Volunteer at the Museum

Volunteering at the Holburne  

Make connections, meet interesting people, learn something new. Get involved and gain a wealth of experience.

Volunteering at the Holburne is open to everyone who has a passion or interest in art, history and heritage. Our team is made up of wide demographic and everyone can learn and develop at their own pace.

The Holburne Volunteer programme offers a friendly environment in which to socialise and make new friends. We programme monthly social and learning events designed specifically for our volunteers. These ensure we maintain a high level of welcome and visitor satisfaction across the entire Museum.

We offer monthly training and social sessions to keep you up to date with everything that is happening in the Museum.

Through an interview and informal discussion our volunteers can nominate other areas within the Museum in which to be involved. We encourage a greater involvement to ensure continued learning, enhancement of skills and personal development through engagement and commitment to the Museum and its collection.

Front of House Volunteers (Saturday and Sunday only) 
The majority of volunteers work within galleries as Gallery Stewards. They assist with visitor questions and queries whilst keeping a watchful eye on our precious collection being aware that balancing their time between visitor service and collection security is vital to the role. It’s a great way to meet new people and make new friends.

Everyone learns at their own pace with training sessions each month which focus on our colelction and visiting exhbitions. There are also a number of social events each year. Each front of house shift is just 3.5 hours. 

Learning Volunteers
As a Learning & Engagement volunteer at The Holburne Museum, you can help shape and inspire the next generation of makers and learners. Our programme targets primary, secondary and higher education groups, families, young people, adults, local community groups and more, promoting art and making at its core. Our volunteers are key to the success of our workshops and activities, on hand to offer support, guidance and a warm welcome to activity participants, working closely with learning staff and freelance artist team.

The Holburne Future Collective (Young Volunteers 18 – 26)  is a brand-new ambitious project for young Volunteers run by young Volunteers aged 18 -26. Through this group, our young volunteers can gain a wealth of experience to help with confidence, enhance their C.V’s and gain work experience essential to securing work in the sector. The Holburne Volunteer Collective meet once a month and contribute blog posts for our website and social media channels, as well as programming and running UP LATES throughout our season. (If you are interested in the Collective email Spencer Hancock at s.hancock@holburne.org)
Find out more about the Collective here 

Once you are a Holburne Volunteer you can join our newly formed and self titled Re-Framed team.

Re-framed is a group of Volunteers who programme events and Up Lates with particular target audiences in mind. In January 2024 they produced the most attended event at the Museum since 2011. Through self run creative workshops, pop up talks, music and info stands they re engaged a huge number of local residents in the Museums collection, exhibitions and work.

Through Re-Framed you can offer skills to share, learn new ones, be creative and ambitious.

As we prepare our stores for their re- development we have begun packing up our collection which lives in our stores.

Our volunteers are tasked with digital inputting, research, object handling and moving items, maintaining a professional and safe environment for thousands of pieces.

This is a great way to learn something brand new, build work experience and skills and be part of a unique experience.

It is essential that you are a Holburne Volunteers to be part of this exciting project.

The Holburne Museum is unable to offer week long work experience placements due to the fast pace in which we work and our ever changing programme and priorities.

The Holburne believes that valid work experience comes from being involved in the Volunteer programme long term.

Through long term volunteering you build relationships with colleagues from all sorts of backgrounds, build new skills, learn time management and begin to take responsibility  for you work load. These are all essential facets of good quality work experience that you simply can not attain in one week.

If you are aged 15 and over you can apply to the Volunteer programme. Working hours are flexible and volunteering can be carried out at weekends or around your studies.

Application Form

Apply to Volunteer
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Roles you would like to volunteer for
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Why We Volunteer

What do I like best about volunteering at the Holburne ?  Having the chance to share the Museum with the public, to share some of the knowledge I’ve acquired over the years, to have contact with the children who come with schools and families, to get closer to all these wonderful things on display, and learn about them – where does it end ?  I just have a really lovely time

Trish Tassis

I feel that my experience at the Holburne is really improving my chances of securing an assistant curatorship role. However, I know that, when I finally land that job, I will be very sad the leave the Holburne, its staff and volunteering team. I would be the first to recommend to anybody interested in museums and art to take up a volunteering post here.

Ben Hill 

Personally, I gain too much to put into words, but I enjoy every moment. From Collection cleaning to talking to visitors to leaning about the new exhibition. But, and this happen on Monday – a new volunteer was on her second shift with us. I introduced her to the highlights of the Picture Gallery. She made many notes as I took her around. Afterwards she thanked me with a huge smile. What else could one ask for

John Green 

 

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The Holburne Museum