Idle women trainees

Last week, I felt privileged to be able to visit the Idle Women trainee producers and trainee gardeners in Accrington and spend the day with them. I helped to recruit these women earlier in the year, some of whom came via Humraaz in Blackburn - an organisation which supports women survivors and their families affected by violence against women and girls.

The trainee producers programmed the day and the trainee gardeners gave me a tour of their allotment. We had a lovely lunch cooked at the allotment and I was given some beetroot to take home which we roasted with our Sunday dinner. Delicious!

GEM Conference 2025 in Leeds

A few weeks ago I was in Leeds for the GEM Conference 2025 on the theme of Sustaining Our Practice – Sustaining Our World. I led a workshop with Ashley Almeida from the British Museum which focused on Working with Young People: Sustainability, Progression Routes and Responsibility, as a time to discuss and voice any concerns in a safe and confidential space. We asked five questions - you can see one of the questions with the responses below.

We then looked at some of the responses together, and ended the session by asking everyone to write an action on a postcard to take away. This could be an individual or a group action, thinking about breaking it into small achievable steps if it was a big goal, with a timescale. Some people shared their action with the person next to them, and others chose to keep their action to themselves.

The rest of the GEM Conference was a good mix of speakers, practical sessions, visits and networking. I am still reflecting on the theme and my experiences but I particularly enjoyed a practical session exploring the new SEND Generic Learning Outcomes and a visit to the Henry Moore Institute and Leeds Art Gallery, where I met Angie Thompson who works with care experienced young people. Thanks to Louise McAward-White from Fair Museum Jobs who gave me a CV surgery too!

New contracts

As we head into autumn, I am pleased to be working with two new clients - the Arts Students’ Union and Westminster Abbey. I am running a networking session for UAL students for the Arts Students’ Union, and I am acting as a critical friend for Westminster Abbey - supporting them to be able to offer two week work placements for the Kings’ Trust. Watch this space!

Recording of GEM's panel discussion on Inclusive Career Pathways at the M+H Show

I am pleased to be able to share a recording from the M+H Show in May of the panel discussion I organised for GEM on Inclusive Career Pathways in Museums and Heritage.

Thanks again to the amazing panel of speakers: Emma Middleton & Shereka Dunbar from the Foundling Museum, Ruth Garde and Kyle Jordan from Curating for Change/Visibility at Accentuate, and Louise McAward-White from Fair Museum Jobs; as well as Jane Sillis, Director at engage, who chaired the talk.

You can watch the recording here

GEM Inclusive Pathways Action Research Programme

I’m delighted to be managing Group for Education’s Inclusive Pathways Action Research Programme for which we have selected seven museums, or groups of museums, from across England, to receive a contribution of up to £5000 made possible through GEM’s three year Investment Principles Support Organisation (IPSO) Programme from Arts Council England.

This action research programme supports projects that are aimed at unlocking barriers to work experience, work placements and inclusive pathways, be it new initiatives or developmental work of existing work-based programmes.

The seven recipients are as follows:

  • Museums Development South West (Bristol Museums)

  • National Football Museum (Manchester)

  • University of Cambridge Museums (with Westminster Adult Education Service)

  • Horniman Museum and Gardens (London)

  • National Paralympic Heritage Trust (Aylesbury)

  • Culture Coventry Trust

  • Brunel Museum (London)

This programme will culminate in a public online dissemination event during March 2026, with many of the projects continuing beyond this date. I am also creating a Community Practice Group around this programme for anyone who would like to be involved in online inclusive pathways discussions and to be invited to the culminating online public event. To join this Community Practice Group, email me at rach@particip8tion.com

GEM Case Studies publication - Careers in Museums

I’m excited to launch the new GEM Case Studies publication - Career Pathways in Museums. It features an introduction from me, followed by an article on making fairer career pathways by Louise McAward-White from Fair Museum Jobs. There are 19 other contributors who have written articles about the amazing career-related work they are doing. Our aim is that this publication will inspire you to think about which offer, or element of the different models, might enable your museum to provide work-based opportunities for young people. You can access this free publication here

Connected Audience Conference

I really enjoyed presenting at the Connected Audience conference in Berlin last week, on behalf of the Group for Education in Museums (GEM). My presentation was titled You can’t be what you can’t see! Challenges to enabling workplace opportunities for young people in museums, galleries and heritage organisations in the UK. There were many interesting presentations - from the UK, within Europe and beyond - and I enjoyed hearing from those working in theatres and other spaces, as well as from museum settings. Now I’m back home I have a number of interesting case studies and new connections to follow up on. Thank you to the Institute for Research on Cultural Participation (IKTf) and partners for organising such an amazing event!

