Director, Museum of London
Sharon Ament is director of the Museum of London and is currently leading the process of creating a new museum for London at a new site in West Smithfield. She joined the Museum of London in 2012, steering the next phase of the organization’s development to reflect the energy and dynamism of London itself. During this time, annual visitor numbers reached one million. Through a program of successful exhibitions including “Fire! Fire!,” “The Cheapside Hoard,” “The Crime Museum Uncovered,” “Tunnel: The Archaeology of Crossrail,” “Roman Dead” and “The Havering Hoard,” the museum has engaged more school children than ever, is experimenting wildly with all things digital and has acquired its largest object — the six-meter-high “Trump Baby” balloon — as well as a fatberg.
Ms. Ament teaches, advises and presents internationally and, together with partners including the Barbican Center, Guildhall School of Music & Drama and City of London Corporation, is nurturing the development of Culture Mile. She is a cultural ambassador for the mayor of London, sitting on the mayor’s Cultural Leadership Board and the London Area Council of Arts Council England. She is the chair of London’s Screen Archives, co-chair of the Women Leaders in Museums Network, a member of the Worshipful Company of Bakers and a Noyce Leadership Institute fellow. She also sits on the Conseil Scientifique d’Universcience in Paris and the International Advisory Board of the ArtScience Museum in Singapore.
Ms. Ament was previously vice president of Ecsite, the European Network for Science Centers and Museums and has chaired the jury of the annual Mariano Gago Ecsite Awards since 2016. Her career to date has been in the field of natural history and conservation, working with the Natural History Museum, the Zoological Society of London and the Wildfowl & Wetlands Trust.
In 2021, she was awarded the Freedom of the City of London and featured among the Blooloop 50 Museum Influencer List 2021.
