About
I recently completed an MA in Art Gallery & Museum Studies at the University of Manchester, and am an arts professional currently working in Visitor Experience. Orginally from the South West, I now live in South Manchester. Outside of work, I love reading, radio, international and independent films (especially horror), making lino prints and spending time with my cat.
My academic and professional interests are broad – during the first year of my masters course, in addition to Introduction to Museum Studies and a Placement, I took Curating Ethnography. During year 2, I took Managing Collections & Exhibitions and participated in a group project, during which we developed an online exhibition about the disproportionate impact of Covid-19 on communities in the North West. In Semester 2 year 2, I took Curating Art, and completed another group project, this time a proposal for an exhibition at Manchester Art Gallery, focusing on constellational themes that were triggered by a central piece of art. Essay titles are as follows:
- What makes an ethical museum? The South Asia Collective and Co-production.
- Difficult objects and underused collections. Placement report.
- Learning from archival theory to recover dissociated Jewish histories.
- A critical analysis of contemporary collecting of Covid-19: How the coronavirus pandemic has affected participation.
- Re-enactment as cultural activism: Exposing the gendered implications of Red Action (1996).
- Dissertation – Virtual Encounters: An Autoethnographic Exploration of Subjective Responses to Digital Materiality
For my dissertation I used autoethnography to analyse and interrogate my own interactions with art and heritage online. I also used Facebook as a research tool through which to encourage others to undertake their own autoethnographies and share their experiences of digital culture.
In addition to working at Contact (a theatre facilitating youth leadership in Manchester) as Assistant Visitor Experience Manager, I have recently started a volunteers programme at the Portico Library. From October 2021 I will use this blog to document everything I learn during the programme; I hope this will be useful for other volunteers at the Portico, early career professionals more broadly and anyone interested!
Experience:
Contact Theatre
- Assistant Visitor Experience Manager (July 2021 – present)
Manchester Museum
- Visitor Team Member [Casual] (June 2021 – present)
Centre for Chinese Contemporary Art (CFCCA)
- Volunteer Project Coordinator (July 2020 – May 2021)
- Front of House Assistant (July 2019 – May 2021)
Chetham’s School of Music (Medieval Library)
- Visitor Services Assistant (Jun 2019 – present)
- School Library Supervisor (2019)
The Lowry
- Galleries Assistant (Aug 2019 – present)
The Walker Art Gallery, National Museums Liverpool
- Collections Assistant (Placement, Dec 2019 – March 2020)
Watershed
- Front of House Duty Manager (2016 – 2019)
- Cafe Bar Supervisor (2015 – 2016)
Bristol Museums, Galleries & Archives
- Museum Events Assistant (2017)
- Visitor Assistant (2015)
- Volunteer (2014)
Abbie Hawkins - Professional Development Blog 