Consultancy

Arts&Heritage (A&H) undertakes curatorial support and consultancy work with a range of heritage organisations including small scale independents, local authorities, regional & national museums and archives.

“Birmingham Cathedral really enjoyed working with A&H.  The partnership helped us develop our Arts Strategy, make the most of our opportunities, and think of new ways of to engage people using contemporary art.” – Andy Delmege, Birmingham Cathedral

A&H is experienced at advising on artistic strategies and working in partnership to develop a series of projects and commissions. A&H’s input ranges across workshop facilitation aimed at understanding where the potential for projects might lie; crafting commissioning briefs; researching future partners and identifying and forging relationships with the right artist.

A&H excels in building bridges between the heritage and arts sector and with wider stakeholders. A&H ensures that more artists’ work is seen in a broad range of heritage contexts and that museums and heritage organisations have the necessary tools and understanding to focus on the marginalised or untold stories in their collections and archives. This includes support to engage meaningfully with collaborative or participatory art practices and connect to the communities that surround them.

All A&H consultancy projects are tailored to the client and ensures that any partnership it works with is left feeling more confident about programming and running future commissioning strands. A&H always embeds thinking around legacy and sustainability into its consultancy approach.

Previous clients have included Newcastle University, National Trust, Durham Cathedral, English Heritage, Compton Verney, Ushaw College, Ripon Museums, Art Fund, The Auckland Project, a space, Birmingham Cathedral, Wakefield Council with Knottingley and Pontefract Museum, and Hampshire Country Council with Gosport Museum.

Please email Becky Orwin for further information.

Workshops for Museums

Arts&Heritage provides structured training programmes to curatorial teams and project managers across the heritage sector.  It has experience of delivering action learning projects, inspirational visits and opportunities to meet artists which enables staff to take a new look at programming approaches and feel more comfortable about incorporating contemporary arts commissions and projects into their core programmes.

Previous clients include National Trust properties and a range of independent heritage venues and sites.

Example training modules include:

• Ambition: Why engage with contemporary art?
• The Artist: Strategic programming and the stages of an arts commission.
• Identifying Audiences: Who are you wanting to reach and how to do it.
• Evaluation: What do you want to achieve and what next?

Workshops for Artists

A&H also provide workshops and training sessions for established artists, emerging artists, students and artists interested in working in a heritage context.

Example training modules include:

• How to pitch an idea
• How to respond to a brief from a heritage organisation
• What are heritage organisations looking for in artistic partners

Curatorial Forum

Arts&Heritage is currently developing a national curatorial forum to support curators working in heritage situations and outside of formal gallery spaces. This will be comprised of sharing sessions, meet-ups and group visits aimed at supporting arts professionals, curators and producers working on contemporary commissions and projects.

More news will follow in 2023.

Please email Becky Orwin for further info.