Heritage Consulting Tailored to Your Objectives
Difficult histories are the stories institutions most need to tell, and the ones with the highest stakes when told poorly. With scholarly expertise in memory, memorialization, and human rights, and a practice that is trauma-informed and ethical at every step, this consultancy helps your institution tell hard stories with confidence rather than caution.
Your exhibitions gain depth and honesty. Your staff gain skills and support for demanding work. Your institution builds trust with the communities whose stories it holds. Whether you start with a collection review or a full partnership, every engagement builds toward memory work that moves people.
Tier One: The Assessment
Hidden Histories in Your Collection
Fees by proposal
Your starting point. A focused, fixed-scope engagement that reveals what your institution already holds.
Every collection holds stories that have never been told, and some that have been told the wrong way. This service takes a fresh, ethically grounded look at what your institution already stewards: objects, archives, photographs, and records. Together we surface narratives of colonialism, migration, resistance, and survival waiting in your storage rooms, and reinterpret contested objects with honesty about how they were acquired and accountability to the communities they came from. Because these objects often carry trauma with them, the work is approached with trauma-informed care: for source communities, for your staff, and for the stories themselves. No new acquisitions required, just new questions asked ethically.
What's included
A guided review of selected collections, archives, and existing interpretation through an ethical, trauma-informed lens
A written Hidden Histories Report identifying untold stories, contested objects, and reinterpretation opportunities, with each finding ranked by readiness
Provenance and acquisition flags: where honest acknowledgment is needed and how to approach it
A closing briefing with staff and leadership to walk through findings and decide what comes next
Best for: institutions that know their collection has more to say but need an experienced, careful eye to find it; teams testing the waters before a larger commitment.
Where it leads: findings from The Assessment often become the seed of a new exhibition (Tier Two) or reveal structural questions best addressed in partnership (Tier Three).
Tier Two: The Development
Exhibition Development for Difficult Histories
Fees by proposal
A full project engagement, from first concept to opening day. Let us do the difficult work.
From first concept to opening day, this service guides new exhibitions on histories of mass atrocity, genocide, displacement, and human rights, with trauma-informed practice built in at every stage. That means shaping the interpretive vision around the wellbeing of survivors, descendants, staff, and visitors; advising on the ethical use of testimony, images, and objects so that no one's pain is put on display without consent, context, and care; and working with affected communities so their stories are told with them, not simply about them. The result is an exhibition that is rigorous in its scholarship, ethical in its methods, and humane in its impact.
What's included
Interpretive vision and narrative development grounded in current scholarship on memory, memorialization, and human rights
An ethical framework for testimony, images, and objects, including consent processes and guidance on what not to display
Community engagement design so survivors and descendants shape the telling of their own stories
Trauma-informed visitor experience planning: pacing, content notes, spaces for reflection, and care for front-of-house staff
Ongoing advisory through design, fabrication, and installation, plus support for opening and interpretation staff training
Best for: institutions planning a new gallery or exhibition on difficult histories, or rethinking a longstanding one that no longer reflects how these stories should be told.
Where it leads: many institutions find the exhibition process surfaces deeper questions about their own structures. The Transformation exists for exactly that moment.
Tier Three: The Transformation
Ethical Practice and Institutional Change
Fees by proposal
An ongoing partnership that changes not just what your institution says, but how it works.
Telling ethical stories requires an institution capable of telling them. This service works alongside your staff and leadership to examine the colonial structures your museum may have inherited, from governance and collecting practices to language, labels, and community relationships. Because this work asks hard questions and can stir difficult emotions, every workshop and facilitated conversation is trauma-informed by design: paced with care, grounded in consent, and attentive to the wellbeing of the people in the room as much as the communities beyond it. Your team builds the skills and confidence to carry ethical, trauma-informed practice forward themselves, long after the engagement ends.
What's included
An institutional review of governance, collecting, language, and community relationships through a decolonial lens
A facilitated workshop series for staff and leadership, trauma-informed by design and paced for real change rather than performative change
Team development and coaching so ethical practice becomes internal capacity, not external dependency
Community relationship strategy: building or repairing trust with the communities whose stories your institution holds
A practical roadmap with milestones your team owns after the engagement ends
Best for: institutions ready to move beyond statements and into structural change; leadership teams who want the work done with their people, not to them.
Where it leads: an institution that can tell difficult histories ethically on its own, which is the goal of every engagement.
Begin Your Consultation
Submit the inquiry form to initiate a confidential discussion and explore how these solutions can advance your strategic priorities.