MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies alumna features in The Guardian

MA Art Galleries and Museums Studies alumna, Freya Jewitt, recently featured in The Guardian Education pages in an article entitled MA in art gallery and museum studies: engaging others through art.

The article is reproduced below:

Before Freya Jewitt applied to study an MA in art gallery and museum studies at the University of Leeds, she emailed everyone she knew who worked in galleries and asked: 'is it worth it?'

'I got a 50/50 response,' Jewitt says. 'An MA is good, but equally you could spend a year getting experience, they said.'

Despite the lukewarm response, Jewitt decided to go for it. Having just finished a BA in cinema and photography, also at Leeds, she felt the best time for postgraduate study would be while still in the 'education mindset'.

She says: 'Looking back on my studies, I realised I particularly enjoyed the project research and going to museums and galleries. My tutor suggested the MA course. I went for Leeds again because the MA was a big step up and I wanted to be somewhere I knew. I didn't feel as daunted.'

Despite the familiar surroundings of Leeds, which Jewitt describes as creatively thriving, the MA allowed her to meet and collaborate with like-minded students from all over the world.

'The international students came from completely different contexts,' says Jewitt. 'It was great during group seminars. When we were discussing repatriation of Aboriginal remains, an Australian student gave their personal perspective.'

The art gallery and museum studies MA that Jewitt studied has strong links with arts institutions in Leeds. In the first term Jewitt worked with her classmates to curate an exhibition in the Stanley and Audrey Burton Gallery.

She says: 'You're given a collection of objects and have to think about interpretation and marketing. We worked closely with the gallery, but it was great to be thrown in at the deep end.'

Hands-on experience is supported by theoretical lectures and seminars on curatorship, museology and museum management. 'We had six hours contact a week, broken into three hour sessions,' Jewitt says. 'A long lecture followed by discussion. It was intensive in short bursts and if you didn't do the required reading it would be impossible.'

Despite encountering difficulties, Jewitt found the tutors encouraging. She says: 'Some of the reading was a struggle, like Foucault, but you break it down in class. The lecturers were very supportive with essays and would meet you to discuss any issues.'

A turning point came during the work placement that Jewitt carried out during her MA. 'I worked with Pavilion, a small organisation who commission art to be exhibited in disused heritage spaces in Leeds. I liked that it wasn't mainstream and enjoyed working as part of a small team to realise ideas.'

Jewitt's time at Pavilion inspired an interest in unique gallery spaces and led her to apply for a position at Kettle's Yard in Cambridge after her MA. A house and gallery space, Kettle's Yard contains the collection of former Tate curator Jim Ede. While living there in the fifties, Ede displayed his collection among possessions and found objects. It is now owned by the University of Cambridge and is preserved as Ede left it.

'I fell in love with Kettle's Yard while researching the position,' says Jewitt. 'Showing art in an informal and unusual space is really interesting.' Jewitt now works as communications and events assistant at Kettle's Yard.

Jewitt says her main interest lies in art's engagement with people. She says: 'My dissertation discussed art galleries and wellbeing agendas. It was quite controversial. People don't always agree with art being instrumentalised in any way. We have very different ideas about what the arts are for and if they should be for anything.'

From film to art marketing, Jewitt's career path has altered over a short space of time. She says: 'At the start of the course, I wouldn't have pictured myself here.'

But perhaps her career is set to take even more turns. 'I think eventually I would like to go into programming,' she says, 'but I want to see where it takes me.'

Source: Natasha Slee, theguardian.com, Friday 7 February 2014 14.34 GMT