Louise is the Curator of MoDiP. As a qualified museums professional, Louise has gained several years’ experience working with a range of interesting collections of various materials from those relating to the brewing industry, ceramics, jewellery, historical glassware, and military history. She completed her PhD at the University of Brighton in the academic year 2020 /2021.
Louise's thesis, A Matter of Material: Exploring the Value of the Museum of Design in Plastics (MoDiP), set out to understand how a museum focusing on a single material family can contribute to the societal and museological comprehension of design in plastics. It looked at how museums communicate a group of materials that audiences believe they know and understand, yet that knowledge and understanding may not be the whole story. It explored why it might seem strange that a museum dedicated to plastics even exists, by looking at what museums are, what they have been traditionally, and what they can become. Her work investigated the material qualities of plastics, alongside other materials, and looked at why the placement of some materials within the museum setting might be difficult to comprehend and how, by being the sole focus of the museum, materials can be more deeply explored.