Ellie King

Each year we chat to freelancers and consultants in museums, heritage and culture for Freelancers’ Week, finding out how freelancing works for them and how it might work for you.

Why did you decide to become a freelancer?

I chose to become a freelancer after I completed a year working in a museum during my PhD. I had undertaken a maternity cover position as an exhibitions officer, and whilst it gave me a great insight into how a museum is run and great experience working in interpretation, I soon realised that I’d preferred working as a consultant.

I loved the idea of working across multiple projects with multiple organisations, focusing on a specific area of work rather than something broader. Now I specialise in evaluation and interpretation consultancy, helping museums to develop, deliver and evaluate different visitor experiences, including galleries, exhibits and public engagement programmes.

What would you say are the benefits of working in a museum consultancy over working in a museum?

The biggest benefit for me is being able to organise my own time and projects. I love picking projects that I find intriguing and curious, and I love getting to learn about so many different things, from ceramics to natural history; to physics and social history.

Specialising in evaluation and interpretation, I feel like I’m able to make a real difference to museums in this area and, by extension, to people’s lives. My work feels valuable, and my days are only filled with things I know make a real difference, rather than being bogged down with the bureaucracy of working within a larger organisation.

What advice would you give to someone who is not currently working as a freelancer or in a consultancy?

If you are thinking of going into freelancing, it’s helpful to work out what your niche is. It might take you a while you find this out, and for my first few years of freelancing I took on everything and anything I could to gain experience.

But now I’m entering my third full year, and setting up as a limited company, Crown Cultures, I find it helpful to work out both what I want to do, but also what is out of scope for me. As a freelancer, you can’t be everything to everyone and so knowing when you’re not right for a potential client is just as important as knowing when you are the right person for the job.

What do you wish someone had told you about being a freelancer?

That the flexibility can be both a blessing and a curse. Yes, you can organise your own time and workload, and sometimes that means being able to meet my mum for lunch on a Wednesday! But at other times, it’s late nights and weekend working, desperately trying to cram everything in and meet all your deadlines. Being strict and disciplined with your diary is crucial for looking after yourself, and I have learned that the hard way.

What should museums be doing to support the wellbeing of freelancers in the sector?

Being a freelancer means you often work with teams and organisations, which can come with its tensions. By not being a full member of staff, there can sometimes be a lack of access to wellbeing support that other employees get, such as having one-to-ones with line managers. For longer term projects, having that kind of support would be really beneficial.

You can find Ellie on LinkedIn