Meet The Team: BioMedia Project Manager
Published on 21st May 2019
This week we have a chat with our BioMedia Project Manager, Daryl Stenvoll-Wells.
What are the key parts to your role?
Designing and delivering the BioMedia Meltdown workshops and associated programming for teachers, students and families.
What do you like most about your job?
The challenge of connecting life science with active arts education; getting out and about all over London; assisting schools in becoming more collaborative and interdisciplinary; recognising young peoples’ creativity; and working with talented, interesting and fun groups of people.
How did you end up in this job?
I taught art in schools in Los Angeles, New York, DC and London over the years. After I had my son I moved into museum and gallery education, but museum learning departments have been decimated by austerity and are therefore working more with freelancers, whereas I wanted something more consistent. I also felt the art world has become so conceptual that it was inaccessible to many of the disadvantaged communities I wanted to work with. I decided to shift my focus to learning and engagement attached to an organisation where education wouldn’t always take a back seat to other concerns.
What is your favourite species of animal or plant?
I love elephants, although when I went on safari in Tanzania, a bull threatened to charge our jeep. They’re terrifying when you see them out in the wild!
What is the most interesting item to you in the Linnean Society collections?
It’s not a single item, but Linnaeus’ notebooks are fascinating to me, especially the drawings. He’s not a master draughtsman, but his style is very expressive and similar to some modern artists hundreds of years later.
What do you like to do in your spare time?
I started an organisation called Art Responders that curates exhibitions with a social justice focus. I also make my own art, love to cook and travel frequently with my husband and 7-year-old son.