Role: Assistant Curator
Company: Ulster American Folk Park
Track Record:
Give a brief outline of your career to date.
After graduating I spent some years at home with my young family. I was living in the Ormeau Road area of Belfast – it wasn’t a great time to be living in Belfast back in the 1970s. I used to work on a stall in St George’s Market selling what I suppose you would call ‘vintage’ now, but back then it was just old fashioned clothes. Some weeks we did quite well, you had to be at the market at about 5am to secure a stall. This was long before St George’s was refurbished but the place had real character. Some of the established traders had been there for generations. I remember one old lady, she always called me ‘daughter’, she was forever asking me to mind her stall while she nipped over to the pub for a wee gin! I started work at the Ulster American Folk Park in the mid- 1980s. I had also spent a year prior to that working in the Ulster Museum, which was a great insight into museums and I really enjoyed the work.
What was your favourite subject at school?
My favourite subjects were Art and English Literature.
Did you go on to further/ higher education, if so what did you study and where?
I did a Foundation year in Art & Design at Jordanstown and then applied to the College of Art and Design in Belfast and studied for a BA (Hons) degree.
How did you get into your area of work?
Because my degree had a textile focus I was able to get work in the art department of the Ulster Museum working with the textile collection. It was under an ACE scheme, Action for Community Employment, which was running at the time. I was working with some terrific people and it was a great introduction to the museum world.
Is this what you always wanted to do?
It’s difficult to imagine doing anything else!
Were there any particular essential qualifications or experience needed?
My degree got me in the museum door and certainly prepared me with an understanding for the textile museum objects I would be dealing with in my line of work. Building up an understanding of a museum’s collection is a life’s work.
Are there alternative routes into the job?
I believe so, there are a number of university courses available devoted to the study of museums and the work they do, with some providing distance learning to anyone who wants to continue to work and study at the same time. National Museums Northern Ireland along with Northern Ireland Museums Council also run programmes in house where formal training is given to develop museum based skills. To date those who completed these programmes have found employment in museum and art gallery related work.
What are the main personal skills your job requires?
I think you have to be able to plan what needs to be done and then be determined to carry it through effectively. It’s also important to continue to learn and be open to the ideas and views of others.
What does a typical day entail?
It can vary considerably! If I am working on exhibitions, and that could be an exhibition in the gallery or in one of our exhibit buildings in the open air museum, there is always a deadline looming so the work day has to be focussed. In any one day I may have to deal with potential acquisitions which is how museums add to their collections, work is always on going documenting and researching our collections, answering enquiries from the general public and colleagues, meeting with individuals and groups to help them interpret and enjoy our exhibits and collections, researching objects in our collections and working with other museums worldwide on objects for future exhibitions. I am also constantly liaising with colleagues in visitor services, operations, interpretation, conservation, design, learning and communication.
What are the best and most challenging aspects of the job?
The best without a doubt is the reaction of the people who visit and the feedback from others who use the facilities and the collections. This could be a family or group on a fun day out, a young person doing research for their school project or an academic from America researching their doctorate. It is very rewarding to feel proud of what the Ulster American Folk Park has to offer. The challenge is to make more of the objects in our collections available to all, because they mean so much to so many people and there is just never enough time to do all that needs to be done!
Why is what you do important?
Life seems to move at a faster pace and the Ulster American Folk Park, with its original buildings, objects and emigrant stories, offers an opportunity for those who visit to take stock of what is important and to witness perhaps similar life decisions and experiences of others. The life events of those who lived and worked many years ago happened within the walls of the exhibit buildings in our outdoor museum. This offers a very powerful and personal interpretative experience for those who visit.
What advice would you give anyone looking to follow a similar career path?
As well as acquiring a museum or art qualification, visit your local museum and go back and visit it again and keep going until you become so familiar they ask you to get involved.
If you weren’t doing this what would you like to do?
I would probably volunteer to work in a museum…but don’t tell anyone that! If you could go back, what is the one piece of advice you would give to yourself on your first day? The best laid plans will always change and things will always go better when you communicate and connect with others.
Describe your ideal day off.
Visiting another museum.…but only after a good cup of coffee and a homemade scone.
This year, the Ulster American Folk Park celebrates its 40th anniversary. It has grown from one exhibit building to become one of Northern Ireland’s leading tourist attractions.