AIM Aspire mentors

Rob Avann

Rob Avann is a values-led Charity Consultant and Interim CEO, with 8+ years’ experience as a charity CEO and 16+ years’ experience as a trustee of 5 very different charities. Rob provides leadership, governance and strategy support to charities, not-for-profits and their leaders based on his experience, skills and passion for social impact. Rob has worked in and around the charity and social impact sector for 20 years in a wide range of capacities. He is led by his values which are integrity, compassion, inclusion, collaboration and flexibility.

Rob is a member of Consultants for Good, a Strategic Applicant Consultant for leading funder The Fore, and an associate with Interims for Impact, Shared Purpose and 4front Partners.

He also holds several pro bono roles across the sector, including acting as a mentor to charity CEOs for ACEVO; acting as a mentor, consultant and action learning set facilitator for Cranfield Trust; acting as a mentor to future trustees with Board Racial Diversity UK/Eastside People; serving as a member of the Management Committee for Advocate’s Bar in the Community service and serving as a member of the Equitable Volunteering Forum, coordinated by the Greater London Authority.

Rob is an experienced mentor to CEOs, trustees and aspiring future leaders. He can support mentees with a wide range of areas, including:

The isolation of leadership
Organisational and strategic development
Personal growth and confidence
Board relationships and Chair/CEO dynamics
Effective and pragmatic governance
Board development and recruitment
Leading successful remote and hybrid teams
Compassionate and inclusive leadership.

Harvinder Bahra

Harvinder Kaur Bahra is a museum and heritage consultant with over 20 years’ experience leading community participation and learning programmes at Tate Modern, the British Museum, Kew Gardens and Chiswick House & Gardens Trust. She specialises in working with underrepresented communities to support access to culture, collections and creativity, by co-developing meaningful projects, building long-term partnerships and embedding participatory practice across organisations.

She has led highly respected programmes bringing together community partners, artists and curators to unlock collections, decolonise spaces, and improve wellbeing by placing equity, diversity and inclusion at the heart of strategy, programming and interpretation. With MuseumConsultant.pro , she supports UK and international museums to excel in community engagement through inclusive language training, helping them build authentic relationships with underrepresented communities and communicate with sensitivity and confidence.

As an AIM Aspire Mentor, Harvinder helps museums reach local audiences, diversify volunteer bases and develop meaningful programmes that improve access to arts, culture and wellbeing. She is particularly well-placed to support museums who want to deepen local relationships, decolonise spaces and develop long-term, meaningful participation.

Rod Barlow

I have been actively involved in developing, advising on, supplying, and implementing commercial systems in museums for over 20 years. I have worked directly with over 200 cultural venues including English Heritage, The V&A, National Portrait Gallery, Antarctic Heritage Trust, BCLM, and many more.

For the last four years I have run a small consultancy practice. We have helped museums define requirements, create funding requests and produce business. Dispelling those myths and equipping leaders with the skills to correctly understand the opportunity and how to deploy such technology to reduce friction, conserve resources and maximise opportunity.

Hilary Barnard

I have experience as a mentor in the AIM Aspire programme and as an AIM Higher consultant. I have co-designed and co- delivered the AIM Spark! programme (now in its 8th series). As part of Spark!, I have coached a wide range of museum and heritage leaders always listening very actively, building confidence and offering support and counsel. My work as a mentor and coach has been across the UK, building the strengths of leaders, supporting them plan ahead, tackle operational and strategic issues with staff, volunteers, Board members and partner organisations ,and secure community engagement. My mentoring and coaching practice is strengthened by my long experience as an Action Learning Set facilitator.

I am the co-author of AIM publications on successful museum governance and on museums pursuing turnaround or facing closure. I am a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, so HR qualified, and have worked extensively throughout the wider charity, not for profit, school and College sectors . My skills as a mentor are particularly suited to leaders address complex and challenging issues, review governance and make change both happen and work.

Alisa Bellingham

Alisa Bellingham has worked in the museum sector since 1996, firstly specialising in museum education before becoming manager of the Museum of Cannock Chase in 2005. She is an assessor for the Sandford Award for Heritage Education, and a Board member of the Museum Development Midlands Oversight Board.

Having spent 29 years working in a small museum, firstly as part of the local authority and then as part of a charitable trust since 2012, Alisa has plenty of knowledge and hands-on experience of the particular challenges and opportunities experienced by small museums. She developed the museum into an award-winning community venue, which won several Visit England Accolades, the Sandford Award for Heritage Education six times, and was successful in obtaining large grant awards from Arts Council England, AIM and NLHF.

Alisa is ideally placed to support and mentor small museums through her own extensive experience in the field. She can support with working towards financial sustainability in small museums, museum education and engagement, customer service, maximising resources and providing high quality experiences. Making a little go a long way and maximising resource is her specialism, and she is also down to earth and friendly, so works well with volunteer-led museums and those without a lot of prior museum experience.

Kate Brindley

Kate brings extensive leadership experience and significant experience in the regional arts and museums sector. She established her own consultancy in 2021 and completed a significant contract as the first Project Director of Arts, Culture and Heritage at the South Yorkshire Mayoral Combined Authority, establishing culture as an investment priority for the region . As a Cultural Development Consultant for Sheffield City Council she led the city’s new culture strategy published in October 2024. In January 2025 she became the Chair of Site Gallery in Sheffield.

