What is your favourite thing about working at the King Richard III Visitor Centre, and what are the biggest challenges?
It was the opportunity to create something new, working in a brand new organisation with a completely blank slate, that first attracted me to this post. The story that we tell is really exciting; even seven years later, I still find it an exciting story to tell. Finding ways to share that story with people is what I enjoy the most about this role.
In terms of challenges, I guess the biggest one is how do we make the story of a 500-year-old dead king interesting to more people. Like most museums and cultural venues, the majority of our visitors are white and middle class. For a venue in one of the most multicultural cities in the country, there is always more that we can do to attract visitors from broader backgrounds, …
What career path did you take before working at the King Richard III Visitor Centre?
Before coming to the KRIIIVC, I worked for Leicestershire Museum Service for five years, developing and delivering the school learning programme for all the County Museums.
Have you always been interested in working in the museum sector?
My background is in art & design, so I was originally interested in working in a gallery, and I spent five years as Education Officer in a gallery before moving into a museum role. Education roles in museums and galleries are very similar; the content may be different, but the approach is the same, so it was an easy transition to make.
What does a typical working day look like for you? Or is there a typical’ day?
I’m not sure any of our days are typical at the moment! During the lockdown, I continued to deliver learning sessions to classes, although that has been online via Teams or Zoom rather than face to face. I’m spending a lot of time developing new online content and adjusting our existing learning content to fit online delivery. I’m also probably attending more webinars/conferences/networking sessions than I would have done 18months ago because these are all online; they are so much more accessible.
This week I have been delivering refresher training to our front of house team on how to manage school visits. I’ve been coordinating our volunteers and organising their rota for the month. I’m also learning how to produce podcasts to expand our digital learning offer and checking in with my virtual placement student.
Do you have any advice for people wanting to work in museums, galleries, and heritage sites in the future?
I’d always recommend keeping up to date with what’s happening in the sector. Becoming a member of organisations like Museums Association for the networking and training opportunities. The MA’s conference was entirely online and free last year, which was an amazing way to hear about best practice, current issues, new thinking across the sector. For anyone interested in the learning side of Museum & Galleries, GEM (Group for Education in Museums) is a brilliant organisation with some fantastic training and mentoring opportunities for members, definitely worth connecting with.
There are also smaller organisations like Museum Detox and Museum Space Invaders, who focus on the experience of people of colour and women in the heritage environment, and Fair Museum Jobs, who flag up bad recruitment practice in the heritage sector. These organisations are set up by people working in the sector and offer great opportunities to share experiences and hear from others.
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