Finding my place in museums

When I was 19, I visited London with my favourite aunt. I’ve always loved history and art, but touring the city’s museums made me realise, for the first time, that one day I wanted to be a historian. When I finally finished my degree, I decided it was time to return to the place where it all began.

I chose to study for a MA in Art History and Curatorship at the University of Birmingham, a programme that is quite rare even within the UK. One of the main reasons was the opportunity to work directly with such an important cultural institution as the Barber Institute of Fine Arts, which forms part of the university, and to learn through collections of international significance. (They have works by artists such as Elisabeth Vigée Le Brun, Édouard Manet, Edgar Degas, Thomas Gainsborough and Bartolomé Esteban Murillo!)

At first, I was daunted by the thought of studying at a university ranked amongst the top 100 in the world. Just securing a place felt like a huge achievement, and I arrived wondering whether I would be up to the challenge. I was pleasantly surprised to find that I was indeed prepared. My education in Mexico gave me solid tools to tackle the demands of the master’s programme, and I soon realised that I wasn’t just there to learn from an internationally renowned institution, but that I also had my own knowledge, experiences and perspectives to contribute.

Almost a year after my arrival, I look back and think of that visit when I was 19. I remember spending the whole day wandering through the galleries of museums such as the British Museum, Tate Britain and the National Gallery, and weeping with emotion at the magnificence of what I saw. Years later, I returned to the UK and had the opportunity to conduct research directly from the collections of the V&A and the Barber Institute, to talk to specialists and to get up close to objects I’d never imagined existed behind the scenes, waiting to be researched and to uncover new narratives of which they might form part.

At the age of 19, I gazed at those collections, wondering what it would be like to devote my life to art and history. Returning years later allowed me to discover not only that I could learn from them, but also that I had something of my own to contribute.

- Fernanda Lorena