New face at the helm of Hastings Museum and Art Gallery

Damian Etherington 2018
Damian Etherington

Damian Etherington (right) is the new museum and cultural development manager at Hastings Museum and Art Gallery

His appointment follows the recent retirement of curator Cathy Walling.

Damian’s career began in 2005 working on a project with the National Museums of Scotland,  since then he has worked on a range of projects with partners including English Heritage, Leicester Arts and museum service as well as East Lothian museum service.

He was previously curator at the Redoubt Fortress in Eastbourne.

More recently Damian was the senior collections and learning curator with Colchester and Ipswich museums.

In the past three years he has overseen more than 200 events, opened 18 exhibitions, worked with over 40 artists, commissioned three artist residences, completed three re-display projects and two major collections projects.

He has been involved in research projects with the Southampton University, Culture 24 and worked on developing content for the BBC Civilisations Augmented Reality and Google Cultural Institute.

Speaking about his appointment Damian said: “I am very excited to join Hastings Borough Council, the town has a rich and unique heritage and a growing reputation as a cultural hot spot. I’m keen to play my part in supporting the town’s ambition to be a recognised centre of excellence for cultural and scientific creativity.  I believe in the power of museums as agents of social change and I love the opportunity they afford for creating memories and engaging communities.”

Councillor Kim Forward Hastings Borough Council’s lead councillor for culture said: “Cathy Walling did a wonderful job as the curator of Hastings Museum and Art Gallery for 36 years after joining the council in 1982. We thank her for her service and we wish her well for the future. The museum is a space for everyone and I look forward to seeing the museum continue to develop, with Damian, as a museum that has partnership working and the local community at its heart.”

 

 

Related

Sussex charities invited to free workshop on building corporate partnerships

Ansvar Insurance is hosting a free workshop on Building Corporate Partnerships on Thursday June 26th, the event is open to all charities and will be held at Ansvar’s Community Hub in Brighton, with the option for organisations outside the area to join remotely via Microsoft Teams. The session will be led by Andy King, an […]

Inspired by a walk in Alexandra Park

Do we need to earn ourselves the world we think we deserve? Maybe we are all suffering from a bit of entitlement syndrome? I was out for an early dog walk this morning, down through our local park – it was beautiful. It’s called Alexandra Park and it has won awards. There are fine well […]