I work as Deputy Chief Curator and Head of Engagement at the Houses of Parliament. I am a trustee of the Old Operating Theatre Museum and Herb Garrett and a member of the Collections Advisory Group of the Royal Geographical Society. Previously I was Curator of Art Collections at the Science Museum in London, and Curator of Art, pre-1800, at Royal Museums Greenwich. I have held various posts in national and university museums since 2007.

My book ‘Looking for Longitude: A Cultural History’ was published in 2022. I write for a number of journals and magazines including the Museums Journal, Apollo Magazine, and Burlington Contemporary. I have higher degrees in History, History of Art and History of Science from Oxford University, Birkbeck and the University of Cambridge. My PhD was part of an AHRC-funded project at the University of Cambridge and the National Maritime Museum, Greenwich ‘The Board of Longitude 1714-1828: Science, Innovation and Empire in the Georgian World’. 

I am an Honorary Research Fellow in Birkbeck’s School of Historical Studies and in UCL’s Department of Science and Technology Studies. I have taught on history of art, material culture, history of collecting and history of science for the University of Cambridge, and have been invited to speak at, chair, contribute to, and peer-review a range of books, articles, national and international conferences focused on interactions between art and science. I co-founded the ‘Things’ seminars at the Centre for Arts and Humanities Research (CRASSH) Cambridge in 2011. In 2009, I participated in Anthony Gormley’s ‘One and Other’ Project on the Fourth Plinth in London’s Trafalgar Square. In the 1990s I won a Blue Peter Badge.

For other professional projects see Curating.

Spoons on Trays

The ‘brand’ Spoons on Trays stems from a joke that stuck. When I was starting out in the museum sector, my friends developed a running gag that my curatorial profession involved arranging objects on trays, specifically spoons, secured with a hot glue gun. The standard mode of enquiry became ‘how are the spoons?’ I now feel it usefully encompasses the many ‘spoons’ of my career, irrespective of my current employer.

Opinions are all my own, naturally.
All words and photographs on this site (c) Katy Barrett unless stated otherwise.