HOW DO YOU BECOME A... Curator
As we are just at the starting point of Pink-Collar Agency and we are currently waiting for funding and slowly but surely getting some backing as we want to pay every person who is interviewed The first interview will be with the founder of Pink-collar Gallery and Agency - Michaela Wetherell
Michaela has been on her curator career journey since graduating from uni in 2011, only just becoming a full-time freelance curator in 2020 With a lot of up and down why does it take working-class creatives years to get into their “dream job” and what does that really mean? Financial stability? Happiness? Fulfilment?
Long story short….
I have always been interested in art, drawing, painting anything creative, and anything using my hands as I am TERRIBLE at writing (which you will see when reading this) reading, and doing any sort of maths! I was terrible at most things but art was my absolute saviour After school and college and the thought I had to actually think about having an actual career I naturally went to the best BA course to get a top-notch job Art History
will be doing interviews with working-class creatives and how they got into the arts These interviews will give other creatives an insight into the art world, the positives and negatives Giving you a chance to ask curators, directors, artists, musicians and anyone else who wants to talk about how they got into working in the arts and why they do it
Now I didn't know I wanted to be a curator right away… I didn't know what a curator was until I figured out all these really cool exhibitions we were seeing and all the art and museum that I've been seeing all my life, that people actually had jobs in spaces and made these exhibitions happen!
THIS IS WHAT I WANT TO DO!
But how do you do that? After uni, I started to volunteer at different spaces and eventually got into a volunteering programme called MIMAs Emerging Curators which started my curatorial journey for reals I worked with another emerging curator to put an exhibition together of a local artist I absolutely loved the experience and I definitely knew that I wanted to be a curator. I applied for my MA in Curating
Btw whilst doing all of this I was working parttime in retail and hospitality jobs and getting a boatload of rejections from art jobs
After uni, I really thought right NOW I'm going to get my dream and work for a fancy gallery and live my best curator life
WRONG
I basically had the thought if I'm going to do this I am going to have to do it myself I learnt how to curate by myself - from networking, proposals, funding, marketing, writing, talking in public, doing interviews, and installing
I become a freelance curator in 2016 and it wasn't until a global pandemic took my hospitality job away to become officially a freelance curator.
It did take me more than 10 years to get fully into the arts and still to this day I can not get a “ proper job” in the arts, I had to make my own job up to get a seat at the table and I am wanting to stop this trend for other workingclass creative.
Coming from a working-class background I have had to sacrifice things to just keep going in trying to get a career. I worked part-time in soul-sucking jobs to have some financial security whilst also volunteering in the arts I was extremely lucky to live at home whilst I was doing this and honestly, if it wasn't for my husband I would still be at home because the arts don't pay! There is a reason why there are not that many working-class people in the arts, they can't afford it and basically, get finically scrubbed out. That's why I want to be very transparent cause not everyone can make sacrifices and I consider myself one of the lucky ones who wants to break down all this bullshit
I truly believe every working-class person can work in the arts, it's a cliché but art really is for all. Unfortunately, that is not the case there are these structural barriers that the art world and the class system have put in place to say that the arts are for the elites and that we working-class lot just won't “get it” When the agency gets bigger and more financially stable I want to create internships and eventually jobs to get people who would never think the arts is for them Without the financial strain of a uni education.
There are many ways into curating, Univ mainly the big one giving you a little in w world, having a degree can (not me like) connected to different ventures fro institutions, and commercial galleries to m I did the traditional way and still had from the very bottom
So if you come from a working-class bac and have absolutely no connections to world like how I started here are some tips
Find galleries in the area you want and make connections with them B email or going to art previews, or hours Don't be pushy and ask for (believe me there isn't any!) just get the people and express to them what y to achieve It might not be at that pa gallery but in my experience, people want to help and will do as much they can.
Volunteering - for some, it is not an option and if you can not do any volunteering don't! You can develop your ideas, research, and funding in your own time and can learn on the job without volunteering for a gallery or festival.
Research and develop ideas of what type of work you want to show I focus my curatorial practice on women and working-class stories, you might want to be more expansive and exhibit many different types of works and themes. There is no right and wrong answer.
There is so much more so if anyone is really serious about getting into curating contact me! I am always wanting to help
"THERE IS A REASON WHY THERE ARE NOT THAT MANY WORKINGCLASS PEOPLE IN THE ARTS, THEY CAN'T AFFORD IT AND BASICALLY, GET FINICALLY SCRUBBED OUT."
I really do hate the term “dream job”, or the opinion that you are privileged to work in the job you love. I feel this is just what society says about working-class people because they believe that creative jobs like curation, practising artists, actors etc are for people who don't have to work, or are financially stable, and just do it for the love. When the art sector is a serious business that brings billions to the UK So I do believe I have my dream job, I get to work with amazing people, develop incredible artists and highlight the North East as a beautiful place to work and promote. It also depends on what a dream job means to you For me, I don't see “dream” as being ridiculously rich and climbing the status of materialistic things I am happy and everyone should have the chance to delve into what their dream job would be
This interview is just an example of what How do you Become a will become Taking to other working class people around the North East about how they got into their careers and tips and advice for other creatives.
