Ian Bapty

Museum Development Adviser and North East Regional Lead

With a professional background as an archaeologist, Ian has over 30 years’ experience delivering community based environmental, heritage and museum support projects. This includes establishing the national Historic England funded Industrial Heritage Support Project and running the Church of England’s Inspired North East Project which helped local communities revitalise and repurpose their churches.

As well as being an inveterate collector of almost anything old and not so old (as his wife will testify, she loves the grandfather clocks!), Ian has recently discovered a passion for gardening. With his wife, he has been busy gradually creating their idea (not necessarily shared by the neighbours!) of the perfect small garden oasis and wildlife area.

Ian is the primary contact for museums in Northumberland, Tyne & Wear, County Durham and Cleveland. Ian supports the coordination of the MD North programme and leads the Brew Up! programme for museums with industrial collections.

Monday to Friday 

Alan Bentley

Museum Development Adviser

Alan brings over 37 years of experience in the museum sector. After studying in Sheffield, he began his career in curatorial roles at Quarry Bank Mill and the Bass Museum of Brewing. He later moved into advisory work at the Yorkshire Museums Council (a forerunner of Museum Development North), followed by a national outreach role with MDA (now Collections Trust).

In 2001, Alan became Director of the Brontë Parsonage Museum, leading it for 7 years before joining Museum Development Yorkshire. Alongside his core roles, he’s also worked as a freelancer and ran a franchise home tutoring business.

Alan is available to support museums across a wide range of areas including collections management, governance, retail, income generation, and visitor services. He is especially passionate about putting collections at the heart of every museum. As they are the assets that make museums unique, and that strong documentation is key to making museums more open, accountable, and efficient. He also provides mentoring and coaching to staff and volunteers, helping build confidence and resilience across the sector.

Diagnosed with dyslexia and ADHD, Alan draws on his neurodivergent perspective to solve problems creatively and with empathy.

He is a firm believer in the public value of museums both their social value and value for money. He tries to visit as many as possible using public transport, getting full value from his railcard.

Outside of work, Alan lives in Stockport after 25 years living in Yorkshire and is a school governor in the school he attended as a pupil. He enjoys watching football, exercise, live music, birdwatching, allotment gardening, and cooking.

Alan is the primary contact for Museums in West Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and North Yorkshire west of the A1. He leads on issues related to collections and organisational management, site and staff management, fundraising and income generation and governance.  

Monday to Friday 

Alison Criddle

Museum Development Adviser, Environmental Responsibility (she/her)

Ali has spent the best part of a decade growing environmental responsibility across arts, culture and heritage in the North West of England and beyond. She works to join the dots of nuts-and-bolts practical operations (think bogs, boilers and bills!), to finding the funds, building knowledge, and shifting perspectives through creative thinking and programming. Underpinning it all is a collaborative approach of building and evolving networks to meet the challenges we face. In her work with Museum Development, she’s delivered the Carbon Literacy for Museums Toolkit through the Roots & Branches project. She’s committed to the continuous work in progress of climate action, supporting museums to care for collections, community and our collective futures.

When she’s not in museums and galleries, Ali can usually be found in a cinema, in a book, up a hill, on a yoga mat, at a gig, trying to grow a container garden, or around a table sharing plates and bottles and stories. This year she wants to return to beekeeping.

Ali is the Museum Development Adviser for Environmental Responsibility. She is responsible for developing programming, networking and support for museums to take accelerated climate action and embed environmental commitments into organisational culture.  The role works alongside other Museum Development area providers in England, sector organisations and funders to align ambitions and climate commitments across the sector. 

Liz Denton

Museum Development Adviser

Liz began her career as a teacher before moving into museums, specialising in learning and access. During her many years with Museum Development, she has been hands-on, relishing working with museums in her region, brokering partnerships and supporting organisations through times of change.

Liz has managed work around learning, wellbeing and access and has been the project manager for group-based learning for museums looking at the health and wellbeing agenda, improving the museum offer for families and providing equitable provision and support for front of house staff.  Due to personal experience, Liz has a particular interest in ensuring that disabled visitors are treated equitably.

Liz is a keen hiker and also enjoys both theatre and sampling the delights of cuisine across the North.

Liz is the primary contact for museums in Northern Lincolnshire, East Riding of Yorkshire and North Yorkshire (East of A1 – Moors and Coast).  Liz leads on learning and audiences (including work with schools, family learning and provision for adults).  She has particular expertise within the health and wellbeing agenda, access and inclusion.

