Culture Syndicates CIC

  Culture Syndicates received CRF Round 2 funding to support our workforce development activity. As part of this work, we have been running weekly working group sessions with our current Heritage Assistant team to tailor the support that we offer. The meetings are exploring barriers and enablers at the entry level in the museum and heritage sector. One point of discussion was ‘what is an entry-level job’? Does entry-level mean your first position within a sector? If so, then why do many museum and heritage sites ask for experience and qualifications and why are there so few jobs advertised that offer full training? Giving full training in an entry-level role is common practice within most industries, such as retail, where it is normal to employ someone who has little or no experience. This is especially the case when the word ‘assistant’ is used in the job title. All too often in our sector the title ‘assistant’ is used for jobs requiring extensive experience. The Heritage Assistan...

  1. Tell us a little about yourself and your background. I’m Amy, a near life-long history enthusiast. I spent the majority of my childhood holidays exploring castles and riding on heritage railways. I moved from the countryside to Nottingham to do my undergraduate degree in History and ended up falling in love with the city. In my final year of undergrad, I decided I wanted to go into museums and not only was I able to get a place on a master’s course in museum studies at the other university in Nottingham but I was also offered a role as a freelancer here at Culture Syndicates – and I’m still here 5 years on. In my spare time I love writing, singing, making friends with cats, and playing videogames. 2. Before working at Culture Syndicates what was the most unusual or interesting job you have ever had? I’ve definitely had a varied job history! I spent a couple of summers working for a wine and champagne holiday company, which meant writing a lot of emails in French and gaining a ...

  Autumn is a highly qualified and experienced heritage researcher, practitioner, and consultant based in China. Educated at the University of California, she graduated with a BA in Art History and International Relations Global Business (IRGB) before completing her MSc in Visual Material and Museum Anthropology at the University of Oxford before embarking on a successful career in heritage and the arts around the world. She has worked in Los Angeles, Singapore, Hong Kong as well as the U.K. for art market consultancies and diverse museums and galleries around the world. A particular highlight is her recent. work to help establish the new Grand Canal Museum in Hangzhou. Autumn is very well connected to the international art market and Chinese cultural investors and her expertise lies in applying anthropological research tools and qualitative methodologies to improve marketplace studies in the arts and cultural sectors, and to provide market solutions and strategies for organisation...

  Acting CEO Neville Stankley with the recycling at the Nottingham Storage Facility. They say transitioning to a paperless office does not happen overnight but last year saw offices all around the world suddenly lock their doors and office workers separated and working from home remotely. Culture Syndicates were not any different and the digital learning curve has been steep. Our staff like many have accumulated vast amounts of files and loose notes and bits of paper, all stacking up on top of each other as the years go by. Emails have been printed off paper clipped and left in trays and never read. What this last year has taught us, and many offices like us, we do not need most of it. What was most important was already on our shared drives it has taken a pandemic to finally turn completely digital and trust in the software. Recently when we could safely return to our office, we emptied it out and placed it into storage keeping only the essentials. Like anyone who has put some...