Case studies : Participation curator: Debbie Adele Cooper

Debbie is the participation curator at QUAD, Derby’s Centre for Art and Film. She studied fine art at the University of Derby and graduated in 2007. Debbie also works freelance as an installation artist and participatory artist.

By the time of my graduation, I had gained over seven years of arts experience working at festivals, creating installations and workshops, and volunteering for arts companies and youth groups. This gave me a strong foundation in the arts world and great connections.

Post-graduation I worked as a freelance participatory artist, while exhibiting and curating. This led to regular freelance workshops at QUAD, where I started to propose my own ideas. In 2010 I was appointed coordinator of a Mass Participation project for Derby Festé. 

My fine art degree and previous experience helped me to gain this role and was essential in moving my work forward and understanding the art world.

The role requires practical art skills, experience of workshop delivery and project management. I manage budgets, staff and artists, exhibitions, and cinema, digital and education teams to engage the public. The role involves planning workshops/events that could start today or two to three years in the future. This requires long-term vision, quick creative thinking and being responsible for deadlines.

I use skills in strategic operation, creativity, budgeting, fundraising, decision making, liaison, staff management, marketing and networking.

Working for QUAD gives me opportunities locally, nationally and internationally as an artist. In February 2011 I co-curated an exhibition with QUAD’s senior curator, showcasing local artists. I also exhibited my own work as part of the show.

The best thing about my job is thinking up fun and creative (and sometimes crazy) activities and events, putting those ideas into action and working with a great team of creative people to help make these ideas happen. I love inspiring the public to engage with the arts; the arts are for everybody.

The most challenging part of my post is the need to constantly search for funding in order to keep our workshops free and accessible to a wide demographic of people in the city. This has become more difficult in the current economic climate with cuts to the arts and education. We try to address this balance by evaluating and quantifying the work we do to demonstrate to funders and the government the impact the arts make to individual’s lives.

If you want to enter this type of career do as much voluntary participatory work as possible. If you can’t find the opportunities make them yourself. You can’t expect to graduate and go from zero experience to getting paid for participatory work or exhibition opportunities. Take any opportunity you can and fit it around your studies. Meet people, attend conferences, network and always behave professionally. Show you genuinely support the arts and have the drive to succeed.