Museums That Matter: Delivering Cultural Infrastructure with Purpose,Equity and Impact
- Nov 6, 2025
- 3 min read
Some projects remind us that cultural leadership isn’t just about collections or capital — it’s
about conscience.
When Jayne Tyler led the £1.6 million redevelopment of Hull’s Wilberforce and Anti Slavery
Museum, the task went far beyond heritage restoration. It meant aligning architecture,
international curation, and human rights education — all to an immovable bicentenary
deadline and under intense public scrutiny.
From that experience to her current role at Arts Council England, Jayne has seen how the most resilient cultural institutions are built not only on funding and governance, but on
trust — with communities, funders, and those whose stories they tell. Delivering cultural
infrastructure that *matters* means holding purpose and delivery in balance: honouring
history while building something that speaks to the present.
“Whether it’s a capital build, a new curatorial direction, or a governance review,” says Jayne,
“the hard part isn’t writing the strategy. It’s translating purpose into a building, a
programme, a team — and keeping everyone aligned through the pressure points. At Hull,
we had heads of state, local communities, and heritage agencies all pulling in different
directions. The job was to keep purpose intact while finding common ground.”
Having operated across nine museum sites, multiple capital projects, and now national
funding portfolios, Jayne has learned that the cultural sector’s future resilience depends on
three things:
Clarity of purpose — why a project exists and who it’s for.
Breadth of partnership — who needs to be at the table, from local communities to international collaborators.
Depth of delivery — how vision is protected when deadlines tighten and resources
stretch.
That same ethos now underpins her current interim work with MDIS and Odgers Middle
East, supporting the Department of Culture and Tourism in Abu Dhabi. There, Jayne has
been helping to coach and develop senior leaders tasked with shaping some of the most
ambitious new cultural assets anywhere in the world.
“In Abu Dhabi, the scale is extraordinary,” she explains. “But the fundamentals are the same
— listen carefully, build confidence, and make people believe in the plan. My role is to
create the conditions for delivery — whether that’s aligning leadership around purpose, or
helping them translate vision into practical steps that make it real. Increasingly, it’s also
about holding up a mirror — helping teams benchmark their approach and performance
against the very best global cultural development programmes.”
It’s an approach grounded in empathy and discipline — earned through decades of leading
transformation at every scale. “Every intervention,” she adds, “has to leave capability
behind. If people are clearer, more confident, and better equipped when I leave than when I
arrived — that’s success.”
In her view, museums and cultural institutions that thrive are those that marry moral
purpose with operational competence — where equity and excellence aren’t opposing
forces but part of the same design brief.
The MDIS Perspective
Jayne’s story embodies the MDIS approach: embedding leaders who can hold value, vision,
and delivery together under pressure.
Through the interim model, institutions gain access to professionals who understand both
the civic weight and operational realities of cultural infrastructure — from fundraising and
board alignment to public engagement and stakeholder diplomacy.
For MDIS clients, this means leadership that doesn’t just deliver capital projects but
strengthens the institutions and communities around them. Because transformation in the
cultural sector isn’t about quick fixes — it’s about building spaces, teams, and narratives
that endure.
About Jayne Tyler
Jayne Tyler is Senior Relationship Manager at Arts Council England and a former Co-Director of Hull Museums, where she led award-winning capital and curatorial programmes
across nine sites, including the redevelopment of the Wilberforce and Anti Slavery Museum. She now works internationally as an MDIS Associate, helping to coach and develop senior
cultural leaders responsible for creating some of the world’s most ambitious new cultural
destinations.
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