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Ben Street – Freelance art historian, lecturer, and writer – graduated twenty years ago from University of Edinburgh and has worked in museum education, A-Level and Masters teaching, broadcasting, book writing… its been a patchwork career that Ben couldn’t have imagined!
Ben came from a state 6th form college and hadn’t done art history before university. He found the degree unengaging, but is passionate about engaging the public with art history.
He spent 12 years as an educator in the National Gallery, Dulwich Picture Gallery and Tate working on schools programmes, as a storyteller and lecturer, writing audio guides and doing in-gallery tours
All of this is art historical work! You are engaging the public in art history – this is highly skilled work and should be more respected by the academy and ‘traditional’ art historians!
Freelance writing can be a good way to continue to think about art – engaging with the public is a different kind of learning process. Art history is in desperate need of new, fresh ways of thinking and learning.
Being a self-starter is important – being a freelancer gives you flexibility but there are downsides. You have to create your own opportunities and institutions don’t always support freelancers – things like sick pay and pensions aren’t always offered.
Create things that exist outside of institutions. You can approach institutions and develop new events and projects. What are they missing? What can you offer? From this, create your own mailing lists of people that come to your events – these might be useful in the future!
Broaden your art historical knowledge – let go of your specialism when you are outside academia. It helps refine your abilities to teach and communicate – sometimes how you talk about things is more important than what you talk about!
Ben's top tip: sustain your own peace of mind and make time to look after your mental health.
