Tell us a bit about your current job

My current job is Education Officer at the Wallace Collection. I look after two specific strands of engagement – access programmes and hospital outreach. 

The museum’s access programme consists of a series of tours, talks and art workshops. I mostly plan events for audiences who are D/deaf or hard of hearing, blind or partially sighted, and for visitors with special educational needs.

Outreach into hospitals involves bedside conversations with images and handling, as well as practical art workshops in day rooms and hospital classrooms.

Both programmes aim to break down potential barriers for visitors in terms of communication and physical access. 

I also get involved in lots of other areas as and when! 

What and where did you study after school?

I studied for a BA in Classics at Oxford University, and later went on to study for an MA in Museum Studies at the University of East Anglia. 

How did you get from answer 2 to answer 1? 

Short answer: quite a few different roles, and luck being in the right place at the right time. 

I really loved my first degree, and I wanted a career that would keep me connected with constant learning and with history, so I started to think about relevant environments – like libraries and museums. I started to volunteer in a museum at the end of my degree whilst I also worked in a clothes shop, then I looked for internships. I got a three-month placement at the Wallace Collection, in the education department. This gave me a good chunk of experience and confirmed that I wanted to work in this field.  

My first full-time job after this was organising residential summer schools for teenagers. I got the job through a temp agency but stayed for 18 months. My job was to manage the ‘school’ element – booking spaces, recruiting teaching staff, producing course material, training administrators, and generally seeing that everything ran smoothly during classroom hours. This role gave me great administration experience. I learnt about event organisation, staff management, and many other transferable skills. 

I kept my eye on museums though and decided to apply for an MA in Museum Studies to advance my career options. I chose my course because it was based in an actual museum, and specifically offered practical modules including staging an exhibition. I was fortunate to be selected for an MA fellowship, which meant working in the Sainsbury Centre for Visual Arts (SCVA) three days a week with the education team and attending seminars for the other two. I learnt about different types of museum work and theory, and working at the SCVA gave me a solid year of practical education experience. The education team during my year there were inspiring and taught me a lot. The fellowship paid for course fees and a living allowance, which meant I could entirely focus on learning, which was amazing. 

At the end of my MA, I got a job as Collection Curator at a small museum with a decorative arts collection. I was the only full-time museum staff, and looked after every object – cataloguing, documenting, condition monitoring, researching, exhibiting. I was offered the post because of my recent MA – and it was indeed very useful, having covered a general grounding in lots of different museum areas. I learnt so much during this post, and it was a lot of fun working with a growing collection and having such variety in one job.

However, after 18 months the job hunt began again as I wanted to move to London. I looked for all sorts of museum roles but was most excited about those in learning and public engagement. After months of looking and applying, a temporary role came up at the Wallace Collection. I was thrilled, as it was my number one choice of workplace. I think my former placement there gave me an edge in the application, and the summer school job was relevant experience too - the role was coordinating school and group bookings. I got the job, but the contract was only six months. Luckily, as a colleague at the same coordinator level left as the contract ended. I was offered their job, and it was a permanent role – Public Programmes Coordinator. I stayed in this role for three years - organising art classes, family workshops, and talks. Over time, I started to support other programmes, particularly community and access work. It began out of my own interest but had started to become formal responsibility. So again, when a colleague left and my current role became available, I was well placed to move up into it. I have been doing this for about a year now, and still growing into it. 

How does your formal education feed into your present career (if at all)? 

The experience of my first degree has come in useful – training me to work to short deadlines, and giving me confidence in putting forward ideas. The actual content comes in useful too – lots of the Wallace Collection objects reference the Classical world. I have done some public talks on this topic, and also teach a primary school session called ‘Classical Myths’. 

My MA introduced me to a lot of principles and ideas in museum work that I still use as a framework for understanding good practice. The experience I gained as part of the course was really important in getting me to where I am now. 

What things have you learnt outside of formal education that have been helpful to your career? 

I have gained confidence in talking to people through voluntary opportunities, public facing jobs, and my personal life. This is such an important skill in a museum education role – you are constantly starting up conversations with strangers, and you have to do this with confidence, warmth, and an open mind.  

What are the really useful skills for someone in your job to possess? 

Good organisational skills are key to event planning.

I am people-facing a lot of the time, so presenting confidently, talking and listening carefully are really important. 

I actually use a lot of basic art skills too, in running workshops, but I am not formally trained in any way – most of these I have learned during my current job! 

I am also learning some skills specific to my role, such as Level 1 BSL. 

What does an average day at work look like for you? 

I have a few different typical days. 

My days are often spent facilitating events in the museum – setting up a room with art materials and refreshments, meeting and greeting visitors, assisting an artist in running a workshop. 

Other days I am on outreach – packing a bag full of materials and heading out to a hospital to work with children or older adults, having conversations about handling objects and facilitating creative responses. 

Sometimes I have a desk day. These are usually spent booking artists to run workshops, booking visitors onto programmes, and liaising with partner organisations for joint events. My most used documents are my budget spreadsheets and event planners. 

What’s the best thing about your job? 

Working in a beautiful building full of incredible objects just never gets old for me. I really love being around old, beautiful, handmade things! But the absolute best part thing about my job is that I get to share this with other people – visitors to the museum, people in hospitals, students, and more. My days are full of interesting conversations. 

What’s your least favourite aspect of your job? 

Sector-wide, there are issues with how jobs are accessed, and how sustainable they are. Many people in the museum sector have volunteered before gaining access to paid work, and have often done expensive additional study on top of this, all for a competitive job market with relatively low pay. I feel really lucky to have the job I do – but I know this path wouldn’t have been accessible to everyone, and that’s a problem.

What advice would you give to someone seeking a job like yours? 

It is generally the first step into a museum career that is the hardest – but think about transferable skills, because all your experience can be valuable.

You might also be interested in:

Louise Cooling, Assistant Curator

Pip Reeve, Private Tutor