In a nutshell: Elisa Bailey
By: St John S College, Cambridge, Alumni Blog
Tags: Travel, Museums, Career Advice, Culture, Art

Can you share a few highlights from your career?

I don’t view a career as a linear progression so much as a collection of exciting and interesting experiences and projects. I have loved nearly all my roles and, even if I have sometimes put in 90 hours a week, I don’t feel like I have truly ‘worked’ a single day. It sounds like a cliché, but I say this with sincere gratitude to all my employers and colleagues.

‘You Say You Want a Revolution?’ exhibition in Milan during its world tour

My time at the V&A was a highlight as I was in the Theatre and Performance Department; the most creative, energetic team I have ever known, under the directorship of the man who has had the greatest impact on me professionally of anyone in my life. As Assistant Curator on the exhibition ‘You Say You Want a Revolution?’ I got to meet some incredibly important personalities from those times, and as Curator at the BFI I loved putting together my own exhibitions, initiating a Refugee Week project and caring for an incredible poster and design collection.

Most recently I was based in Muscat, Oman, preparing Content and Interpretation for a new multi-media mega-museum commissioned by the Sultan!

The building site of the museum in Oman

The perks of working in museums are certainly not the pay or hours. Instead you form wonderful friendships and share team leisure experiences, and sometimes you’re the only person left inside a beautiful, world-famous institution at night, long after the public has left.

Did you ever want to work in a different sector when you were younger? If so, what did you think you’d be doing?

There were two career dreams I had as a child: to ‘be’ Julie Andrews (!) and to be an artist. I grew up spending a lot of time drawing and painting, initially beside my grandfather, an artist and craftsman, and my uncle, who had the most incredible imagination of any grown-up I’ve met.

Elisa and her first artwork, surrounded by her uncle, grandfather and dad

I soon realised I probably didn’t have the patience, drive and warrior spirit that an artist usually needs to be able to survive off their work, and now drawing is a hobby that I admonish myself for not finding time for.

Tell us more about your role as Programme Designer and Manager at Benefactor Consultants.

‘Mademoiselle Kitty’

My current role is a dream job in that it mixes the things I love best: travel, meeting people, art and museums. From our beautiful offices — which come with a 17th century wine cellar and the most seductive cat I have ever seen — in a medieval walled town in Burgundy, we plan cultural trips for the patrons of many of America’s greatest museums and institutions.

The decision for where a group should go takes into consideration the client’s interests in particular collections alongside our advice on which destinations might be particularly fitting at the preferred time of the trip, from the cultural programming on offer down to predicted weather conditions. The individual trip manager is chosen based on appropriate language skills and familiarity with each destination, as aside from designing the programme (visits, hotels, restaurants and activities), we also accompany the group on every element of it to ensure that everything goes smoothly from the moment the clients land.

Elisa and one of her best friends inside the crumbling Socialist building Buzludzha, on a peak in the central Bulgarian mountains. Beautiful but damaged mosaics telling the story of Bulgarian Communism circle the auditorium.

What is your personal idea of a perfect holiday?

I actually travel more than I spend at home now with over a hundred flights and long-distance bus and train journeys taken on some 70 trips since the beginning of 2018 for both work and pleasure (I try to offset my travel by recycling obsessively, but I know it will never be enough). I am incredibly lucky to have a saintly portable boyfriend, who has his own company and lots of airmiles, so my perfect holiday is anywhere with him or with good friends.

What are your interests outside of work?

Outside of work my main passions are my socio-political graphics collection, travel and looking at lampposts (sometimes while travelling)! The latter is in the name of spotting socio-political stickers, posters, graffiti or any other commentary, which I photograph — never remove (they are the property of the people) — and share on my Instagram account. Now that I live in France, I should also admit that a great deal of my spare time is spent consuming wine and cheese, too.