Judy Thomas is Assistant Head of Education and Public Programmes at BALTIC in Gateshead. She says ’When I was much younger I thought I might be an artist, an occupational therapist or some sort of art project co-ordinator. I studied ‘A’ levels (Art, English and History), Art Foundation, and BA (Hons) Creative Arts at Northumbria University. This course was very much focused upon art in context and socially-engaged practice, which is something very relevant to my work at BALTIC. It involved working with lots of groups and outside organisations. In between Foundation and my degree course I took a year out – during that time I worked on a varied range of different projects (many of which were voluntary), these included working at the Blackie, a cultural community centre, in Liverpool, working as a sculptural assistant for Philip Jackson, Edward Lawrence Associates and as an art worker in Romanian orphanages . All of these experiences gave me insight into different art projects, highlighting the need to be flexible, open and enthusiastic. It also gave me insight into funding, how projects ran and opportunities that I didn’t learn about at school or college.

‘After leaving university I did various part time jobs (some creative or arts based) – on the whole they were based in schools (support assistant).The first major job was as Youth & Community Tutor attached to a school – initially part-time but then increased to full-time.

‘Later I did my PGCE and became an Art & Design teacher in a secondary school. This role really equipped me to work as Education Programmer, especially as part of the Oxford Brookes PGCE course was centred on gallery education. Through my PGCE I visited TATE St. Ives and felt really inspired by their programme.

‘I moved to the North East in the summer of 2002 because I knew BALTIC had opened and I really wanted to work there. I was lucky because the job as Education Programmer was advertised shortly after I moved back up. This was my first Gallery Education job (although as a teacher I set up many gallery-based projects).

‘I love my job and no two days are the same - it is so varied and I have met lots of very inspirational people. It has also taught me lots about myself, about how galleries run and how important gallery education is! The worst thing is that there are not enough hours in the day.

‘I definitely want to stay in Gallery Education – it is something I believe very strongly in. It has a lot more freedom than working as a teacher in a school setting.’