC Trainee at Imperial War Museums
Karl Anthony Mercer is an autistic writer, poet, musician and communicator with a passion for improving access and diverse voices in culture and heritage; fuelled by his working class upbringing and a late diagnosis of autism. Karl believes anything and everything can be interesting if you can find the right story to it. His main subjects of interest are biology and natural history (please ask him about wasps, he will make you love them!) and Roman history; particularly the late Republic into early Principate period, and early Roman Britain. Karl is currently furthering his interest in Roman Britain as the Curating for Change trainee at Colchester and Ipswich Museums. after which he hopes to further his career in heritage in a collections, curatorial or engagement role.
Karl Mercer
CFC Trainee at Colchester and Ipswich Museums
Nina Thomas is a deaf artist and aspiring curator. As an artist, she is particularly interested in absences and silences in collections and archives. She has exhibited at venues and events such as Liberty Festival, The Crypt Gallery (NW1) and Tate Modern (Tate Exchange and Tate Lates). Nina believes a properly inclusive society benefits us all. She is interested in the work the heritage sector is doing to welcome and include marginalised voices. She worked on the National Disability Arts Collection and Archive (NDACA) to archive the history of the Disability Arts Movement and is a founding member of The Film Bunch. She has also worked on access and advisory projects at the V&A, British Ceramics Biennial, The Wallace Collection and The British Museum and she is a trustee at Stagetext.
Nina Thomas
CFC Trainee at Horniman Museum and Gardens
The CFC Museum Partners
Many moons ago, Kate completed an MA in Museum Studies in Leicester and has worked in the culture sector ever since. For the last twenty-odd years, Kate has lived in Cockermouth on the edge of the Lake District first managing a National Trust house and then an arts centre. She works currently as Head of Partnership for Cumbria Museum Consortium, collaborating across Tullie House Museum, Wordsworth Grasmere and Lakeland Arts. When she’s not at work, Kate loves exploring all things cultural and natural in a VW van.
Kate Parry
Head of Partnership, Cumbria Museum Consortium
Natasha is the Interpretation and Digital Content Producer at the Ashmolean Museum of Art and Archaeology in Oxford. She works on the Museum's large-scale temporary exhibitions, but she has also been helping the museum introduce new perspectives and new voices into the permanent galleries via a growing number of co-curated projects. Latest to be launched is a brand-new audio tour 'Rebellious Bodies' which you can find for free on Smartify. She is currently sharing her first CFC fellow, Kyle Jordan, with the Pitt Rivers Museum.
Natasha Podro
Interpretation and Digital Content Manager, Ashmolean Museum
Zena McGreevy is Exhibition Officer at the Pitt Rivers Museum and with Natasha Podro from the Ashmolean is currently working with Curating for Change Fellow Kyle Jordan.
Zena McGreevy
Exhibitions and Special Projects Officer, Pitt Rivers Museum
Bryn Hammond is the Principal Curator, Collections at Imperial War Museums
Bryn Hammond
Principal Curator, Collections, Imperial War Museums
Sector Leaders
Richard Sandell is Co-Director of the Research Centre for Museums and Galleries at the University of Leicester. Through his teaching and research with wide ranging cultural organisations he explores new ways to advance equity and inclusion in the sector.
Prof. Richard Sandell
Director of Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, University of Leicester
Louise is a co-founder of Fair Museum Jobs, campaigning for fairer and more equitable recruitment in museums and heritage. Louise has worked in GLAM for nearly 15 years across front of house, learning, curatorial, visitor experience and collections systems. Outside of work Louise is a Trustee for Dyspraxic Me, a Director at Dacorum Heritage and mentor for GEM and Arts Emergency.
Louise McAward-White
Co-Founder, Fair Museum Jobs
Kamran Mallick joined Disability Rights UK as its Chief Executive in July 2017. He is the former Chief Executive of Action on Disability, the Hammersmith-based disability organisation, where he worked for 13 years. Kamran has also worked for the spinal injury charity Aspire as well as running his own training and consultancy business.
He serves on the boards of the Lyric Hammersmith, Wheels for Wellbeing and Lloyds Bank Foundation. He is a former chair of Candoco dance company and board member of Inclusion London. He is also a member of Gatwick Airport Passenger Experience Group and a former member of Transport for London’s Independent Disability Advisory Group.
Kamran was included in the Shaw Trusts Powerlist 100 - Most influential disabled people in 2018 and was in the top 10 in 2020.
Kamran Mallick
CEO, Disability Rights UK
Justine is the Founding Director of Sporting Heritage, the UK wide subject specialist network for sporting collections and access, and The Neurodiverse Museum, the UK wide development organisation aiming to change the way museums work with, and for, neurodivergent people. Previously, Justine ran her own cultural consultancy, was Yorkshire Outreach Manager for BBC Learning, Deputy Head of Learning at the National Media Museum, Education Coordinator at National Museums Liverpool, and, in a previous life, a Senior Producer and programme maker with Granada Television and the BBC. Outside of work, Justine led the creation of Tutti, the Leeds Community Concert Band, in which she plays tenor and alto saxophone, is a keen kayaker, dog owner, and supports a wide range of parents in accessing support for their neurodivergent children.
Dr Justine Reilly
The Neurodiverse Museum
