Lindsay Sharp

Dr Lindsay Gerard Sharp is a museologist living near Wollongong/Gerringong in the coastal hinterland of New South Wales in Australia, working as a museum consultant and writing.

Born in Britain and raised in Australia, Sharp earned his doctorate in the History of Ideas (science/natural philosophy) in 1976, receiving the Clifford Norton research fellowship in the History of Science from Queen's College, Oxford. He started his museological career at the Science Museum in London the same year he received his PhD, and for the next three decades, worked all over the world.

In Australia, Sharp led the team responsible for creating the Powerhouse Museum in Sydney and was its founding director^[1] Sharp also served as Director, Entertainment and Leisure, for Merlin International Properties in Australia and the United Kingdom. He was CEO/Executive Consultant to the Earth Exchange – a regenerated tourist, environmental and educational facility in the Rocks, Sydney and Deputy Director/Senior Museum Consultant to the Milken Family Foundation, in Santa Monica, California, United States. He served as President and CEO of the Royal Ontario Museum in Toronto, Canada, from 1997 to 2000- Canada's equivalent of America's Smithsonian.^[2]

In 2000, Sharp was appointed as Director of the London, UK National Museum of Science and Industry – now known as the Science Museum Group- a family of museums that include the National Railway Museum, the Science Museum and the National Museum of Photography, Film and Television [Now National Media Museum], Dana Center, 'Locomotion' Museum at Shildon and the National Collections Center in Wiltshire, UK.He was Founding Director of the Dana Center and Locomotion and helped replan the entire Science Museum Group, in all aspects, developing new strategic plans for the large and complex sites at each museum and enhancing the SMG's global electronic and educational engagement and reach. In June 2005 he was awarded the 2005 Public Promotion of Engineering Medal by the Royal Academy of Engineering ^[3]

Sharp's concern to draw more of the Science Museum's collection to the attention of more of the public was sustained.^[4]

Since 2006 Dr Lindsay Sharp has consulted in Asia, Australasia and the USA, assisting cultural organizations in developing and engaging with broader audiences and becoming more sustainable -triple bottom line.

References

1. Wade Chambers and Rachel Faggetter, "Australia's Museum Powerhouse", Technology and Culture, Vol. 33, No. 3 (July, 1992), pp. 548–559.
2. Toronto IdeasCity Presenter Lindsay Sharp, 2002.
3. Royal Academy of Engineering Award for the Man behind the Science Museum, Royal Academy of Engineering, 2 June 2005.
4. Mark Henderson, Science Museum II thinks big to liberate locked-away gems, The Times, 16 June 2007.