People

The plan for a series of exhibitions exploring the astonishing story of the apple began as the seed of an idea in 2017. It has since flourished through the generosity of many individuals and institutions around the world who have shared their knowledge, expertise, resources, contacts, and collections.

The exhibition programme is managed by a board representing the three UK delivery organisations: the Brightspace Foundation; the Museum of Cider; and the National Trust in Herefordshire. The programme’s exhibition curator has helped shape the approach during changing times and informed cultural content for Apples & People.

The exhibition funders were extremely accommodating as plans changed during 2020 in response to the COVID-19 pandemic, switching in the short term from the intended physical exhibitions to the Apples & People digital programme.

The exhibition programme benefits from a network of some of the world’s leading apple historians and scientists, who sit on the international advisory panel. All have generously shared advice and information. Additionally, each of the Apple Stories acknowledge contributions from other enthusiasts around the world, as well as institutions who have provided data and images of art and artefacts from their collections.

Exhibition Programme Team

Dr David Marshall

Programme board member representing the Brightspace Foundation

Co-author of Natural England Commissioned Report ‘Economic, biodiversity, resource protection and social values of orchards: A study of six orchards by the Herefordshire Orchards Community Evaluation Project’ (2012) and responsible for the Orchard Art project delivering therapeutic benefit to people with learning disabilities in orchards.

The Brightspace Foundation is a sustainable development charity based in Herefordshire that enables sustainable progress for rural communities.

Helen Thomas

Programme board member representing Hereford Cider Museum Trust

Managing Director of Westons Cider in Herefordshire, a company founded by her great-grandfather Henry Weston. She has spearheaded Westons’ growth over the last twenty years, increasing turnover to over £65m and employing over 230 people. Past Chair of the National Association of Cidermakers, a role she has occupied on two occasions, and a member of the NACM Pomology Group. Became a Deputy Lieutenant of Herefordshire in 2011, a Crown appointment.

Hereford Cider Museum Trust is a charity established in Hereford in 1973 to educate the public about the history and skills of cider-making, including apples and orcharding. It is the only accredited museum in the UK solely focused upon cider and the apple, and by far the largest such museum in the world.

David Bailey

Programme board member representing the National Trust in Herefordshire

Over 25 years of senior management in the heritage sector always with the aim of making things better, whether that be for the beautiful places under his leadership or the for those that visit and enjoy as well as for teams of staff and volunteers. Currently restoring hectares of traditional orchards in Herefordshire on National Trust properties, increasing priority habitat to celebrate the apple and all the wildlife that thrives off it.

The National Trust is a conservation charity in England, Wales & Northern Ireland and the largest membership organisation in the United Kingdom. It is a charity that works to preserve and protect historic places and spaces— “for ever, for everyone" and was founded in 1895.

Antonia Harrison

Exhibition Programme Curator

A Freelance Curator and former Senior Curator at Compton Verney with over 20 years experience curating exhibitions and commissioning contemporary artists. Recent projects include Mary Newcomb: Nature’s Canvas, The Lost Words, A Tea Journey and The Marvellous Mechanical Museum.

Instagram: antonia_harrison_

Christopher Preece

Digital Marketing Manager

A digital creative working with web, photography, graphics, video and audio.

Infinity Unlimited was established to provide a range of digital services and products for the charity, third, private and local authority sectors.

www.infinityunlimited.co.uk

Funders

Individual Donor Funders

Elizabeth and Lawrence Banks

Susan Bulmer

Sir Andrew Large

Partners

The Museum of Cider

The National Trust in Herefordshire

The Brightspace Foundation

Collaborations

Apples & People is part of the China West Midlands initiative to promote deeper understanding between the West Midlands and China, and has joined hands with the Embassy of the People’s Republic of China and China National Tourist Office London to celebrate the Chinese New Year 2021.

Acknowledgements

The Apple World Map – Helen Cann

Exhibition graphic design – Victoria Bithell Design

Agreed funding for future exhibition loans from Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew – Weston Loan Programme with Art Fund

International Advisory Panel

Dr Yang Bai

Director of Genomics Research Core at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute, New York, USA

Previously when at Boyce Thompson Institute at Cornell University she co-authored ‘Genome re-sequencing reveals the history of apple and supports a two-stage model for fruit enlargement’ publication of which in 2017 helped inspire The Apple exhibition programme.

Dr David Chagne

Science Group Leader at Plant & Food Research in New Zealand

Researching genetic controls of plant characteristics and developed genetic markers for fruit colour, aroma, and disease resistance. He was part of the ground-breaking international project that sequenced the genome of the Golden Delicious apple.

Liz Copas

Cider Pomologist

Formerly at Long Ashton Research Station in Somerset, UK and orcharding adviser for the National Association of Cider Makers. She is author of Cider Apples: The New Pomona (2014)

Professor Fabrizio Costa

Associate Professor of Agricultural Genetics at University of Trento, Italy

With a particular focus on fruit ripening and characteristics. At Foundation Edmund Mach, he was part of the ground-breaking international project that sequenced the genome of the Golden Delicious apple.

Dr Joanna Crosby

Apple and Orchard Historian and Enthusiast

Based in Norfolk UK, whose doctorate from the University of Essex was on the social and cultural history of the apple during the nineteenth century. She is a director of the East of England Apples and Orchards Project.

Jackie Denman

Chair of Trustees, Marcher Apple Network

Supporter of MAN in their quest to discover and sustain old varieties of apples and pears in the Welsh Marches, and founder of the long-running Big Apple Association celebrating apples and orchards in a corner of Herefordshire, UK.

Professor Kate Evans

Leads pome fruit breeding at the Tree Fruit Research and Extension Center, Washington State University, USA

She was instrumental in developing the recently-launched Cosmic Crisp ® apple.

Professor Yuan Gao

Associate Researcher at the Research Institute of Pomology of Chinese Academy of Agricultural Sciences (CAAS)

She is engaged in apple germplasm resources collection, identification, evaluation, innovation and utilization at the National Repository of Apple Germplasm Resources in Xincheng, Liaoning, China.

Professor Barrie Juniper

Reader Emeritus in Plant Professor, University of Oxford

Co-author of The Extraordinary Story of the Apple (2019). He was co-author of Genetic clues to the origin of the apple (2002) which first genetically tested the source of the domestic apple.

Amanda Karlstrom

Plant breeder at NIAB EMR, East Malling, UK

She is involved in the apple scion and rootstock breeding programmes at East Malling.

Professor Kazuhiro Matsumoto

Professor at the Laboratory of Horticultural Innovation, Department of Agriculture, at Shizuoka University, Japan

A specialist in apple breeding and cultivation study in Japan, he is currently leading a study of characteristics of the Bramley’s Seedling apple. He previously worked on Fujisaki-Farm at Hirosaki University, the birthplace of the Fuji apple.

Dr Joan Morgan

Plant historian based in Kent, UK

With a long association with the UK’s National Fruit Collection at Brogdale. She is co-author of The New Book of Apples (2002).

Dr Gayle Volk

Plant Physiologist with the USDA National Plant Germplasm System (NPGS), based in Fort Collins, Colorado, USA

She performs research to preserve fruit collections in the NPGS; co-authored "A global strategy for the conservation and use of apple genetic resources" (2019).

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