Family Menagerie: Animals at the National Gallery

Sarah Ciacci has lived and worked in London all her life, but pops over to Rome fairly often. After completing her MA in History of Art at University College London, specialising in late 19th Century French Painting and mid 20th Century Art, she has worked in different areas of the contemporary art world in both London and Rome, before deciding to focus on gallery education. This necessitated a far greater knoweldge base, so Sarah trained to be a guide and qualified as a City of London Guide and as a Blue Badge Tourist Guide in 2008. She now works as a guide, specialising in Museums and Galleries as well as tours for children and young people, she teaches courses in art history and the history of London at the University of Richmond and works as a gallery educator at the National Portrait Gallery and the Dulwich Picture Gallery, specialising in tours for older people and people with Dementia.

Jim came to art history relatively late. After training at RADA and working as an actor and musician in theatre and television for over a decade, he arrived at the Courtauld Institute of Art where he took a BA, MA and PhD, writing his doctoral thesis on Donatello. He held two Postdoctoral and Research Fellowships at the Courtauld, undertaking research on sculpture during the English reformation and revolution, before taking up his current post as Teaching Curator at the Ashmolean Museum in the University of Oxford. Jim is a Londoner, a dad and a cyclist, and would usually rather be at Lord's, watching the cricket.

Philippa is an Oxford educated historian with specialist training in Art History. A qualified teacher with over 15 years experience as a resident guide and teacher at Dulwich Picture Gallery. For the last two years she has been on an intensive course learning about this great city. A Londoner all her adult life, she enjoys all aspects of the city, from the architecture to the food markets, from the parks and riverside walks to the galleries and city churches. Her particular interests are the quirkier, less well-known places which only a long standing Londoner gets to know.