Henrietta Boex has landed her “dream job” after being appointed as the new director of Falmouth Art Gallery but concedes she is following in big footsteps.

The town council-owned gallery was dealt a bitter blow when Brian Stewart, its curator of ten years, died suddenly in December 2010.

His replacement, Louise Connell, arrived at the gallery in the summer of 2011, but left last week to take up a job as director of Penlee House Gallery and Museum in Penzance.

Henrietta will officially join the team at the art gallery on October 14, after giving up her job as development project manager at the Porthcurno Telegraph Museum, and can’t wait to get started. “It is my dream job,” she said. “It is the culmination of many strands of my life that have all pulled together.

“It (the art gallery) is an amazing place and both Brian and Louise have done a fabulous job before me so I am inheriting something very special. There is so much potential to build on and a really lovely team here.”

At Porthcurno, Henrietta was the project manager of a major £2.8 million redevelopment programme which is 90 per cent completed. Before that she worked as an antique furniture restorer among other things.

When the job in Falmouth came up again, she jumped at the chance. “I am one eighth Cornish and grew up holidaying on the Helford River,” she said.

“I have lived here for ten years now and I would not want to live anywhere else ever.

“This is not a stepping stone for me, this is it – my dream job. I am very thrilled and I hope I can do it justice – I’m sure I can, I feel I can.

“Louise has already set up the exhibitions for at least the next 12 months which I have to make happen.

“I am very much building on other people’s work initially, but I do have my own ideas.”