Episode 50 - Tony Butler OBE (CEO of Derby Museums)

My guest today is Tony Butler OBE, the Executive Director at Derby Museums – an independent organisation that is made up of 3 venues; The Derby Museum and Art Gallery, The Museum of Making & Pickford’s house. In our chat, Tony describes how he discovered Museum work through volunteering before then going on to undertake a master’s programme in Museology at the University of East Anglia. Tony then went on to work as Curator of Human History Isle of Wight Council Museum Service before joining Ipswich Museum as the Public Services Manager. He then took a pay cut to move to the Museum of East Anglian Life (now the Food Museum) – so that he could start to influence the changes he wanted to see in the sector. In our chat we also talk about Tony’s experience on the Clore Leadership Programme, through which he spent with The Friends of the Earth and the New Economics Foundation learning about their approaches and initiatives. During this period, he also read ‘Bowling Alone’ by Robert Putnam and saw an influential TED talk by Martin Seligman. Tony realised that he could combine all these elements together to potentially create high levels of environment care and wellbeing within the Museum. After speaking at a conference about wellbeing and enterprise he made a connection with the Paul Hamlyn foundation who offered to fund the Happy Museum Project – which went on to fund organisations to develop networks and think about how their museums could act as a place to support wellbeing. We also chat about Tony’s work as a trustee at Kids in Museums and Foundation Derbyshire – and how these additional roles can be a source of nourishment as well as a way of keeping yourself fresh and inspired. Finally, we talk about the future of Museums – and specifically what this looks like from a regional perspective. This conversation was recorded in April 2026 and is an edited version of a longer conversation. As usual, I’ve included links to the different organisations and projects we discuss in the show notes, and you can also learn more about both this episode and the wider project on the Cultural Peeps WordPress site. If you enjoy the show, please like and subscribe to receive future episodes and updates. That’s it from me for now, I hope you enjoy our chat! LINKS: Derby Museums: https://derbymuseums.org/ Derby Museum and Art Gallery: https://derbymuseums.org/museum-and-art-gallery Museum of Making: https://derbymuseums.org/museum-of-making Pickford’s House: https://derbymuseums.org/pickfords-house Foundation Derbyshire: https://foundationderbyshire.org/ Kids in Museums: https://kidsinmuseums.org.uk/ Happy Museum Project: https://happymuseumproject.org/ Happy Planet index: https://happyplanetindex.org/ Seymour mace: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seymour_Mace Bowling alone: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bowling_Alone Martin Seligman Talk: https://www.ted.com/talks/martin_seligman_the_new_era_of_positive_psychology The Food Museum (Formerly the East Anglian Life Museum) https://foodmuseum.org.uk/ Ipswich Museums: https://www.ipswichmuseum.co.uk/ Isle of Wight Council Museum Service: https://www.ipswichmuseum.co.uk/ National Postal Museum: https://www.postalmuseum.org/ Clore Leadership Programme: https://www.cloreleadership.org/ Glasgow Life Museums: https://www.glasgowlife.org.uk/museums