Volition Associates

Jane Arthur, BA, FMA, RSA

Jane is a freelance consultant providing services to the museums, heritage and cultural sector through tailored, individual solutions informed by the experience and skills developed in over 30 years of work in the sector. Areas of expertise include:
• Embedding diversity and equality practice
• Facilitating organisational change
• Training, learning & development
• Collection standards (care and management)
• Strategic audience development

A museum specialist. From 2007 working as a museums and heritage consultant. Previously Deputy Director & Head of Collection Services, Birmingham Museums & Art Gallery; Assistant Director (Collections) West Midlands Regional Museums Council; Keeper of Decorative Arts, Potteries Museum, Stoke on Trent; Curator & Librarian, Wisbech and Fenland Museum.

She is an Associate Monitor, Mentor and Expert Advisor to the Heritage Lottery Fund. Clients include Royal Opera House, Shakespeare Birthplace Trust, Thinktank, Renaissance West Midlands, Museums Association, Performances Birmingham (Birmingham Town Hall), Royal Birmingham Society of Artists, Museums, Libraries & Archives Council.

Robert McDermid, MinstLM

Skills development specialist working in the cultural sector since 2005. Renaissance West Midlands - skills development officer; Shropshire Chamber of Commerce and Enterprise - training services manager; Shropshire Training and Enterprise - external funding manager; Staffordshire Training and Enterprise - external funding and contracts manager; Skills Training Agency - product development manager; Department of Employment- youth training programme adviser

Bob is a Lead Assessor for the Managerial Assessment of Proficiency (MAP) benchmarking process which we recommend for team management and leadership development. Key skills: matching organisational goals to workforce needs, a strategic approach to building skills and knowledge; diversifying the workforce; working in a complex partnership environment. He both develops training programmes and audits providers and has set up both public and private sector training services, negotiating partnerships and winning external funding. Bob is currently studying for the Institute of Leadership and Management Diploma in Executive Coaching Level 7 .

Hilary McGowan MA, FMA, RSA

Hilary is a successful consultant working in museums and the cultural sector throughout the UK. After a distinguished career in local government as a cultural and museum director in Bristol, Exeter and York she successfully established her own consultancy business in 1996. Hilary has considerable experience in the wider heritage field, raising over £20m for clients. She specialises in supporting and enabling organisational and cultural change, including coaching and specialises in strategic development, feasibility studies, options appraisals, interpretive planning, governance and staff development.

Hilary is known for her innovative thinking, pragmatic and imaginative solutions and her incisive business analysis; combined with her management experience and business sense. www.hilarymcgowan.co.uk 

Helen Maclagan, BA

Heritage and cultural specialist, working freelance from 2011. Previously Head of Heritage and Culture (Museums and Arts) Warwickshire County Council; Head of Museum Service, Head of Field Services, County Archaeologist, WCC. Member of the English Heritage Advisory Committee, former Commissioner of the Royal Commission on the Historical Monuments of England.

Helen has experience of initiating and delivering diverse projects (capital, online, fieldwork) with a range of external funders, of building and sustaining partnerships, of liaising with local, regional and national stakeholders and of implementing organisational change. Her particular interests include the synergies and connections between different elements of the cultural sector and she has a developing interest in World Heritage Sites. Since spending a year supporting cultural management in West Africa she also has some understanding of international development issues.