Barbara Henry
Museum Community Engagement Consultant
Barbara Henry is a seasoned museum practitioner, devoted to transforming museums into thriving cultural places embraced by their communities. As principal of Barbara Henry & Associates (BH&A), she uses best practices in community collaborations, visitor experiences, programming, and organizational culture to help organizations achieve their desired public goals within an environment of increasing change, complexity, and ambiguity.
Before BH&A, Ms. Henry held executive positions as Lab Center Director and Chief Curator of Education at the Oakland Museum of California. She directed nationally recognized projects, documented in numerous publications such as: “Myth & Reality: The California Gold Rush and Its Legacy”, a statewide curriculum project extending the teaching of this global event across four grade levels.
Ms. Henry is currently a board member for The Museum Group, a national consortium of leading museum consultants. Previously, she served as its president (2018-2020). She has also acted as a panel grant reviewer for several U.S. federal agencies.
Ms. Henry earned her MAT in Museum Education from George Washington University and BA in Art History from U.C.
Key mentoring areas include:
- Museum transformation and change management
- Community engagement and outreach
- Museum education and visitor experience
- Museum management and leadership
- Strategic planning and organizational development
- Project management in the cultural sector
- Grant review and writing for federal agencies
- Collection management and curation
- Exhibition development and design