MCG Committee
Executive committee members
MCG Chair
Alec Ward
Consultant – Lead for Digital Content and Skills, The Audience Agency 
Alec supports organisations in the arts and culture sector with their most pressing challenges concerning digital strategy, skills, engagement and tactics. This includes how they create engaging digital content, how they ensure that their digital work is strategic and meaningful and how they can equip their teams with the skills and literacy required to thrive in a digital world.
Alec has over a decade of experience in supporting arts and culture professionals, at any level, with their digital skills and content. From pioneering a programme of digital skills support for London’s cultural professionals with the Museum of London and London Museum Development; to delivering programmes of support and mentoring around digital skills and maturity for cultural organisations, in the UK and internationally, with Culture24.
View Alec’s profile on LinkedIn
MCG Chair (Maternity Leave)
Georgina Brooke
Content Strategist, One Further
Georgina is a Content Strategist at One Further. Since 2021, when she joined she’s worked for clients such as MoMA, Tate and National Museums Scotland and Wales. She leads on projects relating to content design, content strategy, SEO, digital strategy, website discovery, social media and digital user research.
She’s held previous roles leading digital content teams at National Museums Scotland and Oxford University Museums and Gardens. She began her career working under Sarah Winters (nee Richards) during the first iteration of gov.uk as part of the developing Government Digital Service.
Georgina publishes the bi-monthly newsletter; Cultural Content, with a regular readership of around 3,000.
Follow @georginabrooke
View Georgina’s profile on LinkedIn
Secretary
Fay Curtis
User Experience & Commercialisation, Bristol Museums & Archives
Fay joined the Bristol Museums team way back in 2012. Covering various roles within audience development and user research in that time, she now leads on digital content across the service, ensuring that user needs are kept at the heart of on-site and online digital products and services. Fay looks after various websites across the service, including the main Bristol Museums website, Collections Online, Stories, the online shop and online exhibitions – both in terms of day-to-day upkeep and project managing new phases of development. She has a particular interest in content strategy, and is working towards a Digital Content Strategy for the museums to bring storytelling into focus across platforms. Current projects she is working on include a new system for managing on-site kiosk content at M Shed, working towards open licencing, print on demand and museum digital guides on Bloomberg Connects.
View Fay’s profile on LinkedIn
Head of Programme
Russell Stearman
Managing Director, Four Agency
Russell is the Managing Digital Director at Four, delivering digital platforms and content for museums, broadcast, festivals and artists regionally, nationally and internationally.
Within the team Russell focuses on the cultural sector, working alongside the Science Museum, Natural History Museum, Royal Armouries, BBC, Wentworth Woodhouse, National Museums Scotland and Royal Botanical Gardens Kew.
With 20+ years of experience, he has been a Creative Director, Technical Director, Digital Producer, (BAFTA nominated) Lead Game developer and Multimedia creator.
His work blends this experience together, bringing compelling storytelling and a sense of fun to his work, whilst making sure it is accurate, technically sound and approachable.
View Russell’s profile on LinkedIn
Co-Treasurer
Pete Livesey
Digital Analyst, Science Museum Group
Pete has worked in museums for over ten years with roles in digital marketing, communications, and web. As Digital Analyst at the Science Museum Group, he monitors and assesses the online data of the Group’s web estate.
Collaborating with teams across the Science Museum Group’s physical sites, Pete helps inform decision-making based on user data from various platforms, including web, CRM, e-commerce and marketing channels.
Pete studied Computer Forensics and Cyber Security at Manchester Metropolitan University and achieved a bachelor’s degree in history with The Open University. He is currently pursuing a part-time CertHE in Data Analysis, also with The Open University.
Views Pete’s profile on LinkedIn
Co-Treasurer
Sarah Joomun
Digital Collections Manager, Oxford University Museum of Natural History
Sarah is the Digital Collections Manager at Oxford University Museum of Natural History, managing the museum’s digital collections data and images. Sarah has more than ten years’ experience working with digital collections, including a wide range of collections digitisation projects, from 3D digitisation of fossils, to scanning and cataloguing archival material. She introduced an integrated collections management system at OUMNH, and has been involved in several stages of development of the museum’s online collections portal. She is currently working on a project to set up a new Digital Asset Management system. Sarah is a specialist in natural science metadata, and digitisation, particularly of fossils and archives, and has an interest in search and discovery of natural science collections.
Before entering the museum profession, Sarah worked in palaeontological research and geoscience publishing, and has a PhD on Mammal Palaeobiology from Royal Holloway University of London and the Natural History Museum. Sarah is also a member of the Museum Advisory Group of the University Museum of Zoology, Cambridge.
View Sarah’s profile on LinkedIn
Memberships
Mark Pajak
Head of Digital, Bristol Museums & Archives
Mark Pajak is Head of Digital for Bristol Culture and Creative Industries. Mark and his digital team manage technology online and on-site across Bristol Museums and Bristol Archives. Mark’s interests involve making digitised museum collections accessible through opening up collections data and multimedia online. Mark has a background in Natural Sciences, collections management and CRM analytics and has worked in a range of museum roles in Exeter and Bristol including being a volunteer, documentation officer and Natural History Curator. Mark has also worked in the private sector as a marketing database consultant. Mark has been working to improve how Bristol Culture collects, uses and shares data about performance, putting user research at the forefront of all projects. Through the application of their digital principles, Bristol Culture has undergone an extensive digital transformation over the last five years.
