Since 2014 Tony Butler has been executive director of Derby Museums. Its collections were founded in 1783 by the polymath Erasmus Darwin and feature the largest collection of work by Joseph Wright of Derby, the artists of Enlightenment. Derby Museums portfolio includes the award winning Museum of Making at Derby Silk Mill – a UNESCO World Heritage Site which opened in 2021 following a £18million refurbishment.
Prior to this, Butler was director of the Museum of East Anglian Life (now the Food Museum) for nine years. He repositioned the organisation as a social enterprise and led a major capital development programme involving the restoration of Abbot’s Hall, a Queen Anne mansion and associated buildings.
In 2011, he founded the Happy Museum Project, which created an international community supporting over 60 UK museums, to explore how museums could champion wellbeing and environmental sustainability.
Butler is a committee member of the National Lottery Heritage Fund (Midlands and East), which distributes millions of pounds a year on cultural and natural heritage projects. He sits on the UK National Museums Director’s Council and its executive group, and he is also a member of the small steering group leading the English Civic Museums Network.
Butler was the Museums Fellow on the Clore Leadership Programme in 2007–2008 and is an alumnus of the US National Arts Strategies Executive Programme