Denise Courcoux - Museum Curator

Denise is a former student of the University Of Chester and graduated in 2005 with a BA in fine art and English Literature. Once she graduated she was unsure of what career path she wanted to follow however in her second year she did a work placement with National Museums Liverpool and this then peaked her interest in a career path she wanted to pursue. Luckily as she had worked with them before and stayed in touch and was able to get some volunteering work with them in 2006.

Denise spoke about some of the Museums she worked at such as Bluecoat art exhibition, this was working alongside a group of people in doing temporary exhibitions which included things like booking contractors, coordinating temporary spaces and installing the exhibitions herself. After this she mentioned that some of her favourite things to do were the volunteering over the paid museum curation and how just because a job pays well doesn’t mean it will be a good job for some individuals.

Finally she had a slide that was titled “Advice id go back and give myself” which was really interesting as it reflected on her experiences to help give us some guidance for the future. One of the key parts I took away from this section was ‘do things outside of your job that bring you joy like hobbies.’ This kind of suggests that sometimes your work can be hard but having these projects or things that interest you on the side can help through times that are hard and help give you motivation overall not just for the hobbies that you do but also your job.

Overall I took away from this the value of voluntary work and that I need to keep looking for them in other sectors is I am unable to go back to my old high school due to Covid. Even if it not with=in a school work with any kind of secondary school or students will be valuable as it is something I personally enjoy doing and hope to pursue after I finish university.