Rachel Adam
At every stage in your career within museums it is helpful to talk through the current challenges and opportunities. As a mentor and coach, I start by listening and asking open questions to understand what you want to achieve, what is currently going well and what any barriers might be.
My experience includes building and sustaining cross sectoral partnerships, co-creation, evidencing wellbeing impacts and fundraising. I draw on rich learning as Director of Museums Northumberland bait (Creative People and Places in Northumberland), Director of Juice (Newcastle Gateshead’s festival for children and young people) and Head of Development at The Sage Gateshead.
Harvinda Bahra
I have been working as a Connected Communities Mentor since the beginning of 2024, supporting a regional heritage organisation through the expansion of their community offer. I have over 15 years working within museum, gallery and heritage settings (Tate Modern, The British Museum, Kew Gardens, English Heritage/Chiswick House & Gardens). This has given me substantial knowledge and unique experience of working within the museum and heritage sector. Building community programmes from ground up and co-developing projects and partnerships that connect local audiences to collections, histories and stories. I have been at the forefront of developing museum practice and engagement that supports marginalised voices, challenges hierarchies of knowledge and pushes for visibility and inclusion.
I would be keen to share this experience with colleagues across the sector, supporting others to develop their confidence in community engagement, understanding of co-design, participatory practice and effective collaborative methodologies.
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 been a mentor in the AIM Aspire programme 2024. I am a highly experienced coach and mentor. As part of the AIM Spark! and Connected Communities programmes and AIM Higher I have coached a wide range of museum and heritage leaders listening very actively, building confidence and offering support and counsel.
I am the co-author of AIM publications on successful museum governance and on museums facing closure. I am a Chartered Fellow of the CIPD, and have worked extensively throughout the wider charity, not for profit and school sectors throughout the UK. My skills as a mentor are particularly suited to leaders developing strategy and business plans, reviewing governance and considering significant organisational change and development. Website: http://www.hilarybarnard.com
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.
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.
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. Visit: www.samhuntconsulting.com.
Sara Hilton
Reyahn King
Reyahn is an accredited coach and seasoned museum leader. As such, she can offer mentees structured time to reflect and plan in coaching sessions and/or professional advice. Support, advice or development needs to be identified by the mentee and agreed in a mentoring plan for the sessions. Reyahn is a consultant who 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 National Lottery Heritage Fund and is a Heritage Fund framework consultant for public engagement.
Sarah Lawrance
I can draw on over 30 years’ experience of management and leadership in different parts of the museum sector.
I would offer mentee/s a safe space to reflect on their challenges and opportunities and support to address or change their situation in ways that enable them to move forward.
I would spend the first session building rapport, developing understanding, discerning aims and goals for the mentoring, and agreeing timescale and dates. In subsequent sessions I would use a coaching model (eg GROW) to structure our conversations and provide appropriate feedback, reflection or other intervention. I would be happy to be contacted outside the sessions, if needed.
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; membership recruitment and retention. I have been a mentor on several projects run by AIM, the Arts Marketing Association and the Social Enterprise Academy, and enjoy supporting and empowering people.
My experience spans smaller organisations such as the Museum of Cambridge and Jane Austen’s House; and larger organisations including the Science Museum Group and Art Fund (marketing for the Student Art Pass and Teacher Art Pass products).
Lucy Marder
As a museum leader, day-to-day pressures and decision-making can seem all-consuming. A skilled coach and mentor, I help create purposeful time for reflecting and planning. I offer confidentiality and listen. Asking the powerful questions that help you work through both concerns and opportunities. My many years’ sector experience include being on the development teams for two Museum of the Year award winners and serving as an advisor to museums large and small. I hold Chartered Management Consultant status, the highest accreditation in the field, and Professional Membership of the European Mentoring and Coaching Council.
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. 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.
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 universities, The Clore Foundation, Cause4, Arts Fundraising and Philanthropy and multiple heritage organisations as a consultant.
