Tributes paid following death of social media specialist Mar Dixon

Colleagues and friends have been paying tribute to the audience development and social media specialist Mar Dixon following her death earlier this week.

Originally from the US, Dixon was a well-known and respected figure across the UK museum sector. Alongside Linda Spurdle, the head of digital at Birmingham Museums Trust, Dixon co-founded the first museum “unconference”, Museum Camp, in 2012.

She went on to create influential online campaigns such as #AskACurator, #MuseumSelfie and #MuseumWeek.

Dixon ran workshops and hack events for museums, galleries and cultural institutions, with a particular focus on social media innovation. She was the project coordinator for the first Museomix in the UK, and a regular speaker who appeared at a number of Museums Association events.

Dixon died on 16 March following a short illness. Friends and colleagues have paid tribute to her achievements and contribution to the sector.  

“She had an amazing gift of making & forging friendships, and I know we are all hit hard by this terrible news,” Spurdle wrote in a a social media post.

“Mar was super fun and encouraged me to get stuff done. I can only begin to imagine how many museums and visitors have been positively touched,” said Zak Mensah, co-director of Birmingham Museums Trust.  

The National Lottery Heritage Fund commented that Dixon “had an inspiring passion for the positive impact social media had on museum and heritage organisations and was a big supporter of our annual #HeritageTreasures day”.

“I never met someone with such a huge smile and big heart. Always with the right word to say to lighten people’s mood and inspire innovation,” said Diane Drubay, founder of the We Are Museums network.

Describing the sector’s shock at the news of Dixon’s death, Simon Tanner, digital cultural heritage professor at King’s College London, said she “was completely committed to unlocking the power and creativity of museums”.