Who leads TextWorkshops?
Dea Birkett is a journalist, broadcaster and writer. She writes for The Guardian, scripts and presents documentaries for Channel 4, and is a regular contributor to BBC Radio4. She is also Creative Director of ManyRiversFilms, an Emmy-nominated documentary and drama film company.
Dea is also Director of Kids in Museums, a visitor-led charity working with museums to make them more family friendly, in particular for those families who have never visited before. Kids in Museums publishes the annual Kids in Museums Manifesto – 20 ways to make a museum family friendly – compiled entirely from visitors’ comments. It also runs the annual Guardian Family Friendly Museum Award, the biggest museum award in Britain and the only one judged by families and young people. Amongst Kids in Museums other projects are Your Museum Café and Flexible Family Tickets.
Dea is author of seven books, including Off the Beaten Track: Three Centuries of Women Travellers, written to accompany a National Portrait Gallery exhibition of the same name.
Rebecca Mileham is a writer and editor with fifteen years’ experience in museum interpretation, exhibition development, live presentation and training.
Rebecca helped develop the Science Museum’s 10,000m2 Wellcome Wing extension and led the fast-moving Antenna science news gallery. She was also head of content for the object-rich historical gallery Ingenious Energy and wrote the Science Museum Guide. Since becoming freelance, her projects have included text-writing for museums all over the country, developing trails and resources, and advising museum teams on interpretation.
Rebecca studied Physics and Science Communication at Imperial College London, and has contributed as a science journalist to the Sunday Times, She magazine and many other titles. She has published three books including a community history of her son’s primary school and is a member of the Association of British Science Writers.
