Nikki might be fairly new in her post at Warwickshire County Council (WCC), but you wouldn’t know it from talking to her.
She feels well established in the Heritage & Culture Warwickshire (HCW) team and loves the role she plays, highlighting that it has a people-centred focus. Whether that is learning from colleagues or seeing the community enjoy the many events she helps to put on, people are always at the heart of what she does. With a background in events and festival management, community engagement has always been a passion of hers, and that is something she brings to this role.
Most of the time, Nikki is focused on fundraising, income generation, commercial hires, brand development and developing new events. The HCW team are responsible for two venues; Market Hall Museum and St John’s House, both of which are in the heart of Warwick. As well as these, they also look after the Warwickshire County Record Office, and the Hawkes Point Collection Centre in Leamington Spa (which houses the Warwickshire Museum’s collection).
Working for a busy County Council can mean a varied job role, and for Nikki it is no exception. Being part of the Heritage & Culture Warwickshire team can mean working on a VIP exhibition launch one minute, and then creating social media posts to shout about an event they are hosting the next. Recently she organised and ran a Beer, Gin & Cider Fayre at St John’s House which involved liaising with stallholders, marketing the event, organising decor, booking performers, and putting up a marquee. To do this, she worked with a range of colleagues, partners, and Warwickshire-based businesses.
Nikki worked on the first ever St John’s House Beer, Gin & Cider Fayre in May
Nikki has worked for WCC for 16 months and is very much enjoying her job so far. She says “I am so lucky because I get to work on really diverse projects”. The major exhibition at Market Hall Museum in 2022 celebrated the history and the story of cycling in Warwickshire and was inspired by the recent Commonwealth Games Cycling Road Race which took place in the county. The next major exhibition, due to begin in 2024, will showcase the county’s Rivers and Waterways. Nikki loves her role as she gets to “work with amazing people from all sorts of professions, both inside and outside of the organisation.”
Nikki goes on to say that “Everything we do has a tangible impact on the community. Warwickshire Heritage Learning, part of HCW, runs fantastic, immersive workshops for schools. These interactive and creative sessions cover a range of curriculum topics and bring the past to life. It’s really fun seeing the children get to pretend they’re in a Victorian school for the day for example”.
For Nikki, the agile working benefit offered by WCC is one of the many reasons she loves her job. Just the fact that she can pick her daughter up from school and log back on in the evening to finish off her work makes her life a lot easier. She goes on to say that she has “a really good work life balance”.
Something else Nikki loves about her job, is getting to learn from experienced colleagues. In her team in particular, some members have worked for the organisation for as long as 25 years or more, which Nikki says made her feel that she was working in “a really solid environment”.