Previously, she has led organisations including MIMA in Middlesborough, Bristol’s Arnolfini and its Museum and Art Gallery, plus she was the Director of Collection and exhibitions at Chatsworth House for 4 years until 2020.For 8 years she was the only museums Advisor to Paul Hamlyn Foundation Arts Programme (2008-2016) and Chair of the ‘Our Museums’ initiative steering group leading this ground-breaking £3 million programme of investment and research centred on co-production.

Catherine Brys

I am an experienced coach, mentor and consultant and bring a kaleidoscope of experiences and perspectives. I help organisations and people make a bigger difference. And when you work with me, you will enjoy the journey.

I bring a fresh perspective, working collaboratively and stimulating ambitious thinking.

My expertise spans conflict resolution, strategy development, stakeholder engagement, and visitor experience.

I specialise in particular conflict mentoring/coaching. As a twice-accredited conflict resolution professional, I hold a Postgraduate Certificate in Mediation & Conflict Resolution (University of Strathclyde) and am a certified Good Relations Practitioner. I have extensive experience in coaching individuals through difficult and complex situations.
I also have extensive strategy experience and mentor clients to structure and plan organisational strategy processes that get buy-in from staff and stakeholders.
Through my extensive experience in stakeholder engagement I can mentor you to think strategically about stakeholder engagement and help you define the best approach.
I can help you develop an ambitious vision for your visitor experience using a systematic but pragmatic approach.

My clients appreciate how I help them see clarity in complex situations and guide them to develop pragmatic actions to realise their vision for success.

Dr Cara Courage

Dr Cara Courage SFIPM FRSA is a leading specialist in socially engaged practice, evaluation and impact, progressive museum models and placemaking, with over 25 years’ experience supporting museums, galleries and cultural organisations to embed community voice and public value at their core. She works with boards, executive teams and practitioners to strengthen governance, co-create inclusive strategies, and evidence the social, cultural and civic impact of their work.

A former senior leader at Tate and current Chair of Phoenix Art Space, Cara has shaped sector-wide thinking on civic purpose, participation, place-based working and values-led evaluation. She supports organisations navigating change, complexity and growth, combining strategic rigour with deep community engagement and robust, proportionate approaches to impact and learning.

Internationally recognised for pioneering trauma-informed and citizen-led approaches, Cara is the author and editor of several Routledge titles on placemaking and social practice. Her work brings together creative insight, operational expertise and critical evaluation to help organisations demonstrate impact, make confident decisions and build sustainable futures.

Finella Devitt

Finella Devitt is adept at developing business models which achieve a fine balance between ‘culture’ and ‘commerce’ to maximise sustainability. She typically supports clients navigate through often very challenging but essential periods of change. Whilst it can be easy to generate endless income generation ideas, Finella’s analytical approach helps clients identify those which will optimise operating profit AND fit with vision. She places huge importance on the people aspect of business planning (be it volunteers, staff, trustees/directors or external partners/advisors) to ensure organisations have the experience, expertise and enterprising culture needed to deliver growth

Finella is Director of Azure Oxford working across the UK / Ireland. Many of the business models she has developed for clients have supported major capital and revenue funding applications.

Her former roles include Chief Executive of the House for an Art Lover where she developed a highly successful commercial revenue model, Chief Executive of Loch Lomond Shores, a £60m National Park-based development, where she created revenue-boosting partnerships, Chair of the trading subsidiary of the Centre for Contemporary Art and Board Observer for Collage Arts in London.

Anna Dinnen

In the course of over 25 years working in the arts and cultural sector across England and Wales with organisations of varying size and focus, Anna has developed particular expertise in strategy development, business planning and business modelling, and organisational development. Her consultancy portfolio also includes programme research and design, evaluation, leadership training, and facilitation for both funders and arts organisations. Anna loves to bring creativity and an analytical brain to working with individuals and teams so that they can take stock, reset and re-energise with a clear sense of direction and ambition. Prior to freelancing, Anna was Senior Programme Manager in the Digital Arts and Media team at Nesta and worked for 12 years in Arts Council England’s Organisational Development team supporting change across the funded portfolio and within ACE.

Jonathan Durnin

Jonathan Durnin has over 30 years of experience in economics, heritage, and culture, with a strong track record in evidence-led research, strategic advice, and organisational development for museums. He has supported institutions across the UK with business planning, infrastructure investment, audience development, and advocacy.

His work includes leading research on museum admissions for AIM, ACE, and UK governments, developing the AIM Economic Impact Toolkit, and evaluating major initiatives such as the Museum Development Programme and the redevelopment of Nottingham Castle.

Jonathan is committed to sharing his expertise through mentoring and coaching, drawing on his extensive experience with museums and heritage organisations from Cornwall to the Orkneys. His areas of expertise include organisational sustainability, governance, business modelling, and funding strategy.

He is known for building long-term client relationships—most notably working with Dippy the Dinosaur on tour and in Coventry for over seven years—and for providing dynamic, responsive support to help organisations achieve their goals.

Jonathan is a Fellow of the Regional Studies Association, a member of the Association of Independent Museums and the Museums Association, and an AIM Higher Mentor. He is also a board member for Leicestershire Music Hub and a volunteer with Leicester Wheels for All.