M+H Show Panel Discussion on Inclusive Career Pathways in Museums and Heritage

I really enjoyed attending the M+H Show last week and putting together the panel discussion for the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) on Inclusive Career Pathways in Museums and Heritage. Thanks to the amazing panel of speakers: Emma Middleton & Shereka Dunbar from the Foundling Museum, Ruth Garde and Kyle Jordan from Curating for Change/Visibility at Accentuate, and Louise McAward-White from Fair Museum Jobs; as well as Jane Sillis, Director at engage, who chaired the talk.

As a freelancer I enjoyed the networking as well as attending some of the other talks including Jaime Starr‘s talk on the People’s History Museum about “We Have Always Been Here” – Highlighting Marginalised Voices in Permanent Collections.

ERIC Creative Careers Talk

I was excited to present a careers talk for ERIC this morning as part of National Careers Week. Each day there have been a wide range of speakers under different themes, and today was the Arts & Culture day. I kicked off the line up by talking about my career journey, some of the places I’ve worked in, more about what I do, what jobs you can do in museums & galleries, and how young people can think about working in museums & galleries in the future. #NCW2025

Idle Women Traineeships

A few weeks ago I was privileged to spend the day with Rachel, Cis and the team working at Idle Women based in Accrington and Nelson, near Burnley. I am supporting them in setting up traineeship roles in gardening and producing for four to six women who are from local refuge Humraaz, an organisation for Black and Minority Ethnic women who are survivors of domestic abuse and all forms of Harmful Traditional Practices.

In the morning, I visited Idle Women’s community space to meet the women and consult them about the roles. A delicious lunch was then cooked by one of the women. In the afternoon, we visited the allotments in the rain to plant fruit trees and it was great to hear about some of the women’s childhood experiences in other countries of growing plants and looking after animals. The day ended with a visit to Idle Women’s Physic Garden, soon to be open to the public, where the barge the Selina Cooper is moored - named after the local working class suffragist and built by local women as an artist residency and workshop space. I am mainly working remotely on this project, but I am already looking forward to visiting in summer to see everyone again and to see how the fruit trees are growing.

Recommended reading below - Idle Women on the Water which can be purchased here


Reflections on 2024 & thinking ahead to 2025

2024 was a busy year working with both regular and new clients. This included:

  • New Contemporaries - evaluating Young New Contemporaries for under-represented young people studying an art A level, to support them into creative careers, as well as carrying out research with some of the New Contemporaries alumni artists;

  • Tate - running training sessions and evaluating their mentoring programme matching Tate staff with Tate Collective Producers;

  • Foundling Museum - evaluating their Tracing Our Tales art and creative writing traineeships, as well as their new alumni trainees group;

  • London Transport Museum - reviewing relevant toolkits across the museum sector, and beyond, to help inform their future toolkit about their Young People’s Programme and careers offer;

  • Group for Education in Museums (GEM) - continuing with the research focusing on Work experience, work placements and inclusive pathways by disseminating to GEM members via the area and nation groups, and creating a toolkit to support the members. In addition, I ran a workshop at the GEM Conference in September 2024 and gave a presentation at the Museums + Heritage Show in May 2024;

  • Royal Museums Greenwich - recruiting and training up a Peer Research team to consult with other young people to inform their future youth programme.

I am excited for 2025, continuing to work with New Contemporaries, Tate, the Foundling Museum and the Group for Education in Museums, with two new clients:

  • National Paralympic Heritage Trust (NPHT) - working in collaboration with freelancer Siân Rosa Hunter Dodsworth to evaluate their inclusive approach to working with neurodiverse and disabled people, with my area of focus being their work placements with young people and traineeships with adults;

  • Idle Women - supporting them in setting up a traineeship programme for the women they are working with from local refuge Humraaz for Black and Minority Ethnic women who are experiencing domestic abuse and all forms of Harmful Traditional Practices.

Watch this space for more news in 2025. Happy New Year everyone!

GEM online Toolkit on Work experience, work placements & inclusive pathways

I am excited that, as part of Discover! Creative Careers Week, I have now launched with GEM the GEM toolkit on Work experience, work placements and inclusive pathways with big thanks to all of the contributors especially the case study organisations. We do hope it will be helpful in supporting museum & heritage staff to offer work-based opportunities for young people. Watch this space for further work on this, including Case Studies #34 focusing on Careers Pathways in Museums to be launched in March 2025.

