Consultancy for museums, libraries and archives

working collaboratively with museums, galleries, libraries and theatres to build in-house expertise, facilitate meetings, understand audiences and develop insight.

Evaluation

Front-end, formative and summative evaluation which generates strategically useful insight rather than simply information. I specialise in qualitative consultation with users and non-users for marketing strategy, audience development and HLF activity planning.

Training

Bespoke, tailored training which meets the needs of a staff or volunteer group. I offer training in a range of areas including marketing, audience development, communication, evaluation, research and facilitation. I also run training for freelancers through the Museum Freelance Network.

Facilitation

Professional group facilitation of workshops, meetings and away days. Fully tailored to meet the needs of a client, I specialise in visioning, action planning and strategic planning using participatory methods. This guarantees a fully inclusive approach and builds consensus.

Communication

Helping you effectively reach and engage new audiences. Providing expertise and practical support with a variety of communication tasks including copywriting, copyediting, and proofreading. I also offer interpretation support, including script writing, text writing and content development.

‘Marge is a highly effective and organised evaluator who is flexible and adaptable in her approach to the needs of our Museum. Her evaluation techniques are creative, methodological and professional. The evaluation reports she has produced have been influential in providing evidence of the impact of our programme for future sponsors. I would highly recommend her to any other organisation.’

Liz Poulter, London Transport Museum

‘WOW!!!!!!!! Marge, this is a BRILLIANT piece of work. More, better, and even more fantabulosa that I could have expected. Thanks. You are a star!’

Jez Dolan, Artist, The Polari Mission

‘Marge’s training was excellent. She was extremely knowledgeable and gave great insight into best practice and how we could further develop our own evaluation framework. The training was well received by all staff and everyone felt that they had benefited greatly from the session, and had received the necessary tools to move forward with evaluation and feedback.’

Kirsten Hume, Strategic Librarian, Wirral Council, Birkenhead Central Library

‘Marge is a joy to work with. Not only is she a great evaluator and marketer but also a fantastic trainer. She has delivered very effective workshops on marketing and audience development for our clients across the North West with great impact. The delegates and the MDNW team have gained a lot from her knowledge and have been able to apply it to working practice.’

Kaye Hardyman, Museum Development Officer, Museums Development Northwest

‘Marge Ainsley is an exceptional audience development strategist and marketer. Not only is she one of the best arts marketing professionals in the country, she also brings great passion and care to everything she does. She is incredibly well organised and has built up an impressive body of knowledge and experience, offering great insight into every project she works on. Because she is so brilliant however demand is high and you will be lucky to get her.’

Julia Turpin, Executive Director, LeftCoast (Creative People and Places Blackpool and Wyre)

‘Thank you very much for undertaking such a valuable evaluation of our We Face Forward programme. The findings have been a great help, both to us as an organisation, and in reporting back to our funders.’

Dr Nick Merriman, Director Manchester Museum

‘I could not recommend Marge Ainsley enough – her energy, dedication and real care have shone through at every moment. Marge has a skill for not only drawing out information from people and organisations, but also rigorously applying analysis to that, in a way that is sensitive to where that organisation is at, and where it wants to go.’

Richard Parry, Curator, The Grundy Art Gallery, Blackpool

‘Marge ran an inspiring revisioning day with us for Age Friendly volunteers and gallery staff, which gave us a new energy and enthusiasm. She was highly skilled at taking a brief and developing an effective and creative approach to working with a broad range of people, helping us to develop a shared agenda. Marge has strong transferable facilitation skills and I would not hesitate in working with her in the future.’

Ruth Edson, Community Programmes Manager Manchester Art Gallery

‘Thank you so much for your wonderful work and for the effort you have put in to it. I feel certain that it will be an invaluable tool for us, both strategically and for advocacy. We were all so uplifted by your presentation at the company meeting, this is fantastic.’

Kathryn MacDonald, Development Director, More Music

‘Marge has been great to work with in relation to our marketing and communication activities. She very quickly grasped the context within which we operate and suggested practical ways in which we could develop communication with our various audiences.’

Fiona Rosher, Museum Manager, Dales Countryside Museum

‘Marge is adept at identifying the core elements of a brief and identifying, with the client, the best way to go about a project. Her work is unmistakably top quality and deadlines, even tight ones, are always met. She adds the ability of combining the professionalism of a client-consultant relationship with vital elements of team work and co-operation.’