Working in an art gallery: People and Culture Officer

Category: Working in an art gallery — Published: 5 May

Hear from our People and Culture Officer, Lucie, about her day-to-day and advice for those interested in working in HR or administrative roles in art spaces. 

Part of our Working in an Art Gallery series of interviews with Whitechapel Gallery staff members — offering insight into the kind of roles available in gallery settings.

Meet the Staff, 2023

How would you describe your job?

The People and Culture Team at the Gallery is a small team – myself and my line manager. We support all employees of the Gallery in various areas, such as organising relevant training, facilitating meetings between them and their managers and organising staff events. However, my job starts before people actually join the Gallery – with their recruitment and induction to the place. My job is really varied and no two days are the same. There is an administrative side to my role, which includes taking minutes at meetings, keeping personnel records up to date and keeping track of annual leave and sickness days. On the other hand, I do a lot of research in relation to upcoming employment law changes and trends to well-being in the workplace making sure our policies and procedures are always up to date and fitted to the Gallery.

What are some of the skills or interests which might be important to someone doing your job?

As the People and Culture Team at Whitechapel Gallery is quite small, we fulfil all functions of an HR team. In bigger organisations, people might be specialised in certain areas of HR, such as recruitment or training. In any case, it is useful to start with a general basis when getting into HR and deciding later whether you want to specialise. Important skills are strong interpersonal skills, resilience, confidentiality and empathy as you need to work with a lot of different people. You need to be interested to work with people at all levels of an organisation and to understand current trends and challenges of the workplace to provide the best available support to your colleagues.

What do you most enjoy about your role or working in the arts more generally?

What I most enjoy about my role is that I work with every single one of my colleagues – some more than others of course. At the Gallery specifically, I get to support a bunch of incredibly talented and passionate people which makes every day exciting.

First Thursdays Takeover : Front of House Team at The London Open: Artists Takeover, 2022

What’s the biggest challenge about your job?

The biggest challenge about my job is navigating employee relations and sometimes (though luckily not often) supporting grievance and disciplinary procedures. This is where the above-mentioned skills of empathy and resilience come in.

Any advice you’d give to someone looking to work in a similar role to yours?

I would advise to focus on transferable skills and experiences. There is no one way to get into HR and depending on the specific field you are interested in you might chose a different pathway. HR apprenticeships can be very useful as they are an opportunity to study for free alongside working and getting that practical experience.

Want to find out more? Read the rest of our Working in an Art Gallery series.