Ciara Eastell

Ciara Eastell OBE is a highly experienced consultant, coach, and facilitator working across the cultural, heritage, and creative industries sectors. With a 25-year career in public service and leadership—most notably as the founding Chief Executive of Libraries Unlimited—Ciara has, over the past six years, built a thriving consultancy supporting museums, galleries, and heritage organisations across the UK.

Ciara’s clients include the Foundling Museum, Royal Cornwall Museum, The Box, Royal Albert Memorial Museum, Barnsley Museums Service, Compton Verney, Wellcome Collection, and Tate. Her work spans mentoring museum leaders through major transformation, strategic reviews to boost sustainability and income, and delivering leadership development and team coaching. She has worked with Tate in various roles over the past 6 years, including a recent 18-month assignment working closely with the Director of Tate Britain on a programme of culture change.

A trained and accredited coach and action learning facilitator, Ciara has coached and mentored museum professionals and teams, helping organisations develop high-performing, resilient leadership. She has also held academic and advisory roles, including Professor of Practice at the University of Exeter Business School, National Council member of Arts Council England, and governor at Arts University Plymouth.

Louise Emerson

I have over 25 years’ experience of leading cultural and heritage organisations and more recently working with museums small and large to achieve their goals and develop their operations. She was previously Managing Director of London Calling Arts Ltd, Head of Business and Commercial Strategy at the Natural History Museum, CEO of Cheltenham Festivals I also develop and deliver leadership programmes.

I am accredited [senior level (EMCC)] and have experience in leading/developing organisations, managing people, income generation & business development, developing Boards, strategic planning and large project management and restructuring.

I have been mentoring professionally for 8yrs at a senior level the museum/cultural/heritage sector as well as in the NHS and small business arena. I am practiced at getting to the essence of what is required to support mentees develop, change and meet their goals.

I have experience of supporting people to increase confidence, harness/develop skills, progress their career, work through difficult situations/times, build their network, deliver projects & effect deep change, design their futures drawing on my experience and knowledge.

Andrew Evans

Andrew Evans is a fundraising, business development, and governance expert who has worked with a wide range of museums to solve difficult problems. Before becoming a consultant and mentor, his last ‘real’ job was as Director of Development at National Museums Liverpool and, previously, Head of Fundraising and Communications at Bluecoat arts centre Liverpool. As a consultant Andrew’s clients have included museums led by volunteers without their own venues, to some of the world’s largest museum groups. Andrew particularly enjoys supporting smaller organisations in rethinking their approach to generating income and looking at governance issues and practical ways of working that can solve problems and unlock growth.

Andrew is Vice-President of the National Library of Wales, trustee of the Equilibrium Foundation grant making trust, and of Civic Voice. He lives in North Wales – but is a great fan of a train (he’s very excited that one of his current clients is Rocket all Aboard) and will happily travel to your nearest station!

Christine Fogg

I am an experienced independent consultant, specialising in leadership and management development at Director and governance level. My consultancy includes leadership, governance and strategy support for a wide range of nonprofits, providing programme design, coaching and facilitation on leadership development as well as undertaking governance reviews for a wide range of organisations from large to small.

One of my roles is as a Consultant and Visiting Fellow within the Centre for Charity Effectiveness at Bayes Business School, where I am co-lead tutor on their Aspiring and New Chief Executive Leadership Programmes at CCE.

For the past 17 years I have worked as a coach and mentor for leaders at all stages of their career, working primarily within the nonprofit and public sector and am an ILM Level 7 qualified coach. As an AIM mentor, I am familiar with the challenges of leading organisations, having held several such roles, and would be able to offer both practical guidance where helpful as well as a good listening to.

I have served as a trustee on several boards as well as being a Chair of one and am currently on the board of my local Citizen’s Advice. I currently co-facilitate AIM’s Spark and AIM Higher Programmes and am enjoying my work with museum leaders whilst being appreciative of the many and varied demands placed upon those holding such roles.

David Gaimster

David Gaimster is an established director, advisor and thought leader in museums and the cultural heritage, having worked in senior roles across the UK and overseas. He has a track record of delivering positive transformation – physical and digital and organisational – enabling cultural institutions to extend their reach, achieve greater sustainability, relevancy and impact, and to thrive in what feels like a relentlessly uncertain operating environment.

David has worked for over 30 years in senior leadership, curatorial, policy and research roles for museums, heritage organisations, universities and for central government, over 20 years of these as a CEO in London, Glasgow, New Zealand and Australia, with staffing ranging from 30 to 300. He is a Fellow of the Museums Association (FMA). Since 2025 he has combined consultancy with the Executive Directorship of Strawberry Hill House & Garden, one of England’s most iconic heritage attractions. Whatever your size or need, David’s lived experience as a cultural CEO can help you to resolve complex issues with advice and support ranging from visioning, strategy, master and business planning, service reviews, collections and digital strategies, content and interpretation plans to mentoring and board development. David combines evidence driven and people centred approaches that ensure the best results and impact.

Sara Hilton

I’m a highly experienced mentor and critical friend, and have worked as specialist advisor for the National Lottery Heritage Fund, the Architectural Heritage Fund and AIM for many years, supporting organisations of all shapes and sizes. As well as commissioned work, I’m also Chair of the Museum Development SW Regional Advisory Board.

