Dr Laura Allan has been appointed as community curator of Ripon Museum Trust, which runs the city's three museums.

Her role will involve working with local organisations, community groups and residents to increase engagement, promote creativity and generate a sense of place and improved mental health and wellbeing.

Dr Allan joins from Severndroog Castle in Shooter's Hill, London, where she was employed as heritage manager. The castle is a community-run organisation and she was hired to reopen the building to the public after being closed for 30 years.

She has also worked and volunteered at various museums, including the Durham Light Infantry Museum, Leeds Museums and Galleries, the Old Royal Naval College in Greenwich and Whitehall (a Tudor house) in London



Dr Allan will increase community engagement with Ripon's museums

Helen Thornton, director at Ripon Museum Trust, said:

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Dr Allan studied for a BA in history at Sunderland University, a MA in art gallery and museum studies at Leeds University and completed her PhD in the public history of the criminal justice system with the Open University.

She has presented at conferences in New Zealand, Vienna and Scotland, discussing the differences between academic and museum interpretations of criminal justice history.

Ripon's Workhouse, Prison and Police and Old Courthouse museums are open from Tuesday to Sunday.