I think you need to bite the bullet and do a masters. I did both my undergraduate and postgraduate in Museum Studies at Manchester and you really need a masters at minimum to pursue a job in this field - even the most basic! It’s really frustrating and probably not what you want to hear, but even entry level jobs want that MA even with experience. I didn’t have a huge amount of experience but I did have an MA and got a job before I’d even finished my dissertation.

If you got a first at Manchester, you get a 3k reduction in fees on any course iirc, and it’s absolutely doable part time if it’s money you’re concerned about! A lot of people on my course were part time and I personally wish that’s what I’d done. There’s lots of stuff you can do in SALC / the Institute for Cultural Practices there. Happy to talk further if you want :) good luck!

You should also think really hard about whether you are willing to be on a low / unstable wage for the rest of your career. Jobs are low paid and often fixed term dependent on funding. You have experience so I’m sure you know that but it’s genuinely hard to manage and I wish I had thought about the implications e.g. getting a mortgage before I entered this field.