Gillian Spencer obituary

Gillian Spencer, who was a leading museum director and has died at the age of 95, was among the first innovative curators to work in Yorkshire during the 1970s and 1980s. Alongside Frank Constantine in Sheffield and Robert Rowe in Leeds, she led a significant improvement of museum services in the region. She made them more engaging for local people by giving them a clear sense of purpose, direction, and style.

When Gillian was appointed as the officer for museums and art galleries in Wakefield in 1973, she discovered that the city's collections were in a state of disrepair. They were stored in a building that was polluted and heated by coal, which she famously described as 'a machine to destroy the collections'. The City Art Gallery, which housed an exceptional collection of 20th-century paintings and sculptures, was being managed with a policy of hanging art based simply on size and lightness rather than artistic merit.

The gallery possessed important early works by two well-known local artists, Henry Moore and Barbara Hepworth. Gillian began an insightful exchange of letters with Hepworth after finding one of her sculptures, Mother and Child (1934), had been damaged while in storage. Hepworth initially reacted with anger, but Gillian's calm and persistent approach, explaining the difficult conditions in Wakefield, helped to soothe her. Gillian also shared how seeing Hepworth's 1968 exhibition at the Tate had provided her with strength during a difficult period in her life. Hepworth quickly offered to restore the damaged sculpture. Gillian's natural understanding of the value of art for education and personal well-being led her to support the purchase of new works by contemporary artists, including pieces by Norman Adams, Bryan Kneale, Nicholas Pope, and Euan Uglow.

Born in South Norwood, south London, Gillian was the elder child of Peter Chapman, a schoolteacher, and Ada. During the second world war, she and her younger brother, Robin, were sent away from London for safety to live with their mother's sisters in Blaina, south Wales. Both children later attended Selhurst grammar school in Croydon. Gillian then studied history at Newnham College, Cambridge, graduating in 1958. She followed this with a postgraduate diploma in archaeology from University College London.

Gillian started her career as a trainee at Winchester City Museum. In 1958, she became the curator of Saffron Waldon Museum. In 1959, she married the writer Colin Spencer, who she had known since childhood. They had a son, Jonathan. The couple separated in 1965 and divorced in 1968.

After this, she held positions in the education departments of Bristol City Museum and Norwich Castle Museum before her appointment in Wakefield. Following a reorganisation of local government in 1974, her main task there was to build a team of young curators specialising in art, archaeology, and local history. I was appointed as the keeper of art as part of this team.

Conversations with Gillian were always intelligent and well-considered. Her political skill allowed her to enhance Wakefield's reputation as a city that valued art. She was instrumental in opening the former Elizabethan grammar school as an exhibition gallery in 1976. This initiative also paved the way for the arrival of the Yorkshire Sculpture Park in 1977 and later the Hepworth Wakefield, which eventually replaced the City Art Gallery in 2011.

After retiring in 1991, Gillian continued to live in Wakefield and contributed to the fabric committee of Wakefield Cathedral.

She is survived by her son Jonathan, three grandchildren, and two great-grandchildren.