I am a curator of contemporary art, museum professional, and academic. I create and study interdisciplinary curatorial and artistic processes with a focus on environment, natural history collections, and visual art.

Currently I am British Academy Postdoctoral Fellow. I started the fellowship at University of Bristol in in the History of Art department and at the Centre for Environmental Humanities in 2019, before transferring to the Courtauld Institute of Art in September 2021.

Cheryl became a trustee in October 2022. Admired for her originality, fluency and professionalism, she has been composing to commission since she was fifteen. Classical tradition (she trained as a cellist and pianist at the Menuhin School before going on to Cambridge and King’s College, London) along with diverse contemporary inspirations including literature, painting and dance, have contributed to a creative presence provocatively her own. “Intricate in argument, sometimes impassioned, sometimes mercurial, always compelling in its authority” (Robin Holloway, The Spectator), her output – widely premiered, broadcast and commercially recorded, reaching audiences from the Proms to outreach workshops – addresses all genres from opera, ballet and concerto to song, chamber and solo music. Cheryl has worked with EVT on three occasions, writing vocal music inspired by Rosalind Franklin, Ada Lovelace and Florence Attridge, an Essex woman who, whilst working at the Marconi factory in Chelmsford during WWII, helped to make secret radio sets for spies.

Emma Bernard, Curator of Fossil Fish at the Natural History Museum in London, joined our board of trustees in October 2022. She is a dedicated museum professional with over 15 years’ experience working on natural science collections in small local authority, large regional and national museums in the UK.

Emma is passionate about engaging people about science, especially younger audiences, alongside challenging perceptions of what a palaeontologist looks like. She regularly participates and leads outreach events across the UK, such as the Lyme Regis Fossil Festival covering aspects of palaeontology, evolution and talking about sharks. As well as online events, such as the Natural History Museums’ Nature Live online.

A heroine of Emma’s is Mary Anning, and she has been fortunate enough to have been involved in various projects over the years, including a short programme on BBC Inside Out about who Mary Anning was; as a consultant of an upcoming children’s book about Mary Anning with Penguin Random House Publishers and with EVT’s school’s programme.

Emma is no stranger to the stage having spent 20 years attending various dance classes. In her late teens and early twenties, she was a ballet teacher and a professional cheerleader. She also regularly attended classes with the Scottish Youth Theatre as a teenager.