With Isabella Kocum, all that glitters really is gold

Isabella Kocum left Switzerland and experienced the creative, dangerous 1980s in New York; today she works in London among paintings by Van Gogh and Leonardo. Kocum is a gilder at the National Gallery and an artist in her own right. But originally she had other plans. The young Isabella Kocum had everything required for a successful international dance career – the will, the talent and the training – apart from one thing: a work permit. Although she kept getting jobs, the small theatres didn’t have the resources to take care of a work permit. “Next,” she says she heard again and again, explaining that she just got skipped over. So, aged around 30, she had to look for a different path to happiness – out of the spotlight. An inspiring childhood Kocum, now 63, was born with a creative streak. With a Swiss mother and an Austrian musician father, she had a childhood characterised by music, dance and art. She was born in Davos, in eastern Switzerland, but she speaks perfect Bernese German.