A Day in the Life: Maisy-Sky, Marketing Executive Apprentice at Penlee House

Welcome to our blog series, ‘A Day in the Life…’ which features individuals working at CMP and our partner museums and what they get up to on a typical day at work.

Next up is Maisy-Sky, Marketing Executive Apprentice at Penlee House Gallery & Museum. Maisy-Sky is working full time on various marketing tasks, as well as working towards a Level 4 Apprenticeship and Diploma.

Read on for more on how Maisy-Sky spends her time at Penlee House…

Hello, my name is Maisy-Sky and I am the Marketing Executive Apprentice at Penlee House Gallery & Museum in Penzance. I joined Penlee House in July 2019 and spent 18 months working as a Digital Marketing Apprentice. I’ve recently just started a new role as a Marketing Executive Apprentice and I’m excited to start this new adventure at Penlee House. My daily tasks as a Digital Marketing Apprentice were quite varied, from creating engaging marketing ideas, content, and digital media, evaluating the effectiveness of campaigns to identifying customer trends and new marketing opportunities.

Every day is a bit different but I always start my day by checking my emails and Penlee House’s social media. A lot can happen overnight, new trends, new followers, messages and comments to name a few, so I always check what’s happened and make a list of comments and messages to reply to. If I’ve seen any new trends or events happening on social media that day that I think Penlee House should join in with I’ll run some ideas past my line manager and director to get their opinions.

A big part of my job at the moment is running Penlee Inspired Online and the Penlee Inspired Challenges. During lockdown we invited the public to get creative at home using the collections at Penlee House as inspiration as part of our first online exhibition Penlee Inspired Online. Penlee Inspired Online is a testament to the skill and passion for art and creativity in our local community. Although Penlee has gained a national reputation for Cornish art of the 19th and early 20th centuries, this unique online exhibition showcases works inspired by the collections and exhibitions at Penlee House Gallery & Museum. As I am the only person running both these events I spent a lot of time each week choosing a different painting or object to share, monitoring the entries, and then contacting them to get permission to share their work online on our website and social media. I enjoy running Penlee Inspired Online and the Penlee Inspired Challenges as I love to see how the collection inspires others.

Recently I have been spending more time trying to build Penlee House’s presence on Twitter. One day I found a trend going around called ‘Museum Snap’ I thought it sounded interesting and after falling down a Twitter rabbit hole I found this amazing Museum and Heritage Twitter World. After spending a bit of time trying to figure out how the snap game worked and how we could join, I spent the next week keeping an eye out for ‘Museum Snap’ trending on Twitter. Each week one museum selects a painting or object from their collection and other museums can submit a similar item from their collection or something completely different but matches the theme. For example, the Metropolitan Police Heritage Centre shared a police uniform with the theme costumes, uniforms, or clothes. In response, I created a Twitter Thread about the Crysede clothing collection at Penlee House which won that round of Museum Snap. The following week we got to host a round of Museum Snap and choose the item, theme, and winner. From joining in with these Museum Snaps we have made new connections with other museums in the country and regularly communicate with them.

After joining in with the ‘Museum Snap’ games we were asked to represent Cornwall in the National Oddity Championship 2021 which is run by Egham Museum. The National Oddity Championship involved 18 heritage organisations from across the country who submitted their oddest item, and Egham Museum put them head-to-head in a series of Twitter Polls. We chose a Bottle of Train (Pilchard) Oil as our oddity. Pilchards were bulked with salt for a month, washed, put in straight-sided barrels, and pressed. The resulting ‘Train’ Oil was collected in a pit and sold to cities for street lighting. Our bottle of Pilchard oil made it to the quarter-finals of the National Oddity Championship 2021 narrowly missing out in a place in the semi-finals (clearly I’m still not over it).

Working from home has its positives and negatives! Working in the gallery meant I could talk to people face to face and not over Zoom, during my screen breaks I could walk around the galleries and appreciate the amazing artworks by the Newlyn School artists, and in my lunch break I could walk around the surrounding park. Working from home has had positives though, if the gallery wasn’t closed I wouldn’t have ran Penlee Inspired Online or the Penlee Inspired Challenges or taken part in online events and made connections with other museums and galleries. I’m really excited about Penlee House reopening (hopefully on May 17) and finally being able to see the exhibition Laura Knight: A Celebration. This last year has taught me to take time for myself when I need it and in the words of Paddington Bear “If we are kind and polite, the world will be right.”

– Maisy-Sky Lumbers, Marketing Executive Apprentice at Penlee House Gallery & Museum