Charlie Gregson

Role

Charlie Gregson is a Senior Lecturer in Museum Studies, committed to bridging creative industries and communities with academic excellence to enable real-world impact. Her consultancy and partnership work develops forward-thinking approaches to the strategic management of historic spaces, connecting stakeholders with stories, place and current issues to empower collaboration and social change.

Charlie has secured over £350,000 of funding and completed almost 100 cultural projects throughout her career, notably as a co-founder and director of a heritage consultancy CIC which specialised in creating graduate and student employment opportunities. She brings this expertise to NTU’s Museum & Heritage Development Masters as the Course Lead where she enjoys collaborating on multi-disciplinary projects to develop practice in areas such as the application of digital technologies in co-production and diversifying narratives and understanding audience needs for strategic planning of heritage sites. She is also the co-chair of Heritage & Communities Partnership Knowledge Exchange Network, a collaborative forum between NTU and heritage professionals.

Charlie’s work draws on human-centric methodologies such as community co-production, oral histories and design thinking, as well as non-human perspectives and nature connectedness. Her publications focus on co-mentoring, heritage interpretation, strategic heritage development and diversifying audiences. Charlie is particularly interested in how heritage organisations evolve to stay relevant and resilient whilst centring collections, storytelling and inclusivity. She is also dedicated to developing the creative industries’ workforce, delivering talent pipelines and creating employability opportunities to support a more skilled, more diverse workforce.

Career overview

Charlie is a qualified project manager (PRINCE2 Foundation & Practitioner) with over two decades of experience in the consultancy and organisational roles in the heritage sector.

Her previous experience includes six years as a co-Director of Culture Syndicates CIC, an arts consultancy centred around a pioneering model for paid traineeships. Her approach led to an almost 100% employability rate for trainees, fast-tracking sector entrants into paid entry- and officer-level employment.

Highlights include creating a paid internship model with six East Midlands museums, which was rolled out across Yorkshire to support more diverse recruiting, and creating Life Lines, a co-production WW1 research group with the University of Nottingham and Inspire, which produced exhibitions, research and school resources, often independently, for six years.

As a former Arts Council Relationship Manager for Creative (digital) Media, Charlie has a deep understanding of grant funding and the creative industries infrastructure. She has also been a Board member for Relate Nottinghamshire, responsible for marketing and development at a crucial period in its development.

External activity

Charlie has a strong track record of developing and leading large, funded projects that create valuable partnerships between organisations, funders, researchers and audiences. Previous and current partners include National Trust, Barker Langham, Local Authorities plus independent museums and galleries, working with partners in the UK, China and the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia.

She provides consultancy and partnership in creative project planning and delivery, strategic development and masterplanning, audience research, stakeholder engagement and coproduction, grant application, evaluation, employability and training to support the diversity and impact of arts and culture. She welcomes contact from potential partners who require consultancy or wish to develop joint bids in these areas.

Sponsors and collaborators

Selected projects:

• 2023-24: Principal Investigator on Planting Stories, an InnovateUK-funded project to explore decolonisation with Birmingham Botanical Gardens through participatory action research with communities, artists and staff
• 2020-2021 & 2022-2024: Co-Investigator on 50 Years of Middle Street Resource Centre, a National Lottery Heritage Fund project
• 2020-2023: Interpretation Lead for Miner2Major, a five-year Landscape Partnership for Sherwood Forest, funded by National Lotter Heritage Fund