As an accredited coach, I love working with museum leaders, trustees and managers to challenge assumptions and encourage innovative thinking – I will not bring top-down consultant solutions, but will support you to find your own solutions. I support organisations of all sizes with:

Governance and board development
Strategy and organisational change
Strategic partnerships – engagement, stakeholder perceptions and impact
Project development – project visioning, project mentoring, project health-checks and investment readiness
Crucial conversations – supporting the sometimes difficult, but necessary conversations that may be needed to enable change.

Sam Hunt

I have acted as a mentor for a number of independent museums, usually as part of wider consultancy work, supporting individual managers and trustees undergoing service transition and management change through one to one conversations either is person or on Zoom calls. As a consultant I have worked with a wide variety of museums, large and small across the country, most recently as mentor supporting newly appointed managers and chairs of outsourced local authority services and museums having to adjust their operation and service offer against declining funding and withdrawal of local authority support. As a mentor I bring wide experience of museum operation having managed a regional and a national museum agency and previously worked in museums as a curator and service manger as well as being a trustee of a number of independent museums, heritage organisations and funding bodies.

Reyahn King

Reyahn is an experienced mentor, facilitator and culture consultant. As such, she can offer mentees structured time to reflect and plan in sessions with individuals and/or teams. Reyahn’s recent facilitation work with senior staff and trustees has included sessions for Birmingham Museums, Bailiffgate Museum and the Falconer Museum.

As a consultant, Reyahn specialises in strategy development, developing realistic, achievable visions in consultation with stakeholders and teams. Recent strategy clients include London Transport Museum and the Hunterian at Glasgow University.

Reyahn was formerly CEO of York Museums Trust, Director of Art Galleries at National Museums Liverpool, Head of Interpretation and Exhibitions and a curator at Birmingham Museums. Reyahn also worked for the National Lottery Heritage Fund and is now a Heritage Fund RoSS framework consultant for public engagement.

Reyahn was a mentor for the Museums Association Associateship scheme for over 20 years. She is a qualified coach as well as a facilitator trained by ICA and the International Futures Forum.

Alex Lindley

Over the years, Alex has worked as a mentor and coach with a wide range of professionals in the cultural sector. She is a Chartered Member of the Chartered Institute of Personnel and Development and runs a consultancy focused on organisation and people development. She can support you with:

Developing leadership and management skills;
Exploring people strategy and organisation design (e.g. team roles and responsibilities), particularly at times of change (e.g. to support capital projects);
Helping you navigate challenging people management and HR issues;
Supporting your workforce through change;
Improving engagement and performance;
Volunteering.

Christina Lister

I’m a marketing and audience development consultant, a Trustee of Kids in Museums, a school governor and author of the book Marketing Strategy for Museums. My experience and interests are centred around reaching, attracting and retaining audiences for heritage and cultural organisations.

This includes marketing strategy, positioning, campaign planning, monitoring and evaluation; audience development plans; audience and non-user research and consultation; and membership recruitment and retention. I have been a mentor on projects run by AIM, the Arts Marketing Association, the Social Enterprise Academy and several museum development organisations, and enjoy supporting and empowering people.

My 20+ years’ experience spans smaller organisations such as the Museum of East Dorset, the Museum of Cambridge, and Jane Austen’s House; and larger organisations including the Science Museum Group, London Museum and Art Fund.

Rosemary Lynch

Rosemary Lynch’s approach to consultancy is founded on forty years’ experience in the arts, museum and education sectors, specialising in leading and managing people and change. As Tate’s Director of Collection Care, she was responsible for the care of the national collection and the delivery of Tate’s worldwide programme andwas an advocate for programmes designed to build skills and share collections and knowledge across the UK. Throughout her career, she has re-imagined services, working on the ground and with the board/external partners to develop new vision and strategy, including six years as a member of Tate’s Executive group. She has an excellent record in delivering ambitious objectives within tight budgets and working collaboratively to transform teams and cultures.

Rosemary has been working as an independent consultant, mentor and coach since 2021, focusing on strategic approaches to leadership challenges. She has a clear understanding of the relationship between vision, strategy, people, culture and resource and how these elements interact to “create the conditions” for success. She enjoys using her cross-sectoral knowledge to support diverse organisations with stakeholder engagement, strategic planning, sustainable business modelling and successful cultural change. Her professional experience and core values of openness, inclusivity, rigour and accountability are the cornerstones of her practice.

Lucy Marder

Lucy Marder is a consultant, coach and facilitator specialising in organisational development in the cultural sector, with museums at the heart of her practice. An experienced and highly trained mentor and coach, she supports leaders to reflect, prioritise and build capability, combining practical frameworks with a collaborative, encouraging approach. Her work builds resilient leadership and sustainable organisational practice.

Earlier in her career, Lucy worked on redevelopment teams for two Museum of the Year award winners, launching new art galleries in each. She also spent several years in Museum Development, advising hundreds of museum leaders – executives and trustees – and serving as South East Leadership and Workforce theme lead.

Lucy has MBA‑level training in organisational change and Chartered Management Consultant status (highest accreditation in the field) ILM Level 7 Diploma in Leadership Mentoring and Executive Coaching, Professional membership of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council and Associateship of the Museums Association.

