Dr. Dustin Frazier Wood combines research on early modern collecting practices and knowledge-making networks with longstanding professional practice in heritage leadership and development. Dustin’s work aims to bridge the divide between museums and heritage organisations in rural and provincial areas, and the academic and national heritage sectors.
Dustin currently focuses on the Spalding Gentlemen’s Society (SGS), Britain’s oldest provincial learned society and second-oldest museum. Dustin has led SGS’s research and collections development work since 2017, resulting in the formation of an international network of partners including academics, collections, community groups, learned societies and professional bodies. This work has led to the formation of the Fenland Heritage Network (2019), Centre for Fenland Studies (2024) and, most recently, the Heritage Associates Programme (2024-25).
Dustin also works closely with Wandsworth Council to increase access to and engagement with the Borough Collection, including through volunteer opportunities, student placements, and the creation of “mini-museums” at locations across the borough. Currently, Dustin is leading the evaluation of Wandsworth’s programme of activities as London Borough of Culture 2025, working alongside partners from Roehampton, the culture sector and local government.
Dustin has been a consultant for a variety of initiatives that bring together students, local communities, academics and heritage professionals to carry out research and to create resources and activities that foster public engagement with heritage collections. Recent partners have included Kew Gardens, Keats House, Ayscoughfee Hall Museum and Gardens, the Story Tellers (South and East Lincolnshire Councils Partnership NPO), and the Society of Antiquaries of London.
Dustin regularly curates exhibitions that explore the ways in which material culture housed in small, rural and provincial museums can add nuance to and even upset understanding about the ways in which “foreign” and “exotic” cultures were understood and engaged with by communities outside the cultural elite.