Jon Hall BA(Hons) AMA

Born in 1950 in Sheffield, England, Jon was educated at Abbeydale Boys Grammar School, Sheffield and then at Sheffield and Wolverhampton Art Colleges where he graduated in 1973 with a BA(Hons) first class in Visual Communication, a combination of photography, film and television and design.

Jon began his career as a photographer, first commercially and then for Oxford City and County Museums (later to become the Oxfordshire County Museum Service). While at Oxford he began designing galleries, travelling exhibitions and then whole new museums within the service.

In 1978 he was appointed Design Manager at Merseyside Museums, now known as National Museums Liverpool, in charge of a department of more than 40 designers, photographers and tradesmen. Here he was responsible for the refurbishment of several of the galleries in the Liverpool Museum, the design and implementation of the new Prescot Museum of Clock and Watchmaking, the exhibition galleries at Croxteth Hall and the establishment of the new Maritime Museum in the Albert Dock.

In 1985 he left Merseyside Museums to establish an independent museum design practice based in Chester, Hall Redman Associates. Later to be known simply as HRA this practice quickly gained a reputation as one of the leading museum practitioners in the UK. The practice developed a highly successful commercial graphics and marketing division with clients such as Crown Berger and the Lake District National Park. Over the next ten years Jon's expertise became firmly directed towards development consultancy and in 1994 he decided to concentrate his time in that direction through a new company, Heritage Resource Agency.

Jon has travelled widely visiting museums and attractions in America, Australia, Belgium, Canada, The Czech Republic, Cyprus, Denmark, Eire, France, Germany, Holland, Italy, Poland, Portugal, Sicily, Spain, Switzerland and Turkey.

He has written extensively on museum design and lectured regularly to art colleges, Museums Association training courses, to the Leicester and Toronto University Museum Studies courses and to Countryside Interpretation courses at Losehill Hall. He has been involved in training workshops for the NW Museums Service on Project Management.

Jon was one of the first professional designers to be awarded the Museums Association Diploma and has since been active within the wider museums profession. He served as an elected councillor on the board of the Museums Association; as a founder member and for many years officer of the Museum Design Group, as past Vice Chairman of the Museum Professionals Group and as a member of the Association of Independent Museums and the Society for the Interpretation of Britain's Heritage. As part of his consultancy work Jon was, until its completion, also retained by the Laona Project in Cyprus. An organisation partly funded by Friends of the Earth and the EU, he advised on the design and interpretative elements of projects related to developing sustainable agro-tourism.

Jon specialises in concept development and interpretative planning with particular interests in buildings, visitor management and sustainable technology. He is particularly computer literate and through HRA's sister company Webz develops and designs web sites for a range of commercial and heritage clients.

Outside work his main passions are computing and its uses in communication, the Internet, aviation, especially gliding, and sailing.

 

  

"I first thought I would become an architect but having been offered places at Bristol and Manchester I decided that the training was too long - I wanted to get out into work as soon as possible. Art School was a natural alternative and though I turned to film, photography and design I never lost my interest in buildings. Maybe that is why I seem to spend a lot of time working with architects now.... "

"My time at Oxford and Merseyside was hugely formative, serving an apprenticeship with some of the best in the museums business. And of course I was influenced by the leadership and vision of Sir Richard Foster who was my director and friend at both."

"Outside work aviation is my passion, especially flying gliders for fun and in competition. It is a discipline that cannot be sidetracked or ignored as it is very unforgiving of carelessness. Gliding in particular is dependent on team work - we none of us would get off the ground if not prepared to help everyone else. I apply these same principles of care and teamwork to the relationship I have with my clients. "