Susan McCormack is a leader and innovator with a strong track record of developing and delivering vision and strategy, innovative programming, change management, and building highly motivated teams to work together to deliver to strategic visions and aims, within museums, galleries and the HE sector.
With particular interest in developing cultural strategy to help organisations engender societal change, she is committed to partnership working for and with communities and fostering creative and critical thinking with local, as well as national and international audiences.
Susan worked at the V&A for over 15 years. From 2001 to 2006 as Senior Curator and Head of Contemporary Programmes, she pioneered a popular and critically acclaimed programme of exhibitions, commissions, live programmes at the V&A and other initiatives covering all aspects of contemporary culture. Using contemporary culture as a way in to explore the V&A, she encouraged new audiences to engage with the historic collections. During her time as Head of Contemporary Programmes, public perception of the V&A as a ‘contemporary’ museum was transformed and the V&A doubled its visitor figures. Key initiatives launched by her were Friday Late, Fashion in Motion, the V&A Contemporary Gallery and Garden Commissions. Prior to this role Susan worked on the V&A Spiral Project and initiated the V&A’s highly successful touring exhibitions programme.
As Director of Public Engagement at the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, Susan has developed strategies and vision, and audience development planning using innovative programming, strategic marketing and brand development, partnership working and collaboration. Her role is responsible for exhibitions, loans and touring exhibitions, public programmes, learning, communications, digital content and design.
From 2007 – 2012, on first moving to Oxford, she was Events Director for the University of Oxford where she organised world-class conferences, major donor stewardship events and launched the Oxford Thinking endowment campaign. She has devised strategic events with and for the Chancellor and Vice-Chancellor in Oxford, the UK, Davos, China, Asia and Australia.
Susan is a graduate of the Getty Leadership Programme 2019. She was a Member of the Heritage Lottery Fund Committee for the South East of England from 2014 – 2019, has been a member of the British Council Design Advisory Board and the Arts Council England Advisory Board, North of England and a Trustee for Banbury Museum and Gallery, Contemporary Applied Arts, London and Artpoint, Oxford.
With over 25 years of cultural programming experience, Susan has a wide-ranging knowledge of cross-cultural, historic and contemporary collections, innovative public programming and audience and community engagement.