We are very proud of our trainee curator Imogen Crarer who has successfully achieved her Gold Arts Award during her six-month internship here at the Museum of Cornish Life. It is a big achievement for her and it has been great to share the exhibitions and displays she has produced using our collection.

Imogen says:

“I hadn’t heard of the Arts Award programme until I started at the museum although it is well known in the arts sector. I was encouraged to take part and I’m so glad I did.

Trinity College London in association with Arts Council England explains the Gold Arts Award as ‘a Level 3 qualification on the Regulated Qualifications Framework (RQF) designed for young people aged 16-25. To achieve a Gold Arts Award, young people collect evidence in an individual arts portfolio of their experiences of personal arts development and leadership of an arts project.’

For the Gold Arts Award, you have to develop an existing skill and learn a new skill. It helps if you pick something you are really interested in as it’s a lot of work. In my case, these skills were curatorial practice and creative writing – something I have enjoyed all my life. It was quite a challenge but I really wanted to achieve it for myself and for our wonderful museum as completing the award in six months meant we would be the first museum in Cornwall to deliver a Gold Arts Award.

It was such a great learning experience for me and I had so much fun! It gave added structure and targets to my internship which encouraged me beyond my daily role to attend arts events and engage with lots of interesting creative people in a different way. I would encourage anyone who wants to develop their skills and is interested in the arts to look into having a go. You meet cool people and do cool stuff while learning new skills and getting a qualification along the way – what could be better!

A big thank you to the museum staff and volunteers for their endless patience and teaching me so much, and to Cultivator, Cornwall Museums Partnership and Arts Council England. Finally, thanks to the museum’s Community Engagement Curator and my Arts Award supervisor Isobel King for all your support.”

Imogen has an MA in Modern History from King’s College, London. At the moment she is still with us at the Museum of Cornish Life working on some exciting projects. If you want to see her Gold Arts Award exhibition ‘Curating Curious Cornwall’ and some of her other work have a look at her Facebook Live videos. To see what we’ve got coming up, keep an eye on our Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and ‘What’s On’ web-page.