Monday to Friday 

Kaye Hardyman

Museum Development Adviser and North West Regional Lead (she/her)

With 16 years of experience in delivering Museum Development support, Kaye has an academic background in conservation and collections care. Over her time with Museum Development providers, she has supported the development and delivery of collections care, collections development and environmental responsibility programmes, working with other Museum Development colleagues across England, sector experts and sector support organisations. Kaye is passionate about supporting partnership and collaborative working across the sector. A challenge shared is a challenge easier solved.

Kaye’s weekends and holidays are often spent in the garden attempting to grow and harvest fruit and veg, or travelling by train with the family to explore new and familiar places (always including plenty of trips to museums).

Kaye is the primary contact for museums in Lancashire and Cumbria. Kaye supports coordinating the MD North programme across the north of England.  

Monday to Friday

Sue Hughes

Museum Development Adviser, Workforce Development

Sue is passionate about supporting museums, providing them with the tools to help manage their organisations and to create accessible, innovative, engaging and imaginative programmes for their visitors. Her role is to help communicate the support available in and outside the sector, broker relationships, create networks, initiate introductions to the experts and their resources, and create learning programmes which respond to the needs of our museums in the North. Formally a Director of museums in the North West, she still has a hands-on role as Chair of Cruck Cottage Heritage, a museum in an 18th century thatched house, and through supporting two museums on the Accreditation journey.

Sue is keen to keep alive our intangible cultural heritage and is regularly seen wassailing, or delivering interactive sessions on food history and the uses and folklore of herbs.  She is a textile artist, working in wool and thread, and has exhibited in a number of solo exhibitions.

Sue leads on workforce development, training and events and delivering the CPD grant scheme. 

Monday-Friday

Lynsey Jones

Museum Development Adviser

Lynsey worked in both local authority and independent museums before joining Museum Development North West in 2013. She believes that, as the unique collections are at the heart of every museum, solid collections management and strong documentation underpin everything else that a museum does and aspires to do. You can’t do exhibitions, outreach, marketing or anything else with an object you can’t find. She understands Accreditation from multiple perspectives, from applying for it, and being both an Accreditation Mentor for a small independent museum and the Accreditation Adviser for the North West from 2015 to 2019 alongside her Museum Development Officer role.

Lately Lynsey’s been using her collections management experience to help friends make sense of their overcrowded homes with too much stuff in them. Her friends think they’re channelling well-known decluttering TV programmes. Lynsey knows that really they’re just following Spectrum procedures!

Lynsey is the primary contact for museums in Cheshire, Greater Manchester and Merseyside.  She leads on collections management work, primarily working with Collections Trust. 

Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday half day

Michael Turnpenny

Head of Museum Development North

Michael has supported museums in a development and consultancy role for over 20 years. Advising his way around the Yorkshire and Humber regions, he has developed specialist knowledge in organisational development, governance, and strategic planning. Prior to this role, Michael held leadership positions at York Museums Trust, including Head of Content and Public Engagement where he led teams specialising in curatorial, learning, public engagement, and communications.

Michael began his career as a at PLB Consulting working on interpretation, conservation, tourism, and business development projects. He quickly moved from the private sector into public and third sector roles, focussing on museum development. His career reflects a commitment to delivering social outcomes through supporting the development of regional museums.

Beyond museums, Michael will usually be found either in the kitchen baking and brewing or playing videogames. He tries to follow his own advice, and is currently a trustee at York Travellers Trust (Charity number: 1189827). YTT works to relieve the poverty, advance the education and promote the health, social and economic welfare of the Gypsy/Traveller community in and around York. And as with other members of the MD North team, his cat is in control of the household – he knows his place in the pecking order.

Michael is the accountable officer for the MD North Partnership. He works with Ian and Kaye to coordinate the programme and leads the bespoke support work, Organisational Health Check, and other organisational development initiatives.  

Monday to Friday

Sarah Wilkinson

Events, Communications and Administrative Officer

Sarah supports the MD North team through programme and financial administration, communications and event management. She brings a wealth of experience from the education sector, having worked in secondary education as a teacher and Head of Languages for over a decade.

After leaving teaching, Sarah moved into the cultural sector and has worked for a number of North East cultural education organisations. Her work in these organisations involved creating opportunities for children and young people to access high quality arts and heritage education and providing training support for teachers and cultural professionals.

Since working for Museum Development North, Sarah has enjoyed finding out more about the wonderful museums in the region and is looking forward to exploring museums further afield across the North.

In her free time, Sarah enjoys days out with her family and running – she has two Great North Runs under her belt so far. Sarah speaks French, Spanish and a bit of German and is currently learning Dutch for her next family adventure.

Monday-Friday