Kristina Kapitza has joined the team at the Cromwell Museum, in Huntingdon, to take up the position of learning and communities officer.

Kristina has a passion for the past and a desire to make history more accessible to everyone and the job sees her love of history come full circle.

Oliver Cromwell was a fixture on Kristina’s timetable as a student in her native Canada, and she now wants to share the importance and relevance of the controversial and important figure with budding historians locally, around the UK and overseas.

She said: “I really want to build and focus on the great work the museum has already been doing during lockdown. The team has offered some exciting online sessions to pupils at a school in London and I will be looking to deliver more virtual and hands-on events to students of all ages – as well the wider community – focussing on Cromwell; a local man of huge national and international importance.

“I will also be looking to promote engagement and learning around the wider 17th Century, including fashion, science and medicine from the era and relating its importance to Huntingdon and the museum, which houses the world’s biggest collection of Cromwell artefacts.”

Kristina says her love of history was sparked by her father who was a World War II buff.

"History was my favourite lesson at school, and I went on to study it at McGill University. After spending summers in Canada working at various museums under a grant system which allowed me to work on community engagement projects and events, I knew that this was the career path I wanted to follow.”

Inspired by a manager at a museum she worked at in Canada, Kristina followed in her footsteps and successfully applied for a museum studies course at Newcastle University– moving to the UK in 2017 and gaining her Master’s degree the following year.

She worked for a time at Canterbury Cathedral on community engagement projects and also enjoyed voluntary work at museums in London and Cambridgeshire before the pandemic hit.