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Well it was an A level trip to The Tate Liverpool that convinced me that I wanted to become
a curator, although at that point I had no idea what that meant. And then once I'd got
to Nottingham, I studied Joint Honours History with History of Art and both departments were
fantastically supportive in nurturing ideas about what you wanted to do as a career. So
obviously Art History were best placed to show me the path into the museums work. And
the Careers Advice Service really pressed home the importance of work experience, which
I managed to gather in the summer months. But also I thought very carefully about my
choice of modules. I'd always been fascinated by the 18th and the 19th centuries and specifically
British history and British history of art. So I made sure that I gravitated towards those
tutors who offered those subjects, and actually I developed very close relationships with
my tutors at Nottingham, partly because it was such a supportive environment and partly
because our interests were so compatible. And it's really those relationships, and the
inspiration that I found there, that's set me off on this path.
I graduated in 2006 and I went straight up to the Lake District to the Wordsworth Trust
in Grasmere. They have an Internship Scheme, which is essentially a training scheme for
young professionals to get into museum work. So I worked across the board there, on the
front desk selling tickets, in the shop selling merchandise, giving guided tours of William
Wordsworth's house, but also behind the scenes getting to grips with what curatorial work
meant. So I was cataloguing acquisitions there, I was researching works in the collection.
A job came up as an Exhibitions Officer, and there my career was kick started.
My job here at Tate is incredibly varied. The basic elements of my job are to do with
the display, the care, the research and the development of the collection here at Tate
Britain and specifically those works which fall between 1790 and 1850. So that's Turner,
Constable... So it can be anything from meetings to work out the choice of works for an exhibition,
or myself in the prints and drawings room working out which drawings I might like to
include in a display. And there might be budget meetings about exhibitions projects. There
might be... I might have to give a talk. I might talk to the guides here at Tate about
this new acquisition for example. Communication is a large part of what I do, whether it's
researching works in the collection in order to write an essay, or write interpretation
that you see on the labels in the gallery, or an article for a magazine.
It is my dream job. I never thought I would be working at Tate Britain. But as I said,
it was every step along the way has fed into this job that I do now. I've been here only
a year and already there are so many more projects on the horizon that I want to see
through. There are large exhibition projects that I'm working on, such as an exhibition
of Turner's later work, that's very exciting and that won't happen until 2014. So I'd like
to see these projects through. But one day I would like to achieve a PhD. That's a vital
step along the professional ladder nowadays, but it's also a personal ambition that I've
long harboured. And I'm an assistant curator at the moment and eventually I'd like to call
myself a curator and then who knows what next?
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