Charlotte Derry

Charlotte Derry / Playful Places is a creative play consultancy working with museums, cultural venues and schools to improve the conditions fo play. Her work focuses on the dual need for strategic commitment to playful engagement and the value of small, sustainable, creative methods to support a playful culture.

As part of this work, Playful Places delivers context-sensitive playwork training, coaching, play auditing, and creative idea-generation through the lens of spatial and social justice, permaculture principles and a perception of play as a vital part of life – which if allowed to flourish, connects us to our place and to all living things, assists with our ability for relational repair, and supports our capacity for creativity and well-being. The work prioritises the value of play for well-being of people and place (site), and necessarily often gently challenges the limiting conditions upon play within organisational ecosystems.

Charlotte’s clients have included the National Trust, The Cutty Sark, The National Maritime Museum, Kids in Museums and numerous local authority museums and creative teams.

Charlotte Derry will be speaking at the Creative Museums Summit 2026 :

Creating Playful Places

In her presentation she will speak about the themes driving her work and, using case study examples from her clients, she will take participants on a journey into playing with the possibilities – of creative action, of making simple changes and by considering the strategic positioning of play – all with potential to nudge their own work and organisations into being even more playful, connected and climate-friendly.