AIM Aspire mentee feedback: “I thoroughly enjoyed working with Lucy. She struck the right balance between challenge and support whilst giving me space to share lots of examples… It felt like a true privilege to dedicate time to focus entirely on myself – my concerns, my goals and my growth.”

Hilary McGowan

Hilary McGowan is one of the UK’s leading consultants working in the museum and heritage sector, Hilary has run her own business since 1996 so has great depth and breadth of experience in managing, developing and leading organisations through changing times. Her background as a museum director in York, Exeter and Bristol gives her a pragmatic approach. She is a specialist in governance and leadership, and works through creating customised workshops, coaching, mentoring alongside a range of tailor-made support. Hilary is the author of the AIM Success Guide for Board Away Days.

Her recent publications (co-written with Piotr Bienkowski) are Managing Change in Museums & Galleries: a Practical Guide, 2021 and the new Leadership of Inclusive & Sustainable Cultural Organisations, 2025, both published by Routledge.

Ruth McKew

Previously a curator I have long experience of encouraging museums to develop new audiences and supporting them to create engaging interpretation and exhibitions. Curiosity drives my interest in consultation and how best to help people discover our museum collections and stories, and informs my strategic approach to designing interpretation. Recent work has reignited an interest in collections storage and how poor storage and lack of collections information is impacting our engagement and knowledge of collections.

I’d love to support museums who are thinking about new interpretation or exhibition planning or thinking about a new approach to collections storage.

Julie Molloy

I have over thirty years’ experience in the cultural sector, having previously enjoyed senior leadership roles at National Gallery Global Limited as Managing Director, The Royal Academy of Arts, and The Royal Collection. Since 2023 I have held the role as Senior Consultant at The Revels Office and have worked across a range of strategic, commercial and business planning assignments in the visual and performing arts arena.

I have proven and demonstrable experience in strategic development, guest experience, commercial development and implementation, driving and managing meaningful change programmes and increasing organisational capability and effectiveness.

I have strong technical skills in financial planning, business management and process improvement, and my entrepreneurial approach as a coach/mentor is both strategic, supportive and practical.

I am a Trustee of Watts Gallery and currently chair their Trading Company Board.

Colin Mulberg

Colin Mulberg has over 30 years practice working across museums, arts, heritage and natural environment in the UK and internationally. He specialises in supporting venues of all shapes and sizes to make the most of all their assets and reach their true potential.

Colin works collaboratively with governing boards, trustees and senior management to review and improve their short-, medium- and long-term resilience. Support Includes:

Reviewing current earned income steams; highlighting most fruitful activities; identifying possibilities for expanding current activities and introducing new income opportunities.
Supporting project development and delivery, including capital and National Lottery projects – reviewing project phases and lifecycle, resource demands, staffing structure, decision process, schedule, bottlenecks, delivery risk, etc.
Mentoring and training governing boards and staff to understand the visitor viewpoint and move towards a visitor-focus.

Colin is a Fellow of the Museums Association (FMA) and a senior leader in the sector. He has extensive experience as a registered NLHF Consultant and a strong track record of developing and managing visitor-facing projects.

John Nicholls

I specialise in working mostly with the leaders of small to medium scale arts, cultural and heritage organisations to deliver positive and transformational change. Working in the sector for 30+ years means I know how to ask the right questions at the right time, creating a safe space where its ok to talk openly and frankly and in confidence where necessary in order to find appropriate solutions.

In supporting AIM members in this context, my practice is underpinned by:

A successful track record of leading on business Options Appraisals designed to identify, benchmark, prioritise and implement new and viable revenue diversification activities, reduce costs, and strengthen financial resilience while maintaining true to objects, vision, and values.
A background of delivering resonant business plans often for organisations embarking on this process for the first time.
Experience of supporting organisations strengthen and extend approaches to strategic partnership working and amplify visibility and benefits particularly in placemaking.
Successful and longstanding experience of Trustee succession planning, recruitment, induction, and retention delivery, designed to address skills needs as identified via skills mapping.
An appreciation of the realities of trusteeship and of fulfilling the expectations of serving as Chair, having served on Boards for over 25 years.
A high level of credibility & gravitas while remaining open and friendly and a genuine curiosity in helping clients shape and explore new opportunities.
A longstanding track-record in public and private sector fundraising, securing and stewarding revenue, capital, and strategic support from central and local government, statutory and lottery funding bodies, philanthropic grant-makers, and the business community (high-level sponsorships, affinity partnerships and CSR grants).
Engaging effectively with High-Net-Worth Individuals (HNWIs) where in addition to soliciting significant support for arts, cultural and heritage clients, I specialise in embedding HNWI fundraising best practice and a culture of positive stewardship in organisations new to this area of giving.

Andrea Nixon

Andrea Nixon MBE FRSA is a highly experienced executive director and cultural consultant with a strong track record in change management, strategic place-making, governance, partnership programming, business development, and fundraising. She has worked with a wide range of clients across the UK cultural sector, including the National Trust, National Museums Liverpool, Arts Council Collection, and the English Civic Museums Network.

Since founding her consultancy in 2018, Andrea has led cultural strategies for places from Salisbury to Birkenhead and supported numerous museums and galleries in developing sustainable visions and operations.

