Taylor Swift might be saying So Long, London in her much-anticipated upcoming album but one of the city’s top museums is offering a dream job for any Swiftie.
On Thursday, the Victoria and Albert Museum (V&A) released a job listing for a Taylor Swift superfan to advise its expert curators and explain the singer’s importance to the history of art and design, in which the museum specialises.
The successful fan will have the chance to view relevant items from the V&A’s collection of more than 2.8 million objects and potentially help influence the museum’s future programming, it said.
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They should be able to offer “insights into the culture and artisanry” around the friendship bracelets that Swifties often exchange, as well as the handmade signs frequently displayed at concerts, the V&A told CNN.
Swapping distinctive friendship bracelets, often featuring the names of Swift songs and albums or the names of the fans themselves, has become one of the rituals associated with attending The Eras Tour concerts.
The tradition was inspired by the lyrics of You’re On Your Own, Kid — a track from Swift’s 2022 album Midnights in which she sings about making friendship bracelets as a way to connect with others over a shared experience.
And friendship bracelets play a starring role in the origin story of her relationship with NFL star Travis Kelce.
In July, he said on his podcast he had attempted to give Swift a bracelet with his number on it at one of her concerts. She heard about it and got in touch, and the couple started dating, she told Time in December.
Artefacts such as these bracelets and the homemade, often ornate, signs that fans take to concerts provide a tangible mark of the economic, cultural and social phenomenon that has been The Eras Tour, which started in March last year and is due to end in December.
The role is part of the V&A’s efforts to “bring in grassroots expertise in highly specific cultural niches” to complement the “vast curatorial knowledge” of the museum’s experts, it said.
Beside Swifties, the V&A is also looking for superfans of Crocs, drag, emojis and tufting — a technique used in rug-making — to help inform its exhibitions, asking potential applicants to highlight their own collections.
It has already recruited experts in Lego, Pokémon, Gorpcore — a trend in which hiking clothing is worn as an everyday outfit — and Toby jugs, which are made in the shape of a seated person.
V&A director Tristram Hunt said the roles will help “discover more about the enormous, and often surprising, creative diversity on offer at the V&A, as well as helping us to learn more about the design stories that are relevant to our audiences today”.
The museum did not stipulate a salary for the part-time, zero-hours role but said it will cover “reasonable” travel costs and successful candidates will receive a V&A Membership.
— With CNN’s Samantha Murphy Kelly
