Restructure co-founder to educate Design Museum

The Design Museum has appointed Restructure co-founder Helen Evenden as its first head of educational activities since 1998, as part of its commitment to increase the emphasis on its education programme.

Responsibility for education at the museum for the past year had been given to former deputy director Vanessa Swann, who left last week to complete an MBA.

The museum sees a dedicated position as key to driving forward education initiatives put in place over the past 12 months. Evenden, who will work three days a week for the museum, starts in May.

‘The Design Museum is the biggest provider of design education resources in the country. Evenden’s background, contacts and enthusiasm for the subject will enable her to continue to build and develop the museum as a cultural and intellectual centre for design,’ says Design Museum director Alice Rawsthorn.

‘We have developed new workshop programmes, improved facilities for schools and groups coming into the museum, expanded the education section of the website and have also added a design history section to the website, which is receiving 500 000 hits per month.

‘We have also just received £20 000 from Marks & Spencer for our talks series, which features the likes of Tom Dixon and Sir Norman Foster,’ says Rawsthorn.

Evenden, who is also a tutor at the Royal College of Art, curated the Design Council’s travelling show, Great Expectations, part of the recent UKwithNY festival in New York.

The installation was designed by Casson Mann, which won Best of Show for the work at this year’s Design Week Awards.