GALLERY GUIDE

Post 10

With the new exhibitions opening over the seven galleries, there was a demand for tours from various local community groups and school groups. I was asked to assist with the tours, so after following a tour with one of the curators, and doing my own research, I took an afternoon TAFE group through the galleries.

This was a huge learning opportunity for me to research and connect with the local exhibiting artists and communities, and the extra research did assist me to be able to program art activities that were more appropriate for this centre.

I never got to take another tour through, as the demand for tours for that exhibition soon died. I would have liked to do a few more after all the research I had done.

Some time was spent restocking the art studio with materials and activity sheets, and some cleaning up. The education manager was very kind to me as she mostly did the cleaning up.

I AM VERY VERY USEFUL!

Post 9

High schools would often contact the education manager wanting her to program a day’s excursion to the centre to hook in with the school syllabus. I would research specific local artists and their work to find a match in medium or theme as requested, so these artists would be employed to facilitate a workshop with the students. Depending on the facilitator the centre would charge the school a fee per head.

The education manager had a request from a local school for such an excursion for a class of 18 year 12 students. They wanted a tour of the gallery with a curator and 3 hour practical workshop with an artist. I don’t know how but I do know why I was asked to take this practical art class of 18 year 12 students. I have taught children art and craft classes previously, but I had never discussed this with anyone at this centre, and I do paint but again I had never discussed anything about my practice with anyone there either – for all they knew I painted houses! Anyway I thought it would be fun and good experience, and I knew I had a huge range of practice and knowledge to be able to engage them in something.

Having set up a still life with a variety of forms that males and females could both relate to, I structured the first half of the class with a series of drawing exercises to get their eye brain and hand talking to each other, and for me to see their skill level and concentration. The second half of the class I had planed to do one long detailed drawing, but clearly after the morning session, they did not have the focus for this. In the break I quickly scavenged for material through the art studio, and the office recycle bins, finding various papers and glue sticks. The afternoon was spent tearing up these different coloured and textured papers, and using the forms of the still life as a guide, they created collage works. I worked my way around the room demonstrating different paper techniques, and the results were fabulous – I know they liked it as these works they took home!

AM DISCO

Post 8

As this art centre has a theatre, performance spaces, rehearsal rooms and all the technical equipment to host professional show, the new director asked us to research and organise an under 5’s disco. Many hours were spent in contacting local child care centre’s, forwarding information, and re-calls to research the viability of an under 5’s disco. Starting with a list of 58 centers, 3 centers’ eventually booked to come the week before the event. Most centre’s liked the idea but could not come due to the expense of organising transport and getting permission form every child’s parents, as they couldn’t leave some children behind.

On the day of the disco many independent families arrived with children, so we had approx 40 kids. The café was open, the assisting staff had dressed up (see photos) so there was much excitement and buzz. In the disco room the tech manager had set up mirrored balls, DJ pit, masses of balloons that made it look more like a ball room (as in a kids ball room, not a formal dance hall ballroom). This was a great hit especially with the non-dancing boys - no salsa partners for me here!

I would love to be able to post images of the kids in their fancy costumes dancing and playing balloon games, but due to child protection laws I cannot use these images without written permission from their parents or guardians.

What does this have to do with the arts? Naturally the parents and children that arrived early roamed the seven galleries, purchased coffee, signed up to our mailing list, discovered our kids gallery and studio that is open every day at no cost. After the disco, some of the children and parents that had any energy left went to the art studio to do a craft activity. It’s getting heads through the door so it’s great to be able to offer many reasons to come to the centre, and to engage with the various forms of entertainment and education.

FIRE! FIRE!

Post 7

Just another day, researching childcare centers and their needs and wishes for excursions, then off goes the fire alarm. No one seems to fuss until the general manager came to our workstation and said there is a fire, please leave the building, the fire brigade is on its way. So off we go, and we didn’t even get our morning coffee! Two staff did go looking for a fire and found that one of the transformers attached to a video display had caused the fire. All the staff had a bonding session under the trees at the entrance for about an hour while we waited for the fire brigade to secure the site.

Back at our desks after coffee and lunch we hear that there was a snake in the pottery studio, just outside the main entrance. One of the potters had cornered the snake and had to wait for ‘wires’ to come and remove it.

Just when we thought it was OK to go back to work, the roof caved in, in one of the small rooms in the pottery studio. They say that all bad things happen in three’s, and this day was no exception!

To increasing audience visitation and income we developed a party plan for kids named ‘Arty Party’. This required contacting various performers from belly dancers to break dancers, clowns to bubble blowers, story tellers, craft makers, magicians drummers mime artist etc, etc,etc, to develop a resource list and costing for the parties. This also generated some interest from these various performers to hire the centres spaces for rehearsing, workshops and classes.

ART STUDIO TRASHED?

Post 6

Tuesday Morning I came to work to find the Education Manager looking very sad. She was heart broken that the art studio had been trashed over the weekend. There was an under 18’s party for 200 teens in the art center and the art studio had been used as a change room for the band and security. We couldn’t understand how over the over 18’s could be so childish. I offered to clean it up but the education manager wanted to leave the mess to show the director when he came in. Eventually a call came in from the weekend staff saying that the art studio had heaps of visitors on the Sunday, and they didn’t get a chance to follow up until the end of the day when they needed to close.

Yes, there was a mess with spilt glitter and wasted paper and materials in disarray, and Texas without lids – fortunately we didn’t have any paint out! Art works had fallen off the walls due to too little blu tac - not vandalism!

So the disappointment turned to glee knowing that the art studio had been in demand.

Turning concepts into reality was the biggest challenge, for example the director gave us the concept of creating ‘our world’, meaning that we would ask children to paint or draw images of how they see their world or how they would like their world to be in the future. These images would be cut out and glued to a huge globe over the next few months and would hang in the art studio. So, starting with the globe, it was decided to get a super large balloon and paper mache it. It took a few weeks to source and collect this balloon, then once at the center it didn’t fit through the door of the art studio. We let some air out to get it in, and then working on such a large scale the paper mache was so heavy that the balloon became deformed, and took ages to dry. More and more was added to it to try and get it round, and eventually the theatre manager did get to suspended it from the ceiling in the art studio.

THE THINGS WE DO FOR LOVE

Post 5

One of the new ventures was for us to set up the art studio so that it is open to the public every day. We programmed three different activities, wrote self guided instructions for each activity and had them laminated so they could be reused. We put out the appropriate materials on each table with templates and instructions for children to create - as long as they are supervised by an adult. We created a tiger mask for Chinese New Year that kids could decorate and attach whiskers and a band to tie around their head. We also had an A3 size gold fish cut out that the kids could collage with crape paper, glitter, sequins, coloured wool, pencils, and crayons. In programming the different craft activities, we had to use whatever material were available in the art room, we were not allowed to purchase any new material. Eventually new glue sticks did get ordered.

