As an experienced museums professional who has spent 20 years working in senior roles in exhibitions and audience engagement for the big nationals, I recently faced a considerable challenge, having to build a new audience engagement and communications strategy for a small community museum in east London, the Brunel Museum. The Museum has incredible stories to tell, and a history of local community engagement which has made it a crucial cultural hub for a wide spectrum of audiences. With the help of recent Heritage Fund investment, the Museum has been able to take a fresh look at its purpose and its ambition to engage in a more dynamic and diverse way. Given the institution is largely volunteer-led, we were fortunate to be able to use the support of the Heritage Fund to take on Simon Thompson to work with me to conduct a root and branch review of the many untapped opportunities to create real impact in our community, using social media and our website more effectively, finding agile ways to demonstrate that our stories have wide and resonant appeal at a time when people need inspirational stories such as ours; stories of perseverance and success against all the odds.
Given the very tight timescale we had to conduct this essential new piece of work, Simon has been incredibly committed and has made a great impact in a short period. He has brought to the table his considerable network of contacts and has enabled the most wonderful and positive coverage of our reopening to the public this summer. Through his own network, he has also encouraged new partnership opportunities for the Museum, and has reached decision makers who could benefit from working together with us on new community initiatives. Simon is able to take a fledgling project, and give it shape and purpose, constructing a clear trajectory for actions that are realistic and impactful, marking out with us a strategic communications plan that will take the Museum to a new and professional level of engagement. He is rigorous in his approach, is highly skilled at liaising with a wide group of stakeholders, from Trustees to local partners and volunteer staff, and has creative flair and tenacity, which are gold-dust in these challenging times.
Dr Catherine Putz, November 2020