Turner Contemporary Gallery
The Kiss, by Steve Weaver.
I was born and bred in Margate and I consider myself fortunate to live in such a beautiful part of Kent.
I moved away to study art at 17 years old and after graduating started working in London in the film Industry. Following various opportunities that came my way I ended up living abroad for 8 years working in a wide range of mainly art related positions.
I moved back to Thanet when my partner and I decided to start a family and although we were happy with this decision, finding work was always going to be an issue. As we did not want to commute to London for an arts related job having a long commute and a young family, so when I was ready to return to work after having my son I started to look for jobs in Thanet.
In 2009 Turner Contemporary had just started to be built and so I watched with interest, checking the website weekly for new vacancies.
It was on the website that I spotted the advert for Artworks, a training course run by Turner Contemporary that aimed to train and place a number of people of varying ages and experiences back into work.
I completed the course in January 2011 and as a result was offered a job as a Gallery Assistant at Turner Contemporary, a perfect position for me at the time as it meant that I could be involved in the arts near to home and to be working in a front line role at a very exciting time for Thanet and for Margate.
I have now worked my way up to a Supervisor position at Turner Contemporary and nearly one year on it has come a long way in regenerating Margate, attracting people from across the UK and abroad to our seaside town and hopefully to bring Margate back to the Margate I remember as a child.
It will be a gradual process but already within 10 months we have seen a marked difference and thanks to Turner Contemporary that means I can now look forward to a future bringing up my family on this beautiful coastline in a job and environment that I love and am proud of.
Write Your Comment