It all begins with an idea…
My name is Tonia and I’ve been working in museums for the past 20 years, 15 of those at management level. I’ve focused on small museums where the room for growth and development is uninhibited, and the stories are unique to each community. I’m a passionate believer that engaging people with history at a local level, leads to a life-long love of, and passionate advocay for, museums!
When not working for my clients or developing resources, I can be found on my allotment, in a bookshop or writing in a coffee shop somewhere.
Take a brief gallop through my career below.
Current Clients
Share Museums East
Taking the Mystery out of Diversity. Very excited to be working with Share Museums East to deliver practical EDI training to a small cohort of museums in the east of England. The programme will run from May to June. More details on the SME website.
Association of Independent Museums
Freelance Project Support Officer for the New Stories New Audiences grant programme – a fantastic new scheme for small museums.
Everything to Everybody
Part of the evaluation team for this amazing multi-arts, multi-cultural Birmingham heritage project. We’re evaluating the impact of this NLHF funded project on local communities as the First Folio goes on tour in 2022.
Tenbury Wells Museum
As project development consultant, I’m helping this volunteer-led museum prepare for a new lease of life by carrying out a feasibility study and writing funding bids.
Hundred Heroines
I’m really pleased to be working with this innovative arts organisation within Gloucester. They are dedicated to raising the profile of women in photography and I’ll be helping them with some funding bids through 2022.
During 2021, I’d also been freelance programmes admin for AIM on their History Makers, Pilgrim Trust and Hallmarks grants. A great experience, seeing the grant process from the other side and one that’s going to be really useful with future clients!
Training
Mental Health First Aid Aware
As part of my commitment to supporting better workplaces, I took part in this training in March 2022 and will be developing easy-to-use resources for museums as a result.
Equality, Diversity & Inclusion
Diversity and inclusion is vital to museums and it was a priviledge to be on the training provided by West Midlands Museum Development and Inclusive Boards.
Collections Care & Accreditation
Social Media and Marketing
Volunteer Management
Website & Social Media Content Accessibility
Training aimed at creating web and social media content that’s accessible, useful and interesting for blind and visually impaired users.
Leaders Programme
Provided by the Association of Independent Museums, this year-long training gave a solid grounding in leadership, strategic planning and organisational resilience.
Employment
The Almonry
Almonry Museum, Evesham. My very first museum role! I worked here for 14 years, the last nine of them as manager. I learned a lot about staff management, Listed building management, collection care, Accreditation and wrote a successful £1.4million National Lottery Heritage Fund (formerly HLF) bid.
Tudor House Museum
My last Museum Manager role at this intriguing little site took everything I’d previously learned and mixed it all together. I managed staff, volunteers and a Listed building. During my time, I increased visitor numbers by 40% and successfully managed an NLHF funded project involving capital works and a museum-wide redevelopment of the interpretation.
The Coffin Works
For two years, I was their Volunteer and Operations Manager, during which I learned so much about the effective use of social media, volunteer management and growing diversity. I continued as a volunteer (writing their monthly newsletters) for another three years. As the CW saying goes, “you can clock out but you can never leave!”
The Collett Consultancy 