Esme Ward is the director of Manchester Museum. She became the museum’s first female director in 2018, bringing a solid background in cultural leadership, education, and community engagement. Under her leadership, the museum has focused on being a more inclusive, accessible, and socially engaged institution, emphasising serving diverse communities and fostering a sense of belonging. She led the museum’s redevelopment from 2019 to 23, which included the creation of a new South Asian gallery.
Manchester Museum closed to the public in August 2021 to undertake the final phase of its ‘Hello Future’ transformation project and then reopened in February 2023. The £15 million project featured the Belonging Gallery, the Lee Kai Hung Chinese Gallery, and the South Asia Gallery. Its aim was to build understanding between cultures and work towards the creation of a more sustainable world.
Speaking to blooloop in 2022, Esme Ward discussed her view that museums and galleries are part of the public health workforce.
“I know we don’t necessarily describe ourselves in those terms. But I think our role, particularly around supporting social connectedness and tackling social isolation, is so critical. For me, and I’m now chair of the Culture, Health & Wellbeing Alliance nationally, that will always be part of my own personal interests. I also think it’s fundamentally part of a museum’s work to tackle those inequalities.”
For many years, Ward has been a leading thinker in UK museums regarding the connections between heritage, health, and well-being. She is chair of the UK’s Culture Health and Well-Being Alliance and has developed a museum philosophy based on caring for people, place, and planet.
“The role of arts, culture, and particularly museums, in working with people is hugely powerful,” she said to blooloop. “I’m interested in how museums become the museums they need to be for their context and who shapes what that is.”