Key Partners and Participants
US Partner: The Peale Center for Baltimore History and Architecture, Baltimore. The Peale Center is a center for Baltimore stories, based in the oldest museum building in the United States. It works with local creators – storytellers, performers, artists, architects, historians, students, educators, and other culture-keepers – to produce and share authentic narratives of the city, its places, and the diverse people who have made Baltimore what it is today. By creating a more inclusive cultural record of the city, the Peale aims to help people everywhere see Baltimore in a new light. It is also a laboratory for museum practice, testing, incubating, and sharing new models for sustainability in the cultural sector. The Peale Center is based in the oldest purpose-built museum building in the United States and is currently operating out of the Carroll Mansion through 2020 while its historic building is under renovation.
The key participant on behalf of the Peale is Nancy Proctor, Director, of the Peale Center and a principal in the Museums and the Web (MW) conferences, publications, and foundation. Nancy has significant experience and an international profile in digital programming. Previously Nancy was Deputy Director of Digital Experience and Communications at the Baltimore Museum of Art (2014-2016), Head of Mobile Strategy and Initiatives at the Smithsonian Institution (2010-2014), and Head of New Media Initiatives at the Smithsonian’s American Art Museum (2008-2010). Nancy has committed 12 days of her own time plus further staff time and Center resources to the DigiPICH programme.
UK Partners:
The Royal Pavilion and Museums Brighton and Hove. The Royal Pavilion Museums Brighton and Hove is a local authority museum service which oversees collections and programming at 5 sites throughout the city of Brighton and Hove, in a variety of historic buildings including the Royal Pavilion Estate (1780-1830) which includes the Royal Pavilion itself; the Brighton Museum; and the Pavilion Gardens. The service also provides advice and support to voluntary-run museums and heritage organisations within the city: The Old Police Cells Museum, the Fishing Museum, the Toy and Model Museum, West Pier Trust and West Blatchington Windmill. first opened in 1873, the Mayor of Brighton declared that it would: “Inspire the minds and morals of the people, forget the busy world and afford pleasure and consolation from illness or depression.”
The key partner is Kevin Bacon. Kevin is presently Digital Manager for the Royal Pavilion & Museums, Brighton & Hove, where he is responsible for managing digital publishing, digital skill development and information management within RPM, along with supporting digital marketing activity. He is a qualified data protection practitioner, also an occasional Visiting Researcher at the University of Brighton. His interests are digital storytelling; behavioural models for museum audiences; the social role of civic museums; and scalable digital skill development within the museum sector. Kevin has committed 15 days plus cash resources to the DigiPICH programme.
The De La Warr Pavilion, Bexhill on Sea. The De La Warr Pavilion on the South Coast of England occupies a purpose-built modernist building (1935) commissioned as ‘the People’s palace for art and culture’, designed by Erich Mendelsohn and Serge Chermayeff. It aims to cultivate talent, inspire creativity and provide opportunities for interactions between artists and audiences, providing integrated cultural programmes that are accessible and relevant to the world in which we live. The Pavilion is a venue where artists from different disciplines and audiences can meet, engage and share their thinking and ideas. Offering free access to exhibitions all year round, plus live performances, a dynamic learning and participation programme, indoor and outdoor events, and bespoke venue hire. DLWP attracts 420,000 visitors per year.
The key partner is Rosie Cooper, Head of Exhibitions. Rosie has worked at the De La Warr Pavilion since 2016, where she has developed a distinctive new curatorial vision for the institution that combines local operations with global context, making use of DLWP’s history and location to consider the role of cultural institutions in civic life. Significant projects include the internationally praised exhibition Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance Acts 1, 2 and 3, co-curated with Nottingham Contemporary (2018-20), How Chicago: Imagists 1960s & 70s, co-curated with Goldsmiths CCA (2019), and Mikhail Karikis I HEAR YOU, a new commission co-produced with Project Art Works, an experimental artist-led studio for neurodivergent artists in nearby Hastings. Cooper was previously Head of Programmes at Liverpool Biennial. In 2016, she led the team to present new commissions by 44 artists across 21 sites. She was previously curator of the public programme at Barbican Art Gallery. She has edited and contributed to a number of publications and catalogues. Rosie has committed 15 days to the programme and other DeLa Warr Pavilion staff will contribute a total of 23 days to the programme.
