“My alarm generally goes off at 6.30am, and I start work at 7am. I frantically try to get a cup of tea and a bit of toast while I’m getting ready. At the moment, my day is a series of Zoom calls. We’ve effectively been operating as a start-up. We’ve had to start everything from scratch – all of our HR, all of our policies and procedures, all of our finance and ticketing system, and all of our recruitment - we’ve had to start from the beginning. It’s been a massive piece of work and we’ve done it from the ground up. We have designed what we want our organisation looks like, and what it should do, being people and visitor focused all the time. It’s about delivering a fantastic product and a fantastic experience, whether that’s to a paying visitor, a learning group, a volunteer or a community partner.
“We’re a regional museum, and you’d usually expect to have between 50 - 70 people [on the payroll]. At the moment we have a full-time equivalent of eleven people. Ideally, in October and November last year we would have started recruiting in earnest for opening in early spring. But [with lockdown] we’ve had to be pretty careful and put a hold on it, so the existing team have significant workloads. Once we get confirmation of the date that we can re-open, we’ll get going with recruitment again.
“I’m from a travelling fairground background, and that’s what I did as a kid growing up: calling bingo, running waltzers, working all the time when I wasn’t at school. So I’ve had a lot of experience and understanding in customer-facing roles. I did a Creative Arts course at Nottingham Trent University, then I went to the University of Surrey and studied Orchestral and Chamber conducting. It has provided me with some key transferrable skills: I know how to start everybody off as a group and how to get everybody to finish together at the same time, which is quite useful for managing projects!
“I went into my first managerial role in a very large arts complex at 21 and I’ve stayed in senior roles. I’ve worked at CEO level for the majority of my career, apart from a few years out when I had my children. There was a particular person in my first managerial role called Maggie - she was pretty much a mentor for me. We didn’t hit it off to start with; it was quite a challenging relationship and she was quite a lot older than I was, but we got past that. I still experience everyday sexism all the time, but back then in the 80s and early 90s, it was really rampant. Maggie had been in the industry at a senior level for a longer time than I had, and there were some really good conversations around how to manage that, how to manage yourself, how to ensure your voice was being heard in a room that, more often than not, was 99% full of men. I have to say, that’s quite similar now: in some organisations that I go in and speak to I can quite often be the only woman.
“I’m not the only woman in our team though – we actually have a senior leadership team that is only women at the minute. I have been very fortunate to have been invited to the Women Leaders in Museums Network (WLMN) - with Sharon Ament from the Museum of London, people from the Imperial War Museum, the Wellcome Trust – and there some really interesting conversations that happen as part of a female-only group. There’s a huge amount of experience there - a sense of camaraderie and support which I find really helpful.
Adventure play areas and interactives are taking shape at Nottingham Castle
“We think there’s something for everyone at the castle. It’s really important for us that people feel included and welcomed. I really don’t mind why people come. If you want to come, and have a cup of coffee, and sit in the grounds and watch your kids play in the amazing adventure playgrounds that’s fine. If you also want to go into the Robin Hood Gallery, take a cave tour and go into the art galleries, and see the amazing new Lace Gallery, and learn more about your own city, then do that as well. The whole team would say we’re sure people will come across things that they probably hadn’t anticipated. This is a visitor attraction experience so it blends gaming and digital technology with being an art gallery and museum, so come and give it a go.
"There was a mezzanine floor that’s been removed out of the Rebellion Gallery, so it now has a double height ceiling. Architecturally they are beautiful spaces - they just look amazing. People will visit Nottingham Castle now and they will experience London-quality galleries. The way the objects are being laid out, the design of the galleries by Casson Mann, the lighting of the galleries, the digital interactives that are there – it’s just so very different, so every time I go in I’m just going “Oh my goodness!” I walk through the building thinking I am so privileged to work in a place like this and lead a team that will be able to welcome people for a fantastic day out.”
