About the MGHG

The Museums and Galleries History Group (MGHG) was founded in 2002 and inaugurated in 2003 with the symposium Museums and their Histories, held at the National Gallery in London. The MGHG provides a platform for debate and contact among all those who seek to understand museums and galleries from historical and theoretical perspectives. The interests represented are wide-ranging, interdisciplinary and international and the Group also acts as a forum for considerations of the place of museum history within academic discourse and its importance for current museum practice.

The Board consists of a mixture of academics and professionals who work in the museum and galleries sector.

Top Row Left to Right:

Kate Hill, Member without Portfolio

I'm Professor of History at the University of Lincoln and an historian of museums, collections and heritage. I'm interested in local and regional museums, gender and museums, and the growth of social history in museums.

Caroline Cornish, Membership Secretary

I’m an historical geographer and research associate at Royal Holloway, University of London and the Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew. I’m interested particularly in museums as spaces for the production of knowledge and in the mobility of museum objects.

Mark Westgarth, Chair

I’m Professor of the History of the Art Market at the University of Leeds. My particular interest in museum histories is on the intersection between museums and the art market.

Phil Deans, Member without Portfolio

I research museums and crisis. My recently completed PhD considered the history and interpretation of the Imperial War Museum during the Second World War. I use historical case studies to explore issues, ideas and concepts, particularly those which resonate in the present.

Zoë Varley, Treasurer

I'm a research associate at the Natural History Museum and a collaborative PhD student with the University of Leeds and the Wellcome Collection. I have broad interests in the history of interdisciplinary collections as well as their value, uses and legacy within museums today.

Bottom Row Left to Right:

Anna Reeve, Secretary

I’m a material culture historian at the University of Leeds, working on collections of Cypriot antiquities in the UK. I’m interested in microhistorical approaches to objects and museums, and following object itineraries into, through and beyond the museum.

Laia Anguix-Vilches, International Officer

I’m an art historian interested in museum management, institutional collecting and gender in museums. I work as a Post-Doctoral Researcher at Radboud University, Netherlands, studying early 20th century female museum managers and co-editing a volume on pioneering women curators.

Alina Botezatu, Marketing Officer

I am a collaborative PhD researcher with the University of Stirling and Historic Environment Scotland, developing a research methodology to engage with the hidden stories of Trinity House of Leith and its maritime collection. I am interested in interdisciplinary approaches that address the relationships between people, objects and places, and the ways these come together to constitute heritage.

Susanna Avery-Quash, Member without Portfolio

I am Lead Curator at the National Gallery in London, in charge of pre-1900 objects in its Contextual Collection, and responsible for activities associated with its research strands, ‘Buying, Collecting and Display’, ‘Art and Religion’, and the Women and the Arts Forum.  My research focuses on the study of important private and public art collections, trends in artistic taste, and the historical art market. I am a trustee of The Society for the History of Collecting, TIAMSA, and the Francis Haskell Memorial Fund; and a Specialist Volunteer for the National Trust and Honorary Research Fellow at Birkbeck, University of London and the University of Buckingham’s Humanities Research Institute.

Mark Liebenrood, Website Officer

I’m a postdoctoral researcher at Birkbeck, University of London, and currently working with the Mapping Museums Lab on a project on museum closure in the UK. I’m interested in how museums are affected by politics, policy, and broader social trends, as well as in the mobility of collections.