Nicola Wallis

Nicola’s interests are around arts and cultural education in the early years and its links to democratic engagement and social justice. She uses practitioner-led and participatory research methods to learn more about young children’s experiences in museums. 

With Kate Noble, she has recently conducted a meta analysis of the early years practitioner research projects, which has led to the development of the Compass Model - a framework for supporting museum educators in their work with young children.

Previous work includes The Family Welcome Project with a local Child and Family Centre, which built on a collaborative pilot programme with Nesta and ArtFund,  and multiple innovative participatory research residencies. She worked on the University of Cambridge Museums’ Nursery in Residence (2017) project in collaboration with Cambridge University Botanic Garden, which investigated young children’s meaning making through sustained engagement with a museum and garden. Thanks to an ESRC Impact Acceleration Award, the findings from this project were shared through a seminar series (Lines of Enquiry) which brought together academics, practitioners and stakeholders with an interest in early childhood and cultural learning. A follow up Playgroup in Residence: It’s Our Museum Too practitioner-led research project was carried out in 2019-2020 with support from the Cambridge Humanities Research Grant Scheme. A third early years residency: Readers in Residence, using picture books to support families' explorations of museums followed.

Following undergraduate studies in Modern and Medieval Languages at Cambridge University, Nicola trained as a primary school teacher, and then read for a post-graduate diploma in Museum Studies. She has specialised in Early Years Education since 2005, and began working in Museum Education in 2007. She has an MA in Early Childhood Studies and completed her PhD with the Centre for Research in Early Childhood focusing on very young children's engagement with museum objects and spaces in 2025.

She is involved as a trustee in a number of local organisations supporting children and families, and a steering committee member of the Early Years Museum Network and the Families in Museums Network. Nicola is a co-convenor of the European Early Childhood Education Research Association (EECERA) Special Interest Group for Young Children’s Arts and Cultural Experiences.

Nicola now works as Early Years Programme Manager at the National Portrait Gallery.