Jessica Starns
Why did you decide to become a freelancer?
I fell into being a freelancer. I have a part-time job (three days a week) in a museum but have found it difficult to find full-time employment. After attending interviews for PAYE roles and being unsuccessful, I’ve then been regularly offered freelance work instead of the role, which is how I’ve gained most of my freelance work.
As well as freelancing for museums I am also an artist. I studied inclusive arts practice at the University of Brighton. My creative process is participatory, collaborative, and inclusive with a focus on disability, neurodiversity or history. It is also multidisciplinary, with materials and approach informed by the theme of the project. I am inspired by museum collections.
What would you say are the benefits of working in a museum consultancy rather than in a museum?
The benefits of freelancing for museums are being able to work on lots of interesting projects and to have a varied working week. Being neurodivergent, freelancing allows me to have more control over my week and allows me to plan around my energy levels more successfully than I can with a full-time job.
I also feel freelancing is a great way to gain new skills, knowledge and work experience. My freelance work always influences my day job and vice versa.
The process of applying for freelance work with organisations tends to be more open and less structured than traditional job applications. I have found this much easier to navigate as a neurodivergent person and my success rate is higher.
Organisations often want to use my ideas from formal interview processes for jobs but instead of offering me the role, they instead offer me a freelance contract to deliver my idea. While I appreciate seeing my ideas get delivered, it speaks to the ableist nature of the sector and how it recruits that it’s harder for me to get stable work.
I am yet to gain a permanent stable contract within the museum sector, but freelancing allows me to top up my income to be able to work in the sector, and I also have a backup for when my short-term museum contracts end.
How has the cost of living affected freelancing in the sector?
I’ve definitely had less work compared to last year. I also feel there have been fewer opportunities available to apply for and more competition for freelance roles.
What skills do you think are the most important for freelance or consultancy work?
To be a freelancer I think you need to be good at admin, motivated, organised and resilient. My background is in working with young people, disability and neurodiversity consultancy, community engagement, accessible recruitment practices, accessible volunteering and work experience.
At present I’ve been attending courses and artist residencies to learn more about immersive technologies including projection mapping, VR and AR to be able to expand my knowledge and skill sets to be able to apply for further work.
What do you wish someone had told you about being a freelancer?
How to file a tax return and how to work out how much tax you might have to save for.
Being a disabled freelancer it would have been useful to know sooner that some funding organisations (such as the Arts Council) allow you to ask for funding to have support with completing funding applications. It would have also been useful to know how to find people to help with writing funding applications. I still find this hard as people get booked up and are busy with their own freelance work.
You are constantly looking for your next piece of work and completing applications and having interviews. This is draining and takes a lot of time. There is a lot of unpaid labour in being a freelancer.
What should museums be doing to support the wellbeing of freelancers in the sector?
To pay a realistic fee, as the fee must cover everything from living costs, to sick leave, holidays, gaps in work, attending training and pensions. Having clear information on the role and the tasks from the beginning is useful, and if further work is needed (than was planned for), offer the freelancer further payment and a flexible timeframe to complete the work, as they may have accepted other work thinking that the project will be completed by then.
Most freelance work has a set fee but work can sometimes go over. Museums shouldn’t presume that something extra will be a ‘small task’ to be completed within what they’ve offered to pay. Freelancers do not need exposure or to be told they have been given good pay so extra work should be completed in goodwill.
Pay freelancers on time and let freelancers know if your museum has a deadline to send invoices. It’s also important to be able to have regular contact with staff at the museum. It can be hard to find out information if you are not a staff member, so it can be difficult to complete work on time.
Not all freelancers choose to be freelancers, sometimes they just fall into it as general museum work isn’t very stable.
Freelancing causes anxiety and stress from being overworked or underworked, as it is rare to know when your next work or payment will be. It’s common to have too much work all at once and then hardly any work for months, and both cause anxiety and stress. There is no working pattern to freelance work, which makes it hard to plan. It is hard to say no to freelance work as you don’t know if it might be your last employment offer for months.
I wish museums understood how the current format of freelancing affects freelancers’ wellbeing.
You can find Jessica on Twitter (@JessicaStarns) or on her website