I have wanted to work in museums and heritage from a very young age. I’d regularly visit our local museum with my family, and once I knew the place by heart I began to ask staff and volunteers far too many questions about working there! In humouring me I found out a lot about the running of museums and heritage sites and what it was like to work in one, and I ended up spending the first half of my two-week work experience getting hands on experience there (the other half was spent in a cattery, which satisfied my other obsession!). In school I really enjoyed art and history classes the most. I enjoyed being creative and the art classes gave me the opportunity to learn more about art history through producing work inspired by artists and art movements. For my undergraduate degree I decided to study Art History at Oxford Brookes University, which focused on the social history behind works of art and artists’ motivations when creating them. It was through this course that I became familiar with the art and artists of the Dutch Golden Age. I find the way that Dutch artists told the stories of their life and country to be very special; always beautiful and true to life with a bit of humour every now and then! My love for the period led me to undertake a full time Masters in 2015 on the history and visual culture of the Dutch Golden Age (which was jointly offered by UCL and the Courtauld Institute of Art). It was hard work but I enjoyed every minute of it!
I continue to research Dutch and early modern art history in my spare time, focusing on prints as functional works of art and disseminators of knowledge. Both my studies and my own research have shown me the importance of collections and object-based learning in making history fun and appealing to everyone.
I have been working in the museums and heritage sectors since 2013, before that I worked as a telemarketer and an SEN teaching assistant. I have been fortunate enough to have worked and volunteered in some incredible places, from Woburn Abbey to Hampton Court Palace and other HRP sites, in front of house and collection-based roles.
I have recently joined the Fusilier Museum London as its Collections Access Assistant, so everything is all still very new! I do not have a military background but I find the history of the RRF very fascinating, so I am up for the challenge of thinking of new and exciting ways for people to get more involved with the museum, its wonderful collection and the RRF. I am especially interested in engagement and interpretation within museums and heritage sites, and finding new ways of getting people of all ages and backgrounds to enjoy them through collections-based learning. As a result my role at the Fusiliers Museum London is a fantastic fit for me, as I am able to do what I love whilst learning new facts and stories along the way!