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Three dancers perform The Imagination Museum: Mayflower 400 in the foyer of Bassetlaw Museum in Retford. They are dressed as tour guides and their arms reach up to the sky as they welcome the audience. They are surrounded by smiling audience members.

About The Imagination Museum

What is The Imagination Museum?

The Imagination Museum is a national network for dance and heritage sector professionals.

Through online and in-person events and resources, we share extensive knowledge and experiences and facilitate opportunities for future collaboration across the country, making the case for the benefits of dancing in museums and heritage sites. 

“Having a dance project embedded within a wider portfolio of cultural activity is really helping us develop our audiences, raise the profile of our cultural and events programme and look to the future for how we continue these relationships.” (previous museum partner feedback)

We have been thrilled to receive funding from the National Lottery through Arts Council England to enable our development from 2024. With this support, we have put in place a distinct Core Team of practitioners/consultants to oversee the day to day running of the network. We also receive guidance and support from an Executive Committee of experts from across dance and heritage and representatives of Advisory Organisations (outlined below). In 2024, our programme of activity is also being delivered in partnership with Colchester and Ipswich Museums, DanceEast, Wheal Martyn, Showtown, the Horniman Museum and Gardens and Trinity Laban.

We aspire to building a network that is:

Inclusive – for everyone who wants to participate, working with heritage in all its possible forms.

Inspiring – imagining memorable ways that dance can open up, challenge, offer new perspectives on heritage, sparking creativity and curiosity.

Collaborative – engaging in a collaborative process in which we work cooperatively with other individuals and organisations to amplify what we’re doing.

Meaningful – listening and responding to our network members to provide professional development opportunities that feel nurturing, relevant and useful.

Socially engaged – supporting local collaborations between artists, venues and communities to open up sites, stories, collections in new ways for new people.

Sustainable – promoting longer term collaboration and embedding environmental sustainability within our practice.

Honest and critically reflective – a place to ask questions; engaging fully in learning new things and finding ways to build on that and take discoveries forward.

Core Team

Sarah Archdeacon

Access Consultant (Corali)

Katie Green

Strategic Lead

Dan Hadley

Evaluation consultant (Wafer Hadley)

A picture of a white man called Rob James with black hair and a beard smiling out towards the camera. He is wearing a great t-shirt.

Rob James

Communications consultant

Louise Katerega

Equity, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion Consultant

Alice Odin

Project Manager

Danielle Pipe

Sustainability consultant

Vicky Thornton

Project Producer

Executive Committee

Stephanie Allen

Executive Committee member

Dougie Evans

Executive Committee member

A picture of a white woman with brown hair to her shoulders standing in the grounds of Watts Gallery Artists' Village. She wears a blue top and dark green cardigan and there is red, yellow and orange bunting hung in the trees behind her.

Sarah Jarvis

Executive Committee member

Sally Lewis

Executive Committee member

Gemma Martin

Executive Committee member

Bethan Peters

Executive Committee member

Anna Scott

Executive Committee member

Richard Swinscoe

Executive Committee member

Carrie Washington

Executive Committee member

Sara Wookey

Executive Committee member

Advisory Organisations and Event Partners

Showtown

Blackpool partner

The Horniman Museum and Gardens

London partner

Trinity Laban

London partner

Wheal Martyn Clay Works

Cornwall Partner

DanceEast

Suffolk Partner

Colchester and Ipswich Museums

Suffolk Partner

Arts & Heritage

Advisory Organisation

Association for Suffolk Museums

Advisory Organisation