I have worked in cultural heritage organisations for 20 years and managed a community museum and art gallery.

Galleries – Hahndorf Academy

Libraries – National Library of Australia

Museums – Te Papa, South Australian Museum, Samstag Museum,

My expertise is in the areas of exhibition and event development, collection management strategies and policies, grant writing, communications and PR, sourcing funding and sponsorship. Through my work as Collections Manager at the National Trust of SA, I managed a large deaccessioning project and advised many National Trust branch museums on collection management issues.

I have experience in historical research and exhibition writing.
I have a Post Grad Diploma in Art Curatorial studies.

Evocative Arts and Heritage offers a variety of services to assist museums, art galleries and heritage sites in the creation of dynamic and engaging exhibitions, site interpretation and educational resources for visitors of all ages and cultural backgrounds.

My services include:

• Significance assessment to identify multiple meanings of objects, significance for different groups in society, and the hidden stories that reflect culturally-diverse historical perspectives.
• Research, interviewing and oral history recording.
• Advice on cultural diversity and access issues.
• Advice on management of culturally sensitive objects and archival materials such as Indigenous Australian secret sacred or ceremonial objects and religious objects from various faiths.
• The development of exhibitions and interpretation strategies that are engaging for visitors of all ages using various interpretive strategies including age-related design and texts; experiential learning; interactive (hands-on) activities; visual thinking strategies; and novel approaches to label-writing.
• The design of educational strategies and writing of resources for educational groups to enhance learning and use of collections on and off-site.
• Visitor evaluation to inform exhibition development, interpretation and marketing
• Policy development to enhance visitation and develop links with other sites in the area / community.

I offer consultancy services focused on community museums and historical societies.

• I provide significance assessments and advice on all aspects of museum management from developing collections to engaging audiences.
• I produce exhibitions and tours, deliver historical research and write for publications, films, and digital platforms.
• I can deliver completed projects including exhibitions, tours or films. Alternatively, I can work with your staff or volunteers and lead you through the process to help develop skills within your museum.

My clients include community archives and local museums as well as national organisations such as the CSIRO and the Commonwealth Office of the Arts.

My consultancy services are based on a career delivering outcomes in museums and I focus on advice with practical application.

I spent 25 years working in state and national museums. I was Director of the South Australian Maritime Museum and a foundation curator at the Australian National Maritime Museum. I was President of the Australian Maritime Museums Council and led that association in providing support for regional museums.
I produced national and international touring exhibitions including a series of exhibitions that toured regional Australia. My exhibitions have been the centrepiece of events including the Olympic Arts Festival and have won national awards. I have been honoured with the Republic of France’s award Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres (Knight of Arts and Letters) for services to the arts and cultural relations.

Independent Heritage Consultants (IHC) specialises in providing independent and practical heritage advice.

The IHC team is based in South Australia and is comprised of experienced consultants who have been successfully delivering heritage projects locally and interstate for over ten years.

IHC is focused on providing tailored, practical heritage advice to assist clients manage their heritage requirements.

I am a free-lance generalist historian. Although a former lecturer and tutor in western art and architectural history (Flinders University and University of Adelaide), and tutor in academic study skills for the Flinders Foundation Course, my social history research is catholic (Ug boots, agricultural settlement, beekeeping, explosives magazines and their work practices, for example).

From my work as a local government cultural development officer, I am able to develop community consultations, and facilitate and administer events and projects. I am experienced in art and social history exhibition research, cataloguing, and mounting: at the former Contemporary Art Society; painting and paper-based exhibitions at Flinders University; Indigenous art and crafts at Salisbury; maritime history at Penneshaw Museum, Kangaroo Island; local history-in-photography at Prospect; and at Unley, assistance with several different object- and image-based exhibitions, and curator of an architectural exhibition, 2012). I have basic editing and graphic designing skills for posters and small publications, and copy editing experience for larger publications.

A list of my publications and other work can be accessed at the Australian Council of Professional Historians Associations Members’ work database and examples of my writing, at SA 175/Celebrating South Australia, Professional Historians (SA) web site.

I mainly work with museums on significance assessments, reviews of their operations or exhibition development, this last normally together with a designer and at times with multimedia specialists. I also undertake research and script writing and would like to embark on commissioned histories.

The first museum’s extension officer in South Australia, initially working at the South Australian Museum and then at the History Trust of South Australia, for three decades I have roved the State advising and guiding the many voluntary committees establishing around 200 community museums. I was also the Project Director for the National Railway Museum in Port Adelaide for 3 years.

I am the author of ‘The History Shapers: South Australian History in 100 Objects’, published by Axiom in 2016.

Kate Walsh can assist South Australian community museums, archives and historical societies and researchers in the following: historical interpretation of sites and collections; exhibitions development (interpretive framework and ideas, not graphic design or construction); the development and writing of museum and collection management policies and procedures; grant applications critical review of museum exhibitions and general museum management; strategic planning; significance assessments of collections; writing and editing for exhibitions and publications.