On St. Valentine's Day this year, the trustees of Tenby Museum and Art Gallery elected a new honorary curator following the decision by Dr. Kathy Talbot to stand down to spend more time on research.

Neil Westerman (pictured) becomes only the eighth honorary curator since Tenby's independent museum was opened in 1878. Previous honorary curators include Arthur Leach, Wilfred Harrison, John Tipton, John Beynon and Michael Brew.

Neil, of Upper Hill Park, is from a Tenby family and can trace his maternal routes in Tenby back over 170 years. An old Greenhillian, Neil spent most of his working life in Berkshire employed in the communications industry. His last post was operational services manager for Royal Mail at Slough.

Neil has researched the lives of a number of local artists and has written two books, E. J. Head; The Tenby Artist (2001) and Impelled to Paint; The Life and Work of Dorothy Morse Brown (2005). Both books are considered the definitive works on these artists.

Following his move back to Pembrokeshire in 2007, Neil immediately joined the Tenby Historical Society where he was persuaded by the chairman, Douglas Fraser, that his skills would be valuable to the management committee which he joined in 2009. Neil set about trying to raise the profile of Tenby Historical Society by contributing reports to the Tenby Observer and writing a series of articles on Tenby's history for the Tenby Times newspaper. Many of these articles are now available on the Tenby Historical Society website.

In 2010, Neil was asked to become a trustee of Tenby Civic Society and was instrumental in persuading the Civic Society to adopt and look after the graves of a number of artists in Tenby cemetery. These include the graves of Charles Norris, E. J. Head and Augusta Mary Bowen. Regular inspections are carried out and undergrowth removed to ensure the inscriptions can be easily read.

Neil volunteered to join the committee of the Friends of Tenby Museum in 2010. A long-time member of the Friends, Neil was aware that they were having difficulties recruiting sufficient volunteers to run events to raise funds for the museum. Dr. Kathy Talbot was secretary when Neil joined the committee, but stood down to become honorary curator of the museum. At that time, Neil took over the role of secretary that he will now in turn relinquish on becoming honorary curator of the museum. During Neil's tenure as secretary, the Friends have raised several thousand pounds for the museum. The one event that stands out above all others is the 'Postcards from Tenby' event last year that raised over £2,000 for conservation work on pictures in the permanent collection. The Friends are planning to hold a similar event this September.

Neil was invited to become a trustee of Tenby Museum and Art Gallery and was elected honorary secretary in 2011. Working closely with Dr. Kathy Talbot, Neil produced new updated job descriptions for both paid staff and volunteer positions. Neil's role as secretary included completing the annual reports to the Charity Commission and involved agreeing an amendment to the museums governing document. With fundraising being very important to the museum's survival, Neil produced the museums 'Support Us' leaflet detailing the ways in which individuals can support the museum, ranging from donating items to the collection to leaving a legacy to the museum.

For the past six months, following Kathy's announcement that she would stand down as honorary curator at the next AGM, Neil has shadowed Kathy to gain a greater understanding of the role of honorary curator.

Neil stated: "Kathy will be a hard act to follow. Over the past four years, Kathy has transformed the museum which now looks better than ever."

Although Kathy is standing down as honorary curator, she is remaining as a trustee and will therefore be on hand to offer advice and support as needed. Neil is looking forward to building on his already good working relationship with both staff and volunteers.

He continued: "The task will be stimulating, exciting and fun, but most of all very satisfying. I enjoy a good working relationship with the museum's staff and especially with the museum's professional collections manager, Mark Lewis AMA. I see the task as essentially being a team leader, developing the skills of the museum's team and encouraging and supporting their ideas."

Neil added that the museum is looking to develop a closer working relationship with local schools and colleges, utilising the museum's extensive archive and photographic collection. A start has been made with history students from Greenhill School regularly conducting research at the museum and pupils from Pembroke School recently curating the art exhibition 'In a Grain of Sand'. One of the museum's trustees, Nicole Evans, has been appointed as an education co-ordinator to develop these links and establish links with other educational establishments.

Neil Westerman's first duty as honorary vurator was to present Dr. Kathy Talbot with a thank you card from the museum's trustees and staff in recognition of all that she has achieved for the museum.