After the Christmas break was over we had our first lecture of the term this time we were visited by Denise Courcoux, Assistant Exhibitions Registrar at the Tate Liverpool Art Gallery.
The lecture started off with Denise talking about her education which involved completing Undergraduate BA Fine Art with English Literature and how she managed to secure a placement through experimental learning at the National Museum Liverpool.
We went over on how to construct a professional CV and Denise listed things that she did prior to reaching her current job such as volunteering, casual work, utilising Uol’s Careers and employability as a resource. She later got her first proper job as an information assistant at Bluecoat.
At Bluecoat, Denise advanced towards the role of Gallery Coordinator and later the exhibitions officer. This role involved coordinating temporary exhibition, installations, the deinstalls, booking contractors, working with artists as well as partners and project management. Through this work experience Denise discovered some interests and potential new work skills within the environment.
Denise would return to education and go complete a Post Graduate Studies that involved an MA Art Gallery and Museum studies, opportunities presented by professional practice, an art curating route and this allowed Denise to develop here research interests.
Her next job involved Denise managing the small independent Nantwich Museum, she was responsible for managing everything within the museum.
She then went a different route and proceeded into the Wired Acrial Theatre where she would be responsible as company administrator for the performing arts which involved managing accounts and taking bookings, this helped Denise gain marketing experience.
Denise then moved towards the Science and Industry Museum taking up the role of Exhibitions Production Coordinator involving her with coordinating major temporary exhibitions, providing improvements to permanent displays, managing contractors and even leading the smaller projects of the museum.
Her next step was the Part Sunlight Museum where she worked as a museum officer, the role made her responsible for collections, exhibitions, learning and events within the independent museum, experiences where gained for Denise in terms of partnerships.
Lastly Denise moved to and currently works for Tate Liverpool, she works there as a Art Exhibitions Register where she is responsible for loans, collection swaps, fine art shipping, insurance, enviromental and securuty standards and location cotnrol.
During this Denise involved herself in writing practice where she would review, report and do interviews as a means to branch herself out.
During the Q&A we received answers from Denise to be open minded and keep calm and how experience is an important factor and you should gain as much as possible as shown by Denise’s own work record.
This lecture was very interesting for me, I understood through the pathway that Denise went through on how you can start from the bottom and raise towards Independence through great deal of work experience and I found it interesting on how she decided to branch out through writing. It my be good to leave a personal note to expand on different areas as I could use this to increase the variety of different sectors of art I can contribute to and gain experience from.
Adam Elson's Photography 