View Mark’s profile on LinkedIn
Other committee members
Comms Lead
Emilia Sharples
Audiences and Museums Team, Art Fund
Based in London, Emilia is currently working as the Website Content Manager for The Lyme Museum, the first museum dedicated to exploring the lived experiences of invisible illnesses and disabilities through materiality and storytelling. Collaborating with the wider team, Emilia helps inform how content should be displayed, while exploring other avenues of improving digital accessibility and also writes articles for the associated blog. She manages the digital content, ensuring collections remain relevant and accessible to a wide range of audiences. A long proponent of this type of work, for the last five years Emilia has been running an online arts publication, Art Pot Magazine, to promote the idea of more voices to contribute to the world of art and heritage. She has a history of volunteering within the sector, with Amgueddfa Cymru, St Fagans National Museum of History, and the Norman Rea Gallery.
Emilia studied an MSc in Digital Heritage at the University of York and also achieved a bachelor’s degree in Art History at the University of St Andrews. She is currently continuing her education undertaking further modules in Accessible UX research.
View Emilia’s profile on LinkedIn
Natalie McGowan
Head of Partnerships, Humap
Natalie is the Head of Partnerships at Humap, a storytelling platform that works primarily with heritage and educational organisations.
They have volunteered extensively within the sector, most notably with the Ashmolean Museum, Mainly Museums and Worcester’s Tudor House Museum. At Humap, their job is to create and nurture relationships, advise and oboard clients, and manage comms and engagement. Natalie has a BA in Ancient History from the University of Birmingham and an MSc in Visual, Material, and Museum Anthropology from the University of Oxford.
Follow: @nat_mcgowan
View Natalie’s profile on LinedIn
Nia Martin-Evans
Digital Content Manager, Amgueddfa Cymru
Nia joined Amgueddfa Cymru – Museum Wales back in 2019 as a Digital Content Editor. Perfect timing in a way to support and co-ordinate digital content on Social Media platforms and the Website during the pandemic. Nia’s journey into digital began at Brighton University whilst study Digital Management and Production. Since then she’s worked within Digital teams across multiple sectors in Wales, including Media and Education before moving to the Museum sector. Since 2023 she is the Digital Content Manager at Amgueddfa Cymru, overseeing the work of the Content Team, managing web development and co-ordinating digital projects within exhibitions and events
View Nia’s profile on LinkedIn
Anastasia Pineschi
International Dunhuang Programme Project Manager, The British Library
Sia is the British Library’s Project Manager for the International Dunhuang Programme, an international collaboration that brings together online collections from the Eastern Silk Roads and promotes understandings of the history and cultures of the region. She manages administrative, technical and public aspects of the Programme, and has a particular interest in supporting digital humanities initiatives, especially digital frameworks that enhance connectivity between collections like IIIF and linked open data. Originally from Los Angeles, Sia has previously worked at cultural institutions such as the Los Angeles County Museum of Art, the Hammer Museum and Tate Modern to help manage collections information, coordinate exhibitions, and organise projects.
View Sia’s profile on LinkedIn
Matt Bugler
Digital Platforms & Projects Manager, Japan House London
Matt is the Website Manager at Japan House London, where he has project managed several digital development projects including the major re-launch of the JHL website. He is passionate about driving digital transformation and cross-collaboration to open up new possibilities and work towards common goals. Before joining the GLAM world, Matt worked in publishing, including 5 years at Usborne Publishing which included project managing the launch of Usborne’s multi-language global website. Outside of work, Matt can be found playing tennis, tormenting his cats and obsessively categorising his favourite books and albums.
View Matt’s profile on LinkedIn
Louise Cole
Production Director, Cogapp
Louise leads production and delivery at digital agency, Cogapp. She has managed projects with the Whitney, NPG London, MoMA, King’s College London, Art Institute of Chicago and Fine Arts Museums San Francisco. Alongside her projects, she is involved in all aspects of the business, particularly recruitment and business development. She holds a First Class BA in English, is a certified ScrumMaster and PRINCE2 certified project manager. She has also volunteered as a mentor for local high-school students in Brighton as part of The Girls’ Network.
View Louise’s profile on LinkedIn
Livi Adu
e-Curator, Much Adu About
Livi is a freelance e-curator for Much Adu About. She focuses on digital public engagement, specialising in geology, decolonising histories, and promoting inclusivity through storytelling and creative mediums. With over a decade of digital marketing experience, she brings her social media, SEO, and User Experience (UX) expertise to the heritage sector.
As well as being a committee member of MCG, she is serving on the Museums Association Code of Ethics review working group, a scholar of the Culture & New Museums School Socially engaged practice in museums and art galleries Masters course at the University of Leicester, and participating in the Association of Museum Association with the Museums Association. As part of her AMA project, Livi is working with MCG to research AI ethical frameworks for the museum sector.
Livi is dedicated to shaping a more accessible and inclusive heritage sector through exploring the integration of Games, VR, AR, and AI to enrich arts and culture, with a vision of welcoming contributions from all and creating a transformative cultural landscape.