GEM Conference 2024

I attended the GEM conference in Bristol from 11-13 September and enjoyed delivering a workshop, which was a mapping exercise as part of my work with GEM on work experience, work placements and inclusive pathways. I began with a short presentation on the research so far, and then everyone introduced themselves by placing a postit with their name and organisation on a large map. They responded to the following questions  either through discussion or adding to the mapping exercise:

  • What do you already offer or are aware of in your local area?

  • What are the challenges & barriers?

  • Where are the gaps?

  • What partnerships are enablers? 

  • Where could connections be made that don’t already exist?

  • What support would you like to see from GEM?

We then ended with everyone writing down on a postcard one thing they could take away as a follow up to initiate change within their organisation or local area - which could be something big or small.

Other conference highlights for me were the keynote speakers Turi King and John Falk, the workshop I participated in focusing on career confidence led by Liz Fraser-Betts from Dot Dot Dash Coaching, and the Museum Bums tour of Bristol Museum & Art Gallery. It was my first conference in real life for six years so good to reconnect with peers I hadn’t seen for a while and to make some new contacts. Thanks to the GEM team for a brilliant experience!

Group mapping exercise: work experience, work placements and inclusive pathways.



A Summer of European History & Culture

We are lucky to be able to spend our summers abroad with our kids in our camper van and this year we went further afield, starting in Belgium, and heading to Munich via Luxembourg, and then back via Lake Constance and France. This year historical and cultural visits included Art Gallery Am Tunnel, the National Museum of History & Art, and the Bock Casements in the stunning Luxembourg City, along with the Haus de Kunst (Munich), the Kloster Andechs (Herrsching), and the Mercedes Benz Museum (Stuttgart) in Germany, and the Centre Pompidou- Metz, Chateau Musee Vodou (Strasbourg) and various stained glass windows in the cathedral & churches of Metz (including those designed by artists Jean Cocteau and Marc Chagall) in France. We also had a day trip into Stein am Rhein in Switzerland where we visited the St George’s Abbey Museum and the Museum Lindwurm.

Two of the highlights of our trip were, firstly, the Museum Haus Dix where artist Otto Dix lived with his wife, Martha, and their three children from 1936 until his death, in 1969. This house is located in Germany on a hillside with a view over Lake Constance, between Gaienhofen and Hemmenhofen. There weren’t many of his famous artworks there - most are in the Kunstmuseum Stuttgart, sadly closed when we were there - but they dealt with this well by putting monochrome images of these paintings on the interior walls of the house where they think they were hung. You could scan a QR code to find out more about each of the artworks, as well as hear about the history of the house and also family life from one of Dix’s relatives. Secondly, the Weissonhof Museum located on the edge of Stuttgart, which is based in two semi-detached houses designed by Le Corbusier and Pierre Jeanneret, as part of the Weissenhof housing estate. This estate was built for the 1927 Deutscher Werkbund exhibition in Stuttgart, Germany. It was an international showcase of modern architecture's aspiration to provide cheap, simple, efficient, and good-quality housing, and architect Mies van der Rohe was in charge of the project. The building was simple yet stunning in terms of it’s design and highly conscious of utilising space, including having a roof terrace. The rest of the estate - with a few buildings sadly destroyed - is privately owned but each has a plaque outside with information about the architect and an interior floor plan.

The Weissonhof Museum on the edge of Stuttgart

M+H show recording

I’m pleased to now be able to watch the sessions I missed at the M+H show and to share the recording of my talk as part of the Group for Education in Museums (GEM) talk on The Future of Museum & Heritage Learning. Take a look here

Speaking at the M+H Show in May

Royal Museums Greenwich

I am excited to be working with the young people’s team at Royal Museums Greenwich to recruit and train up a team of Peer Researchers to consult with local young people over the summer. This will help inform their next phase of programming .

Young New Contemporaries Zine launch

I am enjoying working with New Contemporaries on evaluating their pilot Young New Contemporaries (YNC) programme, run in partnership with the Institute of Education and supported by Art Fund Reimagine. As the culmination of Year 1, the group of Year 13 students (who are studying an arts related A level) have produced a zine which was launched at Camden Arts Centre during April. The YNC programme will continue to support the students next year as they go on to further study, creative practice or employment.

For more information about the YNC programme, the zine and the zine launch take a look here

Museums + Heritage Show

I was delighted to be speaking on day 2 of the Museums + Heritage Show as part of the talk The Future of Museum & Heritage Learning along with Rachel Tranter and Kara Wescombe-Blackman from the Group for Education in Museums (GEM). I was speaking about the work I am doing on Work experience, Work placements and Inclusive pathways, and now have a number of conversations to follow up on after my talk and from the networking sessions I attended in the afternoon. It was my fist time at the show. I will be back next year!