When Eleanor Robb was younger her parents would take her from their home in Burnie to museums in Sydney and Melbourne.
But how do you go from having an appreciation of art to becoming Digital Manager for one of the world’s most renowned art galleries?
Well, if you’re anything like Eleanor, you study all sorts of subjects until you find what makes you tick.
“You don’t have to have it all figured out straight away,” says Eleanor about university.
“You can be at uni and not know exactly what you want to do or where you want to go, particularly in an arts degree.”
I tried lots of different subjects in my first year, and the ones I really enjoyed were journalism, media and communications, and film.
But while she was enjoying studying media and trying to figuring what sort of career she wanted, Eleanor was already learning a lot.
“Uni really taught me how to work hard. It taught me how to study, how to knuckle down and work your way through a problem that you don’t know the answer to.”
The things Eleanor learnt and connections she made at the University of Tasmania played an important role in her landing her dream role at Mona.
“Once I graduated from university, I got experience working in marketing jobs across Tasmania,” says Eleanor.
“Then this job came up and it was the only arts gig going in Tasmania at the time. I had plenty of experience and I was fortunate in that my past English tutor from university was working as a writer at Mona.”
“I messaged her for advice and she was kind enough to put in a good word for me.”
Today, her university experiences have put her in good stead for working at Mona, where literally no day is the same as the day before.
“I’ve been here for almost eight years now and the reason that people stay for so long is you just don’t get bored.”
Mona has gone from being an art gallery, to having restaurants, to marketing wine, beer, hospitality and arts marketing for festivals.
“Having a restless boss makes for a very exciting job!”
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