Today, Denise Courcoux gave us a seminar via MS Teams on her experiences after leaving academic study, and how she has progressed in her career. Courcoux started her career whilst still studying at Chester University. Taking an experiential learning placement, she worked with the National Museum of Liverpool whilst assisting with the John Moores Painting Prize. I believe this was essential to her progression as it gave her some much needed experience within the gallery/museum field before she even left University. 

From there her path led her to becoming an Information Assistant at the Bluecoat Gallery. After that, she took various roles in many different galleries and museums, some of them being Manchester Art Gallery, Port Sunlight Museum, Science and Industry Museum and currently, she is with The Tate Liverpool.

 

Whilst going through her lecture, Courcoux explained how each role gave her new skills and attributes that she could then use in future positions. As well as her paid roles, she also did an MA in Art Gallery and Museum Studies. This was interesting as it gave Courcoux gallery specific insights, as well as professional practise opportunities and developed her research interests. It was good to know that studying alongside a professional paid job is possible. Plus, I would also like to go into a master’s degree in the future and it was great to see what skills could be taught whilst furthering one’s education. 

 

From this lecture, I have learnt a lot of things. Firstly, volunteering in a sector that I wish to go into in the future is great to gain experience. It allows me to learn about the field, which could be used in the future. Secondly, one role closing doesn’t mean I’ve lost anything. Denise said that she went from one role to another via applying skills she’s learnt in a previous job to the next. Now, after around eight roles, she is in her dream position at The Tate Liverpool as an Assistant Exhibitions Registrar. Just because it may not be something I want to do now; each experience can give me skills and attributes which can be used for the future. Finally, its good practise to start writing volunteer pieces for magazines, papers and even columns. Writing for issue-based and even creative writing can be a great way to get your name out there to people in the industry. Which is something I absolutely would like to start doing.