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o.orbach@ucl.ac.uk

My work explores participatory and interactive ways of making narratives come to life. I am interested in finding alternative means of assembling and disseminating stories, creating objects, environments, workshops and interactive performances through which stories are experienced.

My projects include permanent site-specific artworks, temporary interventions for public spaces, museums, galleries, libraries and schools, ephemeral and transient books, collaborations with theatre companies, community-based residencies, socially-engaged regeneration projects and consultations.

Originally trained in illustration and visual communication at the Royal College of Art, I have worked in the UK's GLAM (Galleries, Libraries, Archives and Museums) sector, co-curating exhibitions with communities in diverse settings such as parks, forests, bus-shelters and disused shop-units, as well as more traditional gallery spaces. Clients include the British Museum, the London Transport Museum, The Anne Frank Trust, Three Faith Forum and the Co-Existence Trust, the Bronte Parsonage Museum, Keats House, Charleston House, Museums Sheffield, Camden Arts Centre, the South Bank Centre and Royal Festival Hall, Creativity Works, Dandelion Projects, William Morris Gallery, Waltham Forest and Barking Council.

Recent commission include: 'Songs from home- a Mixtape for the Museum' (2022) – a collaborative film collage commissioned by the Museum of the Home, 'Wycinanki: the Art of Polish Papercuts'- artworks and a participatory exhibition created with the Polish community, commissioned by Tunbridge Wells Museum and Gallery, 'What's in a Name?' – workshop design and temporary display for the Petrie Museum of Sudanese and Egyptian Archaeology (2022), 'The Whispering Forest' – an installation about Brazilian folk tales at the Museum of London (2019), 'The Collaborative Diary' (2017) – a portable display and learning resource commissioned by the Anne Frank Trust, 'The View From My Bedroom Window' – a participatory exhibition made together with the Children in Care Council, Warwickshire, and 'Edible Histories' – a learning resource and participatory pop-up exhibition commissioned by Counterpoints Arts for Refugee Week UK.

I developed my studio research into a practice-based PhD in Social Anthropology, which was funded by the Chase Consortium and hosted by the Museum of London. Conducting a multi-sited ethnography with several supplementary schools, my PhD thesis 'Children as Heritage-Makers in Diaspora' (2022) examines children's new roles in preserving heritage in migration. Employing my training as an artist, I used multimodal, visual and collaborative research methods to explore, document and support emerging heritage partnerships between the Museum of London and Brazilian, Tamil, Iranian, Lithuanian and Albanian supplementary schools based in the UK. I currently work on the Endangered Material Knowledge Programme (EMKP) at the British Museum, supporting projects documenting living traditions, material knowledge systems and intangible heritage across the globe.

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Copyright Orly Orbach 2025