A deep desire to keep learning and find new projects to contribute to has led to the founding of ‘Heritage, History & Her’, a business and website that combines my academic learning and practical experience to produce content and experiences that make research findings accessible. I focus on identity, the heritage sector, social and cultural history, and historical making.
Using the gendering technique that encourages consideration of intersectionality, I’ll help you find the stories and experiences that objects can share. Using collections as visual props for storytelling allows audiences to engage in a truly immersive way. Often the information you want to share relies on having a pre-existing awareness of how things work, which means what you can share it with the public becomes over simplified. By finding relatable connections and experiences, I can help you get across even the most complex of topics.
My work brings findings and research to life through engagement, living history, theatrical development, social media, and marketing. Interpretation and its diversity are the core of what I do, and each project is personalised to the client.
To me, interpretation is the method of how the information gets from the experts (be that museum professionals or the community with lived experience) to the public in order to educate them and have them share in this knowledge.
Engagement allows you to fully adapt the offer to different audiences and reach new community groups, forming partnerships that can benefit your setting for years to come.
Intangible heritage is central to our understanding of culture and where ideas come from, and hands-on experiences really help connect to how the past was ‘real life’ – with daily tasks and experiences just like today.
I’m particularly interested in learning through making and how the trying endangered crafts can help both public engagement and expert knowledge.
This video shows my ability to work within limitations – we didn’t want to give away any of the plot but we wanted to sell more tickets to the live performances. The video also had to be filmed around the set up for the performance – often having just 5 minutes before performers returned to rehearse.
These elements mean this style also works well for volunteer clips – where a video cannot be planned in advance, instead using what’s available.
The filming of the church clock was also done to mimic the idea that it had been filmed by one of the central characters which is why it has an old camcorder style and is slightly shaky.
The Spyglass Project was a collaboration between 17Nineteen and Theatre Space NE for a co-curated piece of theatre interpretation telling the stories of the church itself and Old Sunderland.
This video aimed to create the idea of Becconsall as a mysterious place waiting to be discovered. it leaned into the overgrown, natural feel of the site and turned this into a marketing point. It is carefully designed to avoid the public arriving at the site before we officially open but creates the idea in their heads to inspire future visits.
The site is an old Brickmaking factory and so many people are unaware of how green and thriving the site is – expecting a brownfield site.
This video was made as part of a marketing plan and content creation for Becconsall: Lancashire’s Living Museum and Heritage Park.
This video shows how I take complex ideas and make them accessible and interesting to the public. For example ‘crash course’ gives the video more of a mass appeal. I also had to ensure all images I used were copyright free and work out how to intergrate me talking with the slide show based format.
A version of this video was originally produced to promote my Stories Told in Stitches exhibition at the Museum of Cornish Life.
Often, new ideas haven’t been done or tried due to fear of not meeting certain requirements or values—be this fitting a Master Plan or a fear that a community group may go too far off-piste. I will resolve this by researching the context around an idea and helping it adjust to wider aims. This could involve checking the accuracy of a reenactment or living history character or researching which ticketing software best fits your needs.
Smaller organisations often experience confusion over events—they fall under Marketing, Commercial, Engagement, and Outreach. I will combine these elements to ensure a clear plan for their delivery. This also includes working with community partners, freelancers and local to form sustainable relationships for the benefit of most.
My skill in translating complex ideas and concepts into language and references a certain audience group understandings, also applies to funders. I’ll take your drafts and reword them to fit the different interests and values of the funders so they realise the brilliance of your plans.