Contribution of US Partner
Hosting workshop 1; participating in workshop 2. Welcoming and supervising staff on exchange (Project 3); Delivering and evaluating Project 2. Contribution to research outputs 1, 2 and 4 and impact events 1 and 2.
Dr Lara Parry: Principal Investigator
My research interests align along two related axes, which are my subject specialisms in nineteenth-century British art and culture, and the history of art museums and art collections. In both trajectories my key concern is how gender and related social formations (sexuality, the nation, the modern) organize the production and circulation of visual images. A key focus for me is portraiture, which proves a particularly rich seam of material in British and related visual culture, but I have also enjoyed working outside my period specialization in collaborations on feminist-informed projects relating to art exhibitions, collections and museums.
https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/lara-perry
Rosie Cooper: Co-Investigator
Rosie Cooper is Head of Exhibitions at De La Warr Pavilion. Since 2016, she has worked with colleagues to develop a new curatorial vision that harnesses the institution’s progressive, internationalist heritage to stimulate exhibitions, performance and learning for 420,000 annual visitors. Significant projects include Still I Rise: Feminisms, Gender, Resistance, co-curated with Cédric Fauq and Irene Aristizábal, How Chicago: Imagists 1960s & 70s, co-curated with Goldsmiths CCA (2019), and Mikhail Karikis I HEAR YOU, co-produced with Project Art Works (2019). Previously, she was Head of Programmes at Liverpool Biennial, leading the team to present commissions by 44 artists across 22 sites in 2016. Before that she was Public Programme Curator at Barbican Art Gallery.
www.dlwp.com
Kevin Bacon: Co-Investigator
Kevin is Digital Manager at the Royal Pavilion & Museums (RPM), a service of five museums in the city of Brighton & Hove in the south east of England. With previous experience in working in both front of house roles and as a collection curator, he became RPM’s first digital lead in 2011. In this role, he has led numerous digital initiatives, including the presentation of its online collections, in-gallery interactives, mobile tours, and the redevelopment of its primary website, alongside regular training programmes for staff. Kevin is an experienced public speaker who has presented at conferences and events throughout the UK and internationally. He has also delivered training sessions and workshops for a variety of organisations, including the British Council, Collections Trust, and the London and South East Museum Development services. Kevin holds Master’s degrees in Political Philosophy and Digital Media, and is a qualified data protection practitioner. He is a Visiting Researcher at the University of Brighton where he teaches on the MA Curating Collections and Heritage course.
Dr Audra Buck-Coleman: Co-Investigator
Audra is a designer, educator, author and facilitator. She has written, art directed, curated, designed, authored, directed, and collaborated on numerous design projects including Sticks + Stones, an international multi-university collaborative graphic design project that investigates stereotyping and social issues, and Redefine/ABLE, an online social media exhibit that addresses disability, ableism and inclusion. Her practice focuses on social design, social design assessment mechanisms, and the ways art and design can create positive change in communities. She holds a PhD in sociology from University of Maryland, College Park, an MFA in two-dimensional design from Cranbrook Academy of Art, and a Bachelor of Journalism from University of Missouri-Columbia.
https://audrabuckcoleman.com/
Ashley McCormick: Co-Investigator
Ashley McCormick is Head of Learning & Participation at the De La Warr Pavilion. She leads on an inclusive cultural learning programme created through collective deliberation and action. Programme activity harnesses the organisation’s pro-social and progressive heritage, to combat social inequalities and develop healthier communities and better futures by fostering connections, curiosity, understanding, skills, creative potential and agency. She has initiated several Arts and Health projects, engaging people experiencing social, emotional and mental health challenges and others living with aphasia, dementia and learning disabilities. Previously she worked within a number of award-winning urban design practices, led engagement programmes for Open City and Tate Britain, and taught at London Metropolitan University and West Dean College of Arts and Conservation.
https://www.museweb.net/member/ashleymccormick/.
Dr Craig Jordan-Baker: Co-Investigator
Craig Jordan-Baker is interested in how creative writing articulates itself as a subject of academic study and what that means for how writing is taught. Despite being an academic subject for well over a century, there is a lack of clarity about what creative writing is for and how it relates to the other humanities and arts, as well as how it relates to public engagement in museums and in the interpretation of collections. These questions is important because behind each conception of creative writing, there are assumptions about creativity, the role of interpretation, the socio-cultural view of the artist and the unity of the arts.
https://research.brighton.ac.uk/en/persons/craig-jordan-baker
