Who we are
Jayne Earnscliffe - director and team leader
Sarah Pickthall - training, coaching and mentoring
Sally Booth - audio describing and interpreting for visually impaired audiences
Shelley Boden - accessible web design and auditing
Jayne Earnscliffe - team leader
Jayne trained in arts management at the Whitechapel Art Gallery under the Arts Council bursary scheme for disabled people. Her success in arts access is based on putting people at the heart of every decision, combined with a passion for creative access solutions that become an intrinsic part of building design. Jayne buzzes with energy and enthusiasm. She's renowned for inspiring excellence in architects, designers and construction companies alike. Her insight and skills in architectural and exhibition design for the arts, museums and heritage sites add value across a project, utilising space to maximum advantage and ensuring that buildings perform at every level. Jayne uses her broad experience and in-depth knowledge to think laterally about problems, always taking into account budgets, staff levels, practicalities and timescales.
Jayne is a catalyst for change and approaches each project individually: 'It's not about replicating, but about fresh and innovative thinking.'
Jayne is author of the seminal work on access, 'In through the front door: disabled people and the visual arts - examples of good practice'. This groundbreaking book looks at a wide range of possibilities for incorporating the requirements of disabled people into both current and future projects. She established Artists First, the first public art commissions agency for disabled artists.
Jayne gave a keynote speech on best practice at Islington Council's conference in January 2009, 'Inclusive design within an historic environment'.
Jayne is an Arts Council capital services (lottery) adviser, assessor and special monitor (access) and English Partnerships adviser - Lifetime Homes.
Jayne also helped found access groups at Tate Galleries, Design Museum, Birmingham Hippodrome theatre, Natural History Museum and Imperial War Museum.
Current projects
Black Cultural Centre, Brixton - conversion and fit out
Firing Line, Cardiff Castle - new gallery
Florence Nightingale Museum - redisplay
Fort Nelson - restoration and extension
Hounslow leisure centres - refurbishment
Hull History Centre - new build archive
Imperial War Museum - new Lord Ashcroft Gallery
Midlands Arts Centre - new build
Museum of London - EC2 City Gallery project
V & A Future Plan, London SW7 - rolling programme of gallery and front of house refurbishment
Access plans for
Heritage Lottery fund applications for:
Forty Hall, Enfield
Mold Museum, North Wales
Museum of East Anglian Life, Stowmarket
Museum of the Order of St John, London EC1
Newport Pagnell Academy
Topolski Memoir, London SE1
Werneth Park Music Rooms Oldham, Lancashire
Sarah Pickthall - senior associate
Sarah is a disabled consultant, coach, trainer, artist and evaluator. As disability development officer at Arts Council England SE, Sarah facilitated a significant change in representation, understanding and involvement of disabled and Deaf people and their access to the arts in the South East. Alongside this, she has developed one of the strongest disability arts infrastructures in the UK.
Since 2008, Sarah has been promoting access and inclusion through a more grass roots connection within the mainstream arts and museum sectors. These include the Sync cultural leadership training and networking initiative for disabled leaders in the creative and cultural sectors, and Leading Edge with Mind the Gap in Bradford - the first ever coaching programme for people with learning disabilities.
Sarah has recently worked in museums and galleries including Lightbox, the Darwin Centre and Pallant House Gallery looking at disabled people's representation and their involvement in programming and delivery. Sarah is chair of DWG (disabled workers group) for Arts Council England and sits on Vision 2012 networking group, part of the Cultural Olympiad.
Sarah is trained in British Sign Language.
Sally Booth - associate
Sally is a visually impaired artist with extensive project management experience at a senior level including working for Shape, a leading disability arts charity. She is experienced in museum and gallery education, particularly facilitating access workshops. Her access consultancy work has included being an assessor for the Jodi Awards scheme for the Museums Libraries and Archives Council (MLA) and for the RNIB/Vocaleyes Talking Images project. She has been a member of the Tate Modern access group since 2000.
Sally is part of the Insight training team assisting galleries and museums to develop more inclusive services for their visually impaired audiences. Recent highlights include being adviser for Engage/Shape at the Explore museum and gallery education programme for Deaf and disabled participants. Sally is the disabled adviser for the 24-hour design challenge, at the Royal College of Art, working with award winning design group Sprout to design inclusive products for visually impaired users. Sally is also a facilitator at the Whitechapel Art Gallery, co-running and developing access workshops for people with visual impairments/mobility needs in response to exhibitions.
Current projects
New Lord Ashcroft Gallery at the Imperial War Museum and the Darwin
Centre at the Natural History Museum.
Sally recently completed a residency at the Bluecoat Gallery, Liverpool.
Shelley Boden - Associate
Shelley is founder and director of Enable (UK) Ltd, which specialises in developing accessible websites. Shelley has 10 years' experience of managing pan-European CDROM, web and intranet projects and campaigns for a broad range of commercial, educational and cultural clients including Hewlett-Packard, Ordnance Survey and the British Museum.
Shelley's recent web access auditing and consultancy includes:
Arts Council South East
Culture24
Natural History Museum
Department for Culture, Media and Sport's Culture Online
Prudential
The Home Office
Shelley is a partner of the EU-funded Workable Centre Network International, which addresses the under-representation of disabled graduates in the workplace. Shelley is a member of the Museums Computer Group (MCG) and the Group for Education in Museums (GEM).