1) What is your Creative Practice?/ What exactly do you do?
I run a small contemporary art gallery showcasing art, ceramics, glass, jewellery, homewares and textiles (including handbags – well, why not!?) I also work on festivals, with councils to promote the creative sector, delivering marketing mentoring for young creative businesses and work with Visual Artists to help them promote their work.
2) Do you make a living from your creativity?
The gallery is not a high profit making business, but I love it and that is more important than anything! Plus, it is a great office to work in surrounded by lovely things! The consultancy keeps me fed and watered – its hard work but very rewarding!
3) What route did you take to get where you are now? (i.e. placement, unpaid , volunteer, jobs through a friend etc)
I actually left school at 16 with 4 GCSEs in Art, Drama, French and Sociology – hardly the education my parents had in mind for me! I also had no clue about what I wanted to do and started working for Marks & Spencer as a sales assistant.
Eventually I got bored and moved on to work for a recruitment agency as a researcher helping find people for jobs. This role gave me my first taster for marketing and business development. As time went on I became more interested in that aspect so moved into marketing. I worked for various companies before getting enough experience to do consultancy for small and medium companies. I decided to specialise in the creative sector as that was where my interest was. I took a certificate in marketing with the Chartered Institute – 4 years after I first started working in marketing to support my experience!
The gallery was a dream come true – I was in the right place at the right time and decided to take the plunge before family commitments stopped me from doing it!
4) Do you supplement your creative job with other jobs?
At first I had to work on commercial marketing projects to supplement my income, but it didn't take long for me to secure enough work in the creative sector for me not to have to continue with commercial marketing.
The gallery is then supported by the marketing consultancy – hopefully, after it has been open for a couple of years, the gallery should be able to sustain itself, that will be a very happy day!
5) Describe a typical day in your life
I get up at 8am, and slowly come round – mornings are not my thing! The gallery opens at 10am so if I am in there I leave home at about 9 so I can get things ready for opening. If I am not I could be travelling to Doncaster, Huddersfield, Nottingham or Barnsley for one of the projects I work on. Although my working day doesn't tend to get started till 10am, I am work till late most nights. The beauty of late nights in this industry though is that you can still have a constructive meeting over a pint in the pub! It isn’t all boardrooms and power lunches!
6) Do you have relevant qualifications? If so what and have they helped?
The certificate in marketing helped to confirm to potential clients that I have studied what I do, but to be honest, I am a bigger advocate of experience. I learn more from my peers than I ever did from a text book! If you are open to learning and prepared to work hard, a lack of qualifications doesn’t have to hold you back!
7) Anything you would have done differently if you could?
Absolutely nothing – I have no regrets at all. My career is varied and that allows me to bring a broader depth of knowledge and experience to the table. I am very proud of what I have achieved over the years and would do nothing differently. I believe that if you regret things in life – you haven’t learnt the lesson you were supposed to!
8) Do you/did you have a mentor or someone whose work/career inspired you? If so who and why?
My manager when I was in recruitment taught me far more than I ever realised at the time. If I ever see him in the pub I will buy him a pint because without him I would never have understood the true meaning of hard work! Since then, the people who inspire me are the people who put their faith and belief in me – they know who they are…. And finally (pass the sick bag!) my husband. He supports everything I do, despite not always ‘getting it’ and the recent success in my career would mean nothing without his support.
9) Any company/ website/service/recommendations/ words of wisdom to make?
Words of Wisdom – If you want something badly enough, you can have it – so long as you are prepared to work hard, make sacrifices and try not to let fear of failure get in your way. My philosophy with the gallery has always been “if it doesn’t work, I’ll just get a ‘proper’ job”!
10) What are your plans for the future?
I would like to build the consultancy so that I have a team of people working on client projects. This way I give something back to the industry by creating employment and supporting professional development. I would like the gallery to be running in such a way that it supports it self so that I can look at doing a similar project, but different, somewhere else….! Finally, it would be good to have a family – lets face it, I’m just not busy enough!!
Thank you Anna for your time.
10 questions for Anna Mansell