Charlie Gregson

Role

Charlie is a Senior Lecturer in Museum Studies. She is Module Leader for several modules in the Museum and Heritage Development Masters course: Introduction to Critical Heritage Issues; The Entrepreneurial Museum; and Transforming Your Career.

She is currently working with urban botanical gardens to develop decolonisation strategies and diversify narratives through co-production. Her interdisciplinary work draws on dark botany, critical plant and heritage studies and community co-creation.

Charlie is responsible for knowledge exchange and employability in the heritage team, with wider leadership responsibilities through her roles on the Research and Innovation Committee, the Institute for Knowledge Exchange Conference committee and as co-chair of the Heritage & Communities Knowledge Exchange Practice Network.

Charlie co-supervises PhD theses involving heritage practice elements, particularly knowledge exchange or co-production with communities.

Career overview

To date, Charlie has delivered around 100 projects with museums, heritage and cultural organisations. She has secured around £350,000 of grant funding for cultural clients and academic work, delivering projects with partners and clients such as National Trust, Barker Langham, National Justice Museum and National Heritage Science Forum. As a former Arts Council England Relationship Manager for Creative Media, she has an in-depth knowledge of project development, grant capture and digital arts.

From 2014-2018, Charlie was a co-founder and Director of Culture Syndicates CIC. With colleagues from NTU, she established this arts consultancy centred around a pioneering model for paid sector entrant traineeships. Her approach led to an almost 100% employability rate for trainees, fast tracking them into paid entry and officer-level employment. Highlights include creating a paid internship model with six East Midlands museums which was rolled out across Yorkshire to support more diverse recruiting, and creating Life Lines, a co-production WW1 research group with University of Nottingham and Inspire which produced exhibitions, research and schools resources, often independently, for six years. She continues to bring this experience to NTU through embedding employability in curricula and managing MA student placements.

External activity

Charlie continues her consultancy practice within her NTU role, providing arts project planning, grant application, project management, evaluation and partnership on employability, co-production and strategy to support the diversity and creative impact of arts and culture. She welcomes contact from potential partners who require consultancy or wish to develop joint bids in these areas.

Sponsors and collaborators

Selected projects:

• 2023-24: Principal Investigator on Planting Stories, an InnovateUK funded project to explore decolonisation with Birmingham Botanical Gardens through participatory action research with communities, artists and staff
• 2020-2021 & 2022-2024: Co-Investigator on 50 Years of Middle Street Resource Centre, a National Lottery Heritage Fund project
• 2020-2023: Interpretation Lead for Miner2Major, a five-year Landscape Partnership for Sherwood Forest, funded by National Lotter Heritage Fund