Hannah-Lee Chalk

Hannah has worked in the museum sector for 21 years in a various roles including education, research, curation and exhibition development.

She originally studied Geology before undertaking a MA in Museum Studies and then a PhD in Social Anthropology. Having undertaken her academic and professional development simultaneously, her work has always focused on the application of theory to practice.

She has worked at Manchester Museum for many years, originally as a member of the Visitor Team and subsequently in a range of educational and project management roles before taking on the Learning Manager Position in 2016. As Learning Manager, Hannah oversees and supports the development and delivery of the learning programme.

She is particularly interested in developing new programmes that move beyond disciplinary divisions and use the collections to explore social and ecological justice.

Hannah-Lee Chalk will be speaking at the Creative Museums Summit 2026 :

Getting creative to go Wild: a case study

Manchester Museum and digital studio Fast Familiar, both award-winners in their field, teamed up to take a creative approach to a final reflective moment for the Wild exhibition. The brief was to create space for audiences to digest some challenging and potentially divisive content… with a short dwell time… while looking stunning… and ideally while finding out what they’d thought of the exhibition. This is a behind-the-scenes look at a creative collaboration which asked audiences to think critically and creatively about what they’d just experienced, and gathered data to inform future programming.