An originally planned 20(ish) minute talk turned into an easy hour long chat that could have kept going if it wasn’t for noticing the time. Louise is passionate, warm, inspiring and fun! We chatted about everything from the mental load, to accents, imposter syndrome and the sometimes rollercoaster nature of freelancing (and more).
In what would be my dream role if I wasn’t a photographer, Louise is an Arts & Museum Consultant for Health and Wellbeing. Working primarily with Museums and Galleries, but not exclusively, her work champions the positive impact of the arts on mental health and wellbeing. Having worked for the Manchester Art Gallery for 18 years, Louise made the decision to go freelance in October.
Clearly determined, her first role at the Art Gallery wasn’t her perfect job but she knew she wanted to work for the organisation and was prepared to work her way up. It struck me how creative Louise has been in seeking out opportunities and taking time to recognise what interests her. She knew she wanted to work in the arts and whilst she wasn’t entirely clear what role she wanted, she was guided by the experiences she enjoyed. She spent 2 years in her first role in visitor services and realised she wanted to work more with people. This prompted her to volunteer a day a week with the Gallery’s Learning & Engagement dept to build experience. During that time an opportunity arose to temporarily cover a Learning Officer role, which Louise was seconded into for a year. The position later became permanent and Louise spent 4 years in the position building her understanding about education and art engagement and also the different needs of each audience. Each role became a stepping stone to the next.
Having always been interested in mental health and wellbeing and how art positively impacts mental health, Louise saw there was an opportunity to shadow the Art Gallery’s newly created post of Health and Wellbeing Manager and so spent a day a week shadowing them. Realising she wanted to find out more about the impact of the arts on people with severe mental health issues she took a volunteer position at Stepping Hill hospital, on her day off from work. The hospital commissioned a health and arts organisation called ‘Arc’ to run weekly workshops for patients on mental health secure wards. This was an invaluable experience in learning how to facilitate groups of people with severe mental health conditions, how to de-escalate situations and ensure everyone was included. Taking the time to further her knowledge and skills beyond that of her current role meant that when the Health and Wellbeing role was next advertised, she was ready for the position and got the role she had been working towards. Then followed 12 fulfilling years and in October she decided it was time to explore possible opportunities as a freelance Arts & Museum Consultant for Health & Wellbeing.
Perhaps unsurprisingly given her commitment to build experience and insight, Louise has been preparing herself for this change in role and started freelancing a few years back, alongside working at the Art Gallery. Freelancing has seen her work with galleries and museums across the UK and also health organisations, providing training for professionals in understanding why the arts, creativity and culture are so good for health. A lot of places are already putting programmes in place but don’t fully understand why they’re so important for mental health, so her training gives this insight and education. We spoke about underfunding in the arts and how the tide is slowly starting to turn. In a mini history lesson, Louise shared that there is a long arts and health history in Manchester. Manchester Metropolitan University (MMU) had the first arts and health department in the UK and more recently the Greater Manchester Combined Authority (GMCA) has formed a Creative Health department, which is the first time that’s ever happened. They also have an ambition to be the first creative health city region in the world, which should mean more funding available to invest in creative health work, which is really encouraging. I think something we both recognise is that there are alternative ways to help people and there’s a role for the arts and health sectors to partner in prevention.
Now back to the world of freelancing and we had very honest discussions about the liberating highs and thankfully fleeting panics about working for yourself which, when they appear, seem to oscillate between finances and being exposed as in imposter/self doubt. There’s also something necessarily motivating about freelancing - you have to push yourself outside your comfort zone in ways you never would have done when safely cocooned within an organisation - nothing will happen if you don’t go out and get it. You have to be proactive and for Louise this is currently around making sure she meets up with others for social interaction.
I found there were a lot of parallels between us, which is no doubt why we nattered for so long. Both of us have an arts background - Louise did a degree in History of Art & Design, mine is in English & Philosophy. We both initially ‘fell’ into roles after university with Louise briefly working for a private company in telecommunications, and me in local healthcare. We’ve both spent a number of years working at the same organisation in roles focused on healthcare and now we’re freelancing at a similar point, having spent time ‘nurturing’ the roles we wanted to freelance in. We’re both passionate about mental health and how the arts can help support/improve good mental health. I left our conversation on a high, enjoying the opportunity to find out more about working in a role that combines 2 of my interests - mental health and the arts. Our conversation reminded me of the importance in recognising and acknowledging what interests you and building a path from there, rather than focusing on a specific job role and moulding yourself around that. I’m excited to see what Louise does next and know that it will be a success. Follow her work on instagram and linked in.