Previously, she was Executive Director of Tate Liverpool (2006–2018), where she led major transformations in programming and business models during Liverpool’s European Capital of Culture year. She also served as Director of Development for Tate London (1998–2006), contributing to the creation of Tate Modern and Tate Britain.

Andrea has held national board roles with Arts Council North, the Crafts Council, and The Audience Agency, and chaired the V&A Dundee Advisory Council through its pre- and post-opening phases. She is currently Chair of the Liverpool Everyman and Playhouse Theatres, a Trustee of Harewood House Trust, and a Director of The Reader CIC. She was awarded an MBE for services to the arts in 2019.

Nicola Nuttall

I have many years’ experience working as a mentor and critical friend with people at all stages of their careers from students to senior managers. I currently provide mentoring and leadership services for SW universities, The Clore Foundation, Cause4, Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy and multiple heritage and arts organisations.

Thirty years’ experience as a consultant and senior manager across the cultural sector (especially with museums, heritage, universities, and arts organisations) has given me real insight into both good and bad practice -allowing me to find the most appropriate development pathways for organisations and individuals.

I am used to working in complex situations – advocating for change, generating good practice and with a real talent for nurturing the myriad skills and experience within each organisation and individual I work with. I strive to get the best out of people through empathetic, collaborative, and clear communication – recognising that change can be a frightening thing for some. I am a vehement supporter of individual opportunity – especially for those trying to find their confidence and place in the world.

Mairead O’Rourke

Mairead O’Rourke is a consultant, facilitator, and coach with over arts 20 years’ experience in the museums and heritage sectors. Her work includes undertaking lottery funded organisational and governance reviews, supporting the development of business plans and developing research and guidance.

She enjoys working with boards of trustees and teams to find consensus and clarity in times of transition. Mairead’s publications include ‘Making the Most of Your Museums: A Guide for Councillors’ and she has undertaken research projects for The National Archives, Arts Council England and The Art Fund.

Mairead is an Accredited coach and has been a trustee of two heritage organisations. She is a trustee of the Museums Association Support Fund and a Museum mentor.

Emma Parsons

I am an experienced mentor for AIM and for National Lottery Heritage Fund, supporting those working in the heritage and culture fields to flourish and thrive. I have worked in museums as an employee, senior manager and consultant for 30 years, bringing that experience and knowledge to my mentoring. Whilst my museum specialisms are audience development and engagement, marketing and fundraising, my consultancy work is much broader to support you in strategic decision-making and helping organisations to thrive. I am trained as a Relational Dynamics 1^st Coach, experienced in self-directed learning to help you find a solution to your issues.

Raj Pal

I visit last week to see the “Victorian Radicals” exhibition at Birmingham museums brought me face to face with “The last of England” by Ford Maddox Brown. I first came across this painting 25 years ago when I started my career as a curator. With a brief to think of new ways of interpreting to make the museum and collections relevant to a diverse, multi-cultural city, I was constantly frustrated by being told time and again, “Ah, you see, nearly all our collections are Eurocentric.” The distinction between European and non European collections in museums was and is often a way of thinking that holds many heritage institutions back from making themselves relevant to diverse communities that they seek to serve. ‘Last of England’ proved to be my first reposte to such a deeply ingrained resistance to change.

While on surface a classical example of a traditional ‘English’ painting – and not even a particularly good one at that – upon a more creative interpretation, Last of England has an emotional universality and appeal that makes it almost a symbol of a modern city shaped by migration. In it one can see the joys, expectation, ambiguity, fear, loss of the known as you take a leap into the unknown to seek life, not just for you but the infant you are carrying with you, in a strange new land. And much more. It is, I believe is a wonderful example of using new, imaginative ways of seeing that have the potential of freeing us and our institutions form the shackle of fusty old narratives from a time when the world was very different from the one we live in. This is precisely the approach which potentially opens the museum’s collections to interpretations and collaborations with artists nationally and internationally. It is this attitude of encouraging and releasing creative ways of imagining and re-interpretation that I will encourage among mentees.

Adele Patrick

As a trainer, coach and, or mentor for individuals and teams working in varied organisational settings, I support people to better understand ‘relational dynamics’ whether leading themselves or leading others. My mentoring approach is grounded in coaching principles centring a coachees/mentees specific needs whilst sharing tools gained over thirty years working in collections, in partnerships, with funders, communities and stakeholders. I have worked in and with others in a wide range of challenging contexts; in academic, community and museums settings. A co-founder and co-Director of Glasgow Women’s Library, a Board member of V and A Dundee and an EDI Advisory Board member for Creative Scotland, my practice is focussed on supporting equitable working, values led leadership and effective professional development. My aim is to support people working in museums with people and with collections to develop and sustain productive and positive workplaces, excellent, accessible programmes and impactful resources.

Joanna Ridout

Joanna Ridout offers over 35 years’ experience in senior management and as a board member in the independent creative sector including museums, galleries and the performing arts. She has a practical and wide-ranging understanding of the challenges in running small to medium-scale cultural organisations and working with boards of trustee/directors. She specialises in bespoke facilitation, planning and mentoring and is also an Action Learning expert (advanced ILM endorsement). She was the Lecturer for the vocational MA in Arts and Cultural Management at the University of Winchester from 2015-2021.

