Felicity Allen, Head of Interpretation and Education, Tate Britain

‘When I was at school (all 8 of them) I wanted to be an artist. I had a conversation with my dad (who was a social worker) about combining art with people. Together we invented an idea for a new job, running art programmes in youth clubs (which, at the time, were effectively boys-only table tennis clubs). There was no careers advice at all at school. I left home at 16 and school at 17, went to technical college to do ‘A’ levels where no Art ‘A’ level was on offer. At 18 I went to another technical college to take secretarial training - it was a kind of gap year, as I knew the one thing I didn't want to be was a secretary. I also hitchhiked around Europe a couple of times. I read Ulysses, War and Peace, and many other classics, and learnt shorthand and typing. I lived with university students while I studied for ‘A’ levels and the secretarial course.

‘I went on to take a BA in English and Fine Art at Exeter's University and School of Art (1973-77). I learnt a lot about women’s liberation and campaigned for it at both institutions. I also learnt that you shouldn’t use more lines than are necessary in making a drawing, which I consider to be a transferable skill. I was extremely conscious of who was and who wasn't at university and felt generally rather alien. I made a band of women friends to which we're all still loyal. Throughout this period I earned a living by graduating from the waitressing I had done at school to taking temporary administrative jobs.

‘Five years after completing my BA I did a two-year MA at the Slade in Painting which I selected because I’d never had a chance to paint full-time.

‘My first work after leaving full-time education was as an artist and as a baker's assistant. Artist continued indefinitely, baker finished after a few months. I then worked in after-school clubs running art programmes with out-to-lunch inner city kids. I also researched women artists (research was just beginning to be published) and started proposing (and delivering) new women artists’ courses in adult education institutes and art schools. I started work in a gallery using my secretarial skills. I began to understand how artists supported themselves through lecturing, and that a post-graduate qualification was needed to become a lecturer. That was when I decided to go to the Slade.

Gallery education turned up when, as an artist, I was asked to run workshops and give talks linked to my own exhibitions. In 1991, I became the first part-time Director of the National Association for Gallery Education. By this time I’d exhibited widely over more than a decade, had a permanent lecturing position, and had worked as an artist with schools, Shape, hospitals etc. I had also written intermittent journalism. Through building up what was to become engage over four years I learnt more about gallery education, and discovered a connection between the discussion I’d had with my father in c.1968 and this work, as well as the many and varied professional and educational experiences I had accumulated. Ultimately in 1999 when I needed a full-time job (my first ever, other than 9 months full-time in a gallery in 1978) I had the privilege of becoming Head of Public Programmes at the Hayward Gallery. Since 2003 I have been Head of Interpretation and Education at Tate Britain and it is a fantastic job.’