Mark Barrett

ODBK stands for Organisation for the Democratisation of the Visual Arts in German

Building Partnerships and Collaborations with UK based individuals and organisations in both commercial and public art, gallery and museum sector. Developed several relationships that have helped develop projects with ODBK, ranging from institutional collaborations to promoting underrepresented artists, all in promoting our vision for a more equal, diverse and inclusive art world. Evidence of strong networking and partnership management skills that also draw upon good verbal communication skills.

ODBK publishes its own newspaper: The Demokratik, the first newspaper in print to specialise in equality, diversity and inclusion in visual arts - One of three Co-Editors to search for stories of relevance to collate and edit in monthly printed editions. Complex subject to communicate in written form.

Project Management skills are required to successfully manage both of these major projects. Following through with contacts and their involvement, whether a story or a partnership, juggling different lines of enquiry. Strong communication with those external contacts but also the ODBK team to support where necessary so we work in co-ordination to each other priorities. Forward planning in case problems arise and how to respond with a back up plan.

Effective and efficient time management skills , also a project management skill - Planning ahead and putting in place deadlines so that we have all the stories ready in time before the newspaper issue is printed and final editing is made. When juggling communications with different partners only focusing on three lines of enquiry at a time so not to be overwhelmed but meeting consistent targets.

- Per the Accreditation scheme, supporting the museum with advise and guidance to maintain the standard and providing access to my networks to sign post resources to help in its development, particularly working to update their museum and collection policies.

Started as Curatorial Assistant in April before being promoted to Curator in October 2023. Took on additional duty as Warden in June 2024

Warden - Front of House in the museum providing good customer service. Welcoming visitors and opening and locking up the museum, retail work selling tickets and gift shop & cashing up. Giving tours around the workings of the Tide Mill.

Curator - Officer/Manager level museum professional. Responsible Officer for Collection management, abiding by SPECTRUM procedures to maintain and develop the collection and information on the objects updated. Completely reinterpreted the museum display labels and objects that had otherwise stayed the same for the last 2 years.

As Curator, it required the ability to co-ordinate shared calendars and filing systems both analogue and online:

- Calendars: when I would co-ordinate projects to move things in the museum space as part of a redisplay over a course of a few months of the winter season, I would circulate an analogue calendar to volunteer staff who didn't understand computers as well so that they could engage with the activity. But for the majority of the time we used an online calendar in the management team so we could communicate effectively and relay important happenings in the Tide Mills operations.

- Filing systems: When completing documentation and object entry forms for the collection, analogue files were still the essential way to maintain information per the SPECTRUM standards so that we knew origin details of objects. Then on our Catalogue, Ehive, is where online data was transferred and held in trust for the public to access and discover more about our collection.

Representing individual and Institutional members of the Museum Association, relaying feedback/concerns to the organisation and advertising work of the MA to members.

Work with various museum/galleries to enable better value and embed autism inclusion at the heart of their various organisation. Autism awareness training, advisory panels, written recommendations, 1:1 consultancy with museum professionals, contributions to strategic policy meetings and presenting papers at conferences.
Organisations worked with: The SPACE, Dorset County Museum, National Galleries Scotland, Cornwall Museums Partnership, The British Museum and The National Trust alongside Research Centre for Museums and Galleries, University of Leicester

Training Museum Trainee - Sep 2017 - Sep 2018

A year long training programme encouraging people with no prior related experience and diverse backgrounds to work in the museum sector, first three months of the Traineeship involved the formal training programme in different museum areas before being assigned specific projects.

- Collections Information Programme, involving collection management and documentation
- Leading on making Ipswich Museum more accessible for people on the Autistic spectrum. This involved personally delivering awareness training for staff, access information on the website and introducing the Early Bird Opening hour
- Planned and delivered a Museum based educational workshop at Stone Lodge Academy, an SEN school in Ipswich.
- Documenting and cataloguing past exhibitions into a single place on a digital file, having to actively research past exhibition dates and contents. Alongside this, I photographed current exhibitions in order to be archived properly.

- External Placement at the Munnings Art Museum, Suffolk: experience to see how a different type of museum operates, role involved documenting and cataloguing their collection of sketchbooks.

The Traineeship also involved working part time in the Visitor Services team, in a customer facing role that entails gallery invigilation and security. After my Traineeship came to a close I became a Casual member of staff on the Visitor Services Team between September 2018 - September 2021