Grace Jordan

Nomination:

I am nominating Grace Jordan for her work as Project Officer with the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust Archive, between September 2025 and May 2026.

Grace joined the British Motor Industry Heritage Trust Archive (Based at the British Motor Museum, Warwickshire) in September 2025 as a recent postgraduate, and at a time of significant change for archival practice and team dynamics within BMIHT. Grace studied Archives & Records Management at Aberystwyth 2024-2025, and will be graduating this summer with a Distinction. She was inspired to apply to work with the Trust after interviewing staff for her MA dissertation which analysed comparative approaches of allied museum & archive services (for which she was awarded the mark of distinction).

Exploiting her academic research, Grace has contributed significantly to building a more cohesive and integrated approach to collections care and public engagement across the archival and museum collections cared for by BMIHT: (1) an extensive archive, originally established to preserve and provide access to records and images which document the work and achievements of the UK's motor industry, as well as those employed in it; (2) a collection of 400 vehicles plus 10,000 associated objects, which spans companies representing much of Britain’s motor industry. 

Funded by an Innovate UK Launchpad grant and working with local digital heritage enterprise Panivox, Grace’s key primary contribution has been to research the BMIHT’s extensive archives. Marshalling large amounts of information, she has created and developed narratives that harness the power and potential of storytelling to engage diverse audiences with the past and heritage collections. 

Throughout this project Grace demonstrated her initiative and ability to work independently and as part of a team. She showed considerable aptitude for software development – resolving several practical and technical challenges, and an awareness of the potential of digital technologies for audience engagement. Devising and delivering stakeholder evaluation while liaising closely with the curatorial team and external partners she played a pivotal role in developing and delivering innovative public facing interpretive interventions via an onsite digital kiosk and mobile phone-based ‘pocket guide’. 

These resources not only engage with the long-standing challenges of integrating digital interventions with conventional modes of museum display, but also provide an exemplar of effective integration between the museum exhibition gallery and traditionally ‘behind the scenes’ archival collections. 

Grace has led and delivered this project alongside contributing to the day-to-day work of the archive service; dealing with accessions, enquiries and public service. She has processed one of the largest collections to have been recently catalogued at BMIHT, an archive accessioned from the Oxford Bus Museum, also leading a small team of volunteers to assist with this. 

Grace has made a meaningful difference to the visibility of the BMIHT Archive, both internally and externally. This has included representing the BMIHT Archive at the University of Leicester’s Museum Studies placement fair, as well as delivering tours, networking with GLAM and academic colleagues, submitting conference papers and providing content for social media. Collaborating closely with BMIHT’s marketing team and museum curators, Grace has played a key role in the advocacy work of the Archive service.

Grace’s professional confidence and grasp of archival practice and theory belie her status as a New Professional. A true asset to the BMIHT Archive service, Grace’s contribution has been acknowledged by BMIHT in the form of an offer of extended full-time employment as Assistant Archivist with the Archive team.