Alice Briggs
Why did you decide to become a freelancer?
I’ve worked as a freelancer on and off over the last 20 years, as and when I needed, as a way of supporting my career and income. I set up a social enterprise after completing my masters in museum studies, supporting and commissioning emerging artists in mid Wales to develop opportunities to create work, and as a means to collaborate with organisations including museums, galleries and the communities around us.
Being a freelancer gave me the freedom to develop projects in a way that wasn’t/isn’t always possible from inside an institution, including the ability to be agile and to innovate quickly and responsively. Being a freelancer has given me flexibility as a working mother, and has opened up opportunities to develop my career while living in rural mid Wales where salaried positions in museums are few and far between.
I have found a combination of ways of working a useful way of supporting my career; being part-time within a museum institution while working as a consultant has offered me the best of both worlds, and means I understand both the complexities of working inside an institution and the challenges faced by being a freelancer.
What skills do you think are most important for freelance or consultancy work?
I was very lucky to be supported in my journey in becoming a freelancer and running a social enterprise in my twenties by the business and innovation department at Aberystwyth University, and I was able to tap into funding and find mentors to support me with developing skills in administration, tax, marketing etc., which are essential to being a freelancer.
If I hadn’t had that support, I think it would have been much harder and I wouldn’t have had a broad understanding of all the different skills that you need when running your own business. I would say one thing that I wish I’d had more confidence with earlier on is knowing my worth – and pitching and negotiating salary rates.
What should museums be doing to support the wellbeing of freelancers in the sector?
Museums can support the wellbeing of their freelance workforce by building costs into their budgets. Make sure that when putting out briefs for consultants, artists, educators, etc., that you’re being fair with how much you’re asking.
Check rates of pay for your freelance educators and be respectful of using people’s time in meetings outside the core work that you are asking a freelancer to deliver. It can be very frustrating to sit through planning meetings with salaried staff when you’re only being paid to deliver.
When working with partners as an educator, build into your budgets costs to pay freelance staff for planning and evaluating your projects. Another ongoing problem is the timely payment of invoices. If museums know that their finance departments have a 30 day payment term, with the need to set up suppliers (which can take several days or longer), they should make sure to get the process moving as soon as possible and be transparent with freelancers about payment terms.