Findings from the first large-scale and robust survey into museum freelancing to be released

13 October 2020

Valuable insights into freelancers and freelancing with museums, galleries, heritage sites, archives and libraries are being shared next week, following an extensive survey carried out earlier this year by Museum Freelance.

Museum Freelance, the organisation that supports and champions freelancers and consultants working with museums, galleries, heritage sites, archives and galleries, ran the survey in March and April 2020. The intention was to plug a gap in robust data on the self-employed workforce in our sector, which is making it harder for freelancers and consultants to thrive and be recognised as the integral part of the sector’s ecosystems that they are.

314 freelancers and consultants generously and openly took the time to respond to the survey.

The findings cover who freelancers are and what work they do; the hours they work; day rates; what freelancers see are the main benefits and challenges to freelancing; their propensity to be freelancing next year;  enjoyment and reflections on whether they feel valued and supported by sector organisations; what they’d like to change about freelancing in the sector; and Museum Freelance’s resulting next steps.

Museum Freelance hopes that the results will:

  • provide a robust and representative picture of the freelance community within the sector for the very first time

  • provide valuable insights for freelancers

  • enable the sector to have a better understanding of who freelancers are and their needs and challenges

  • help organisations to work more effectively and constructively with freelancers

  • allow Museum Freelance to lobby more effectively for freelancers and be able to provide more targeted and needed support for freelancers

  • create an accurate overview of current market day rates and freelance pricing

  • provide a picture of freelancers’ contribution – paid and unpaid – to the sector.

Museum Freelance is run by consultants Marge Ainsley and Christina Lister. They have carried out the survey research, analysis, reporting, writing and dissemination in a voluntary capacity as it is something they strongly believe in.

Marge Ainsley, co-director of Museum Freelance, said: “From conversations and observations over the past few years, we’ve had anecdotal feedback on who freelancers are, their attitudes, motivations and challenges. But we felt an extensive piece of research was necessary to explore and evidence these issues more robustly.

“The survey findings have identified a series of issues that need addressing, and we hope they will act as a call for change in the sector. We look forward to sharing the survey findings next week.”

Museum Freelance is running two free online sessions to share the findings with freelancers and with sector organisations on 20 October. For more information and to book on please visit www.tickettailor.com/events/museumfreelance. The full survey report will be available on 20 October from museumfreelance.org.

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Notes to editors

About Museum Freelance

Museum Freelance is an organisation that supports and champions freelancers and consultants working with museums, galleries, heritage sites, archives and libraries in the UK. It’s run by freelancers, for freelancers.

We provide a platform and opportunities for freelancers to collaborate, learn and flourish. We facilitate online and in-person networking and sharing within a community of over 1,100 freelancers; run training courses and a conference; and undertake lobbying and advocacy on behalf of freelancers.

We have recently undertaken the sector’s first large and robust survey into freelancing, and secured and distributed a grant to provide 15 hardship grants to freelancers needing support as a result of Covid-19.

Founded in 2015 in a voluntary capacity, as of September 2020 it’s run as a limited company by freelancers Marge Ainsley and Christina Lister.

museumfreelance.org
www.twitter.com/museumfreelance

About the survey

The online survey was open for six weeks between 13 March and 30 April 2020.

There were several key research questions that were explored, including:

  • What types of people freelance with museums, galleries, archives, heritage sites and libraries?

  • What type of work do they do and how much do they charge?

  • Do they contribute towards the cultural sector in any other ways such as volunteering their time?

  • What are the perceived main benefits and challenges of freelancing?

  • Do they feel valued and supported by the sector?

Months in the planning, the research ended up being carried out as the Covid-19 pandemic was escalating and straddled the announcement of lockdown and this should be borne in mind as the findings are read. 

The data was cleaned prior to analysis. The average completion rate was calculated and responses taking less than three minutes were removed, leaving 314 respondents.

 

Marge Ainsley