She has worked with 100+ organisations in strategic planning across staff and board teams, including helping them to articulate purpose, manage change and build understanding across operational management and governance. Joanna has acted as a leadership, strategic and management mentor, or as one of her clients says, a ‘sense-maker’. Her range of experience beyond museums, on Boards, in Senior Management and through Action Learning can offer fresh perspective and enable new ways forward.

Examples of Joanna’s work include Hampshire Cultural Trust as part of Arts Council England’s Catalyst ‘Inspiring a Culture of Philanthropy’ programme across museum management teams, Manchester Palace Theatre and Opera House Trust, Birmingham Royal Ballet and Ambassadors Theatre Group, the Independent Theatre Council and Harlow Art Trust.

Kate Rodenhurst

Kate Rodenhurst has been a consultant for around eighteen years, working with a range of museums, heritage and arts organisations. She started her career in the sector working on outreach and community partnerships at National Museums Liverpool where she was involved in the initial development of Museum of Liverpool and International Slavery Museum. Much of Kate’s work focuses on fundraising, facilitation and evaluation, especially of NLHF and ACE funded projects, and she can support mentees to consider how to put effective evaluation in place for the organisation as a whole or a specific project. Kate is a confident facilitator and works with small organisations to help them think through strategy and planning, and she has lots of experience in supporting museums and heritage organisations to develop the seed of a project idea through to the submission of successful funding applications.

Kate Rolfe

Having worked with both major institutions (National Gallery, Natural History Museum, BFI, V&A Dundee) and smaller organisations across the UK (Cultivator Cornwall, mothers2mothers, Leicester Print Workshop, Tara Arts, Blandford Fashion Museum), I understand a range of challenges that people face within the cultural sector. Coming from the commercial side of arts organisations, I have an unusual mix of experience to offer – commercial development, marketing and audience development, and programming. I have also dealt with many situations requiring skills in diplomacy, collaboration and negotiation, as well as managing change, all of which I can support someone to develop their own skills in. I have managed many different teams and projects and have positive feedback on my management style; I will be able to share what I do but also listen to a mentee and work with them to develop their own style to team or project management. I have significant experience with supporting with mental health and tackling systemic challenges related to career progression, access, diversity and inclusion, all of which I can draw on as a mentor.

Anna Sexton

Anna B. Sexton is an award-winning creative leadership coach, startup scale-up advisor, and enterprise mentor with over 30 years’ experience working across museums, galleries, heritage, and the wider cultural sector. She specialises in designing and delivering bespoke, accessible, and results-driven programmes that support cultural leaders and founders to grow sustainable organisations in complex, evolving environments.

Anna works commercially with established business, social enterprises through her cultural leadership work bringing deep expertise in leading change, launching new ventures, and building income-generating strategies within mission-led organisations, enabling clients to balance cultural integrity with commercial performance.

She brings this commercial practice to support high-growth startups and university spin-outs through leading institutions including Imperial College London and Loughborough University, where she serves as an Expert in Residence and Business Advisor. In these roles, she supports founders to develop commercial strategy, drive revenue growth, strengthen sales and partnership pipelines, and scale resilient operations.

Anna’s client portfolio includes AIM, the Royal Worcester Museum, the Gordon Russell Design Museum, Hackney Museum, the V&A, John Lennon Art School, and The London Transport Museum. In 2025, she was recognised globally as the winner of the inaugural DOHE ESCA Start-Up Ed Tech Coaching Award for her work accelerating digitally driven startups across the arts, health, and education sectors.

Rachel Shepherd

Back in 2016, I dipped my toe into freelance fundraising almost by accident. While I was working as the Head of Development for a museum, a local hospice needed grants and trusts support while they recruited for a permanent role.
“Just one day a week,” they said. “Maybe a few months.” 12 months later (recruitment was tough back then!), they found the right person and I’d discovered something important: I absolutely loved this way of working.

Here’s what I learned: Coming in with fresh eyes meant I wasn’t caught up in the “we used to do…” or “we tried that before…” culture. I could look at the fundraising situation clearly, work with the team to create a realistic way forward, and then hand it over to them. The key? Empowering their staff to fundraise for themselves, not just doing it for them. Small charities don’t need someone to swoop in and save the day. They need sustainable, robust fundraising they can own.

Since then, I’ve worked with charities across heritage (my background – I was a Senior Manager at an independent museum for over 10 years), healthcare, hospices, animal welfare, and social justice. These days, I support small-medium sized charities with practical fundraising strategies, grant writing, donor relationships, and getting boards engaged with fundraising. I work in person with charities in the West Midlands and online with anyone across the UK.

I’m a very keen tea drinker and always up for a chat about fundraising.

Sabina Strachan

Dr Sabina Strachan is a consultant, trainer and collaboration expert who has worked with strategic stakeholders for 25 years across heritage, culture, the creative industries and higher education. She is practical in her approach and skilled at helping people get to the root of issues. She uses inclusive, visual and creative methods to solve problems, step-by-step processes to help navigate complexity, and collaborates with clients to determine what approach is going to work best for them.

Sabina supports museums to overcome a diverse range of challenges: from audience diversification, volunteer recruitment, team development and effective governance to strategy development, partnership and income diversification to capital project business cases, stakeholder management and operational development. She has worked with a wide range of organisations, from small volunteer-run centres to local authority services, such as the Alasdair Gray Archive, Scottish Fisheries Museum and Hartlepool Museums & Archives.

