Alistair Hardaker | Image: Dan Feeney
Current interim director of the South Ken Culture Quarter to lead museum’s Unlocking Stories Project from later this month
The Roald Dahl Museum and Story Centre in Buckinghamshire has appointed a new director ahead of a capital programme.
Dan Feeney, currently interim director of the South Ken Culture Quarter, joins the museum later this month.
The new appointment is set to lead the museum’s The Unlocking Stories Project, which has been created to conserve the museum’s historic buildings, Roald Dahl Archive and Writing Hut. Plans include additional gallery space, improved accessibility and new learning and community spaces.
Feeney brings experience from roles as interim director of Freud Museum London and head of investment and visitor economy at Rutland County Council.
He has also led Bristol’s five civic museums as head of culture and creative industries, and held senior visitor experience roles at Chiswick House & Gardens Trust, Royal Collection Trust at Buckingham Palace and the V&A.
Feeney succeeds Steve Gardam, who stepped down in December 2025 after a decade in the role.
Chair of trustees at the museum, Isobel Hunter, said Feeney brings a “wealth of experience from across the cultural and heritage sector, as well as a strong commitment to creating museums that are welcoming, relevant and shaped by the people and communities they serve.”
“Dan is joining us at exactly the right moment to lead the Museum as we turn that ambition into reality.”
Feeney said: “Like so many children around the world, I grew up reading Roald’s books and discovering a world full of wonder and possibility. Now I am doing the same with my own children, which means I can see the Museum and the worlds it opens up through their eyes.
“I am hugely excited to lead the Museum as it embarks on its next chapter, using the wonderful Archive we are custodians of to inspire visitors young and old to embark on their own gloriumptious journeys of imagination.”
