Looking out for future generations
Q What jobs did you do before this one?
I was born in Perth, Western Australia, shifted to the United Kingdom as a child, and was educated there. I worked as a conservator/conservation manager at the Royal Armouries for five years, mostly at Leeds, and before that at the York Archaeological Trust, also in the UK.
Q Why did you choose this job, and what appeals to you about this kind of work?
Conservation was one of the few jobs that would allow me to combine my love of science, history and the arts with my craft skills, in a very practical way. I love that every day is different, and that a lot of my time is spent problem solving.
Q What are you hoping to achieve with Otago Museum’s extensive collections?
The main aim is to ensure the museum’s collections are preserved for future generations to enjoy, so that the kids visiting today will be able to bring their own children or grandchildren back to the museum in the future and still see many of the same items.
The Otago Museum collections are just amazing. They took my breath away the first time I looked through the galleries and stores. It really is a worldclass collection.
Q Are you keen to raise wider awareness of the museum’s conservation work and to help support smaller museums?
There aren’t a lot of conservators available, particularly to smaller museums, so being able to share our skills and expertise is something I feel passionate about. It’s important for large museums like ours to help others in our region where we can, especially as our stakeholders come from all over Otago.
It also helps to build stronger links between institutions and communities across Otago, as well as raising the general level of knowledge around conservation and collection care.
Q How did you get into it and when?
I was studying archaeology at the University of Durham, in England, after a lastminute decision not to study medicine, and realised that though I loved archaeology I missed studying science. We had a presentation from a conservation lecturer and after just one lecture I realised conservation combined all the things I loved, so I was hooked from there. Later, I was looking for a new challenge and when I saw the range and quality of collections held at Otago Museum I knew it was a onceinalifetime chance to start a conservation team from scratch. I couldn’t say no.
Q What qualifications and training did you need?
You need a specialist conservation qualification, normally post graduate, and unfortunately there aren’t any conservation courses in New Zealand. The closest is in Australia, but most are in Europe or the United States.
I did my training at University College London (UCL), which offered a threeyear course to complete both an MA and an MSc, as well as a year working in the industry.
Q What skills do you need?
You definitely need to have attention to detail, as well as a good degree of adaptability, as you never know what you’ll end up working on.
Q
Any physical requirements?
Good hand/fine motor skills are a must. Another real requirement is colour vision. You can’t be colour blind as we often have to match colours very accurately.
Q
What do you do on a daily basis?
No two days are the same, and it’s normal to go from my computer or a meeting to crawling around the galleries or stores cleaning, checking pest traps or objects, to working on several complex remedial treatments.
Q What is the most challenging aspect?
Ensuring we keep on top of things, from environmental and pest monitoring through to loans, exhibitions, condition audits, researcher access, outreach and remedial work.
Q How has the job changed in Dunedin?
I’ve been in the post for almost three years, and as we were starting from scratch in terms of the conservation within the museum when I arrived, the job has changed a lot. The biggest change has probably been getting a second conservator, Lisa Yeats, which allowed us not only to get conservation reestablished at the museum pretty quickly, but also to
take on the outreach work we do.
Q What’s something people generally don’t know about the job?
Quite often it’s that the job even exists; a lot of people assume we work with animals and can be disappointed to find out we’re not saving pandas. Other than that, its the extent and importance of the work we do.
Q
What are the highs of the job?
Little things like looking at the before and after photographs of an item that you’ve been working on for a while, or that has been really tricky to conserve. Outreach work comes a very close second. I love being able to use my training to help people look after the things that are important to them, or to show the public items that they wouldn’t normally get close to.
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What are the lows of the job?
Sometimes we will have periods where we’re doing quite repetitive work that can get a little monotonous, but we’re normally busy enough to be able to break those jobs up.
Q
What is the salary?
It ranges from about $55,000 to more than $75,000, depending on experience, qualifications and responsibility. You don’t do it to become a millionaire.
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Where will you be 10 years from now?
I hope to be still working in conservation.