My own substantial experience as a consultant and senior manager across the cultural sector (especially arts, heritage and museums) have given me real insight into both good and bad practice – then aligning organisations and individuals to the most appropriate development pathways.
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.
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 1st Coach, experienced in self-directed learning to help you find a solution to your issues.
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 contexts. 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’s my practice is informed by equitable working, ongoing research and values led professional development. My aim is to support people working in museums and with collections to develop and sustain productive and positive workplaces, excellent, accessible programmes and impactful resources.
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 and enterprise mentor, specialising in crafting bespoke, accessible, and practical programs for emerging to established cultural leaders in museums, galleries, and the wider contemporary arts. With over 30 years of experience as a creative freelancer and coach, Anna combines strategic expertise with a deeply human-centred approach, enabling her clients to thrive in dynamic, complex and evolving environments.
Her grounded experience in person-centred, community co-design processes allows her to launch new projects, services, and strategic or capital programs successfully. She integrates clinical solution-focused mental health practices and she uses her lived experience of neurodiversity to champion balanced, sustainable change processes that prioritise well-being, creativity and lasting results.
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 recognized on the global stage as the winner of the inaugural DOHE ESCA Start-Up Ed Tech Coaching Award. This accolade celebrates her exceptional work supporting digitally driven, educationally focused start-ups in the arts, health, and education sectors.
Rachel Shepherd
As a professional with over 15 years working in the heritage industry and with third sector organisations, I offer a unique perspective on fundraising and strategy development. My experience as a mentor with the RAISE Arts Mentoring Scheme has honed my ability to listen and build support based on your unique situation. I bring a respectful attitude to our interactions, ensuring a supportive and productive mentoring relationship. By understanding your specific challenges and goals, I can provide tailored guidance to help you succeed and grow in your professional journey.
Ruth Taylor
As a Connected Communities Mentor I have supported a Kent Museum in developing their volunteering offer with vulnerable groups and social return on investment. I have had a varied career working across museums and heritage in learning, interpretation and evaluation and now as a trustee of a small military museum. I have held leadership roles and developed programmes working across arts, science, gardens and the environment. As a mentor I can offer support and coaching in leadership, project management, problem solving, relationship building, learning and community development. My MBA qualification enables support in business development and improvement in a museum, and I have spent 11 years developing community partnerships involving people working with young people to enable access to arts and culture.
Joe Traynor
Rhian Tritton
“Work is more fun than fun,” according to Noel Coward. Once work stops being fun, an outside perspective can help to identify what’s draining the joy from your job or blurring your sense of purpose. I’ve had a long career working at a senior level in and with independent, local authority and national museums, the National Trust and Historic England. My specialisms are interpretation, collections and education and, more broadly, governance, management and organisational change. I’m a trained counsellor and AMA mentor and will work with you to identify what’s blocking your progress and will help you move forwards.
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
As a cultural practitioner, I provide a range of services to help museums connect with a wider range of people and their associated communities, cultures and collections. I specialise in working with museums to develop and deliver approaches to co-creation with communities that support the diversification and democratisation of decision-making in an effort to create and sustain more equitable, diverse and inclusive collecting institutions. Having been a member of the National Lottery Heritage Fund North committee since 2016, I also have a unique insight into and extensive knowledge of the wider heritage sector and current issues and opportunities.
Sophia Woodley
I’m a senior consultant at The Audience Agency, with nearly fifteen years’ experience in the cultural sector. My expertise includes audience development and people-centred practice; design and delivery of R&D projects; business models and innovation. I’m a former member of the Arts Council England Financial and Business Advisors Framework and an experienced mentor for AIM, AMA and others. I take pride in my ability to ask the right questions, helping to develop new perspectives on old problems.
Recent work includes “Digitally Democratising Archives,” an NLHF-funded project bringing communities and archives together for action research, and a major project to understand potential users of Towards a National Collection. I have a PhD in History and a particular interest in archives and social justice.