Leslie Palanker

Leslie Palanker is an Assistant Learning Officer for Tyne & Wear Archives & Museums (TWAM).

TWAM is a major regional museum, art gallery and archives service. They manage a collection of nine museums and galleries across Tyneside and the Archives for Tyne and Wear and hold collections of international importance in archives, art, science and technology, archaeology, military and social history, fashion and natural sciences.

Leslie has worked across the service’s museums and galleries and has developed and led numerous learning programs for primary, secondary, and early years’ children, families, SEND schools and units and adults with PMLD. She is committed to delivering world-class learning and engagement programmes that stimulate and inspire, offer places to play and be curious, invent, think, and reflect, and allow audiences from a variety of backgrounds to share time with other generations and diverse communities. Leslie is especially concerned with reaching those facing barriers to engagement, from SEND learners to those from areas of deprivation, and believes that all audiences of all types should have the opportunity to contribute to, as well as draw sustenance from their learning experiences, and be changed in the process.

Prior to working for TWAM, Leslie lived in Nice, France and was the head of the Primary EAL Department for the International School of Nice for ten years, where utilising the creative arts in teaching was an integral part of the program. Leslie studied History of Art, has a MA in Museum Studies, and owned and ran her own gallery in New York City showcasing the work of American and international outsider artists, before moving abroad in 2000.

MuseumNext Museums, Health & Wellbeing Summit
Monday, 31 January 2022

Sensory Journeys

Experience how Tyne & Wear Archives and Museums are reaching beyond our walls and connecting with Special Educational Needs Disability (SEND), Profound Multiple Learning Disability (PMLD), and hard-to-reach disadvantaged audiences, through innovative digital sensory story telling sessions where you create the sights, sounds, smells, and tastes to bring the stories to life, using materials easily found or made at home. Find out how these stories and their supporting resources help all audiences with their health and wellbeing by offering inclusive and meaningful experiences through sensory engagement.

Find the full schedule here