Sabina formerly headed up the Scotland office of BOP Consulting and has worked in heritage management and research development. She is a Creative United CIC business advisor, SWAN Autism trustee and Out of the Blue Arts & Education Trust trustee/director.

Ruth Taylor

I am an experienced mentor having worked recently as a Connected Communities Mentor for AIM supporting a Kent Museum in developing their volunteering offer with vulnerable groups and devising a social return on investment. I have also mentored museums for GEM including a heritage leader in Portugal. I have worked for more than 30 years in and with museum and heritage organisations in learning, interpretation, evaluation and community development, including leadership roles at the National Trust and Royal Horticultural Society. I am now a trustee of a small military museum and recently successfully gained an National Lottery Heritage fund bid for £200k+ to fund a new museum exhibition. I worked for 13 years for the National Trust changing their approach to interpretation and chaired the Association for Heritage Interpretation for 6 years, I am also an experienced project manager. I have recently spent 11 years developing community partnerships to enable greater access for young people to arts, creativity and culture.

I am a caring and supportive mentor and can offer support and mentoring in leadership, project management, fundraising, problem solving, strategy, relationship building and stakeholder development, learning, interpretation and exhibition development, community development and evaluation. My MBA qualification enables support in business development and improvement. I have a particular interest in environmental conservation and use of outdoor spaces with a PhD in behaviour change. I am passionate about enabling access to museums and securing their future especially by increasing their relevance to a wider group of visitors through interpretation.

Joe Traynor

I have over twenty year’s experience in local authority and independent museums, and have strategic experience in national organisations. I have expertise in accreditation and the Scottish Recognition Scheme and have been a professional mentor for many years, including in the AMA scheme. My areas of interest are many and varied, from professional development and career guidance, collections and exhibitions, apprenticeships and education, community engagement and under-represented audiences, to fundraising and governance. I’m a firm believer in asking questions and getting the information that is right for your situation. Mentoring is also reciprocal, so I’m keen to learn from you too!

Iain Watson

Mentoring is a shared learning journey. I always start by spending time listening to the mentee and helping them work out what they need from the relationship. I believe I can offer particular support with professional development, cultural enterprise and business planning, board and leadership development, audience development and engagement and evaluation.

My experience of running museums of a great variety of sizes coupled with very varied consultancy and board experience – much of it working with small museums – has allowed me to learn and develop personally and professionally and I would seek to share this learning with mentees.

I also offer the challenge the mentees often need and will, where appropriate, seek out the challenge of the things that ‘can’t be changed’ as they are often the things that, at least, need to be explored.

Stephen Welsh

Stephen Welsh (he/him) has over twenty years’ experience developing and delivering arts, culture and heritage projects. He is currently the Head of Exhibitions and Public Programming at the University of Liverpool.

From 2020 to 2025, he worked as a freelance consultant, providing tailored support in co‑creation and other participatory approaches. Between 2007 and 2020, he was the Curator of Living Cultures and Acting Deputy Head of Collections at Manchester Museum. Prior to this, he was Project Curator at the International Slavery Museum, National Museums Liverpool.

Stephen served as a committee member of the National Lottery Heritage Fund North from 2016 to 2025. In 2025, he joined the board of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre and Education Trust and became a steering group member for AIM’s Safe Access programme.

Dr Alexandra Woodall

Dr Alexandra Woodall is a values-led cultural consultant, formerly Head of Public Engagement, Curatorial and Collections for York Museums Trust. She has managed creative programmes in museums and galleries for almost 25 years and has undertaken consultancy in the UK and internationally. She also has extensive academic and teaching experience. A strong advocate for workplace wellbeing, she is co-founder of GLAM Cares (a support network for community engagement practitioners) and instigated the MA’s Sticks and Stones research on bullying in the sector. She is based in Sheffield.

Alex is highly experienced at supporting organisations to be values-led and audience-focused, particularly through creative facilitation and co-production. She has expertise in:

enabling teams to develop audience-focused strategy and vision
facilitating idea generation (often using objects)
mentoring staff, trustees and volunteers through challenging circumstances.

Sophia Woodley

A senior consultant at The Audience Agency, Sophia has 15 years’ experience across the arts, culture and heritage sector. Her mentoring experience spans AIM, NLHF and AMA programmes, with a focus on audience development and people-centred practice, digital R&D, and business models, innovation and resilience. She is a former board member of the Arts Alliance of Northern New Hampshire.

On the Arts Council England financial and business advisors framework, Sophia helped organisations experiencing major challenges to understand their assets and build sustainable business models – without compromising their mission.

Sophia has created digital strategies for museums large and small, and delivered digital R&D projects both in the heritage sector and the wider creative industries, including an NLHF-funded grant programme helping archives use digital to engage diverse communities. As a mentor for NHLF’s Digital Heritage Lab, she worked with Cynon Valley Museum, HMS Wellington, The Poetry Archive and World Heritage UK.

With a DPhil in History from the University of Oxford, Sophia is passionate about bringing heritage to wider audiences. Her background in user research means that – whether looking at business models or a digital offer – her focus is always on the people served by museums. She’s a Certified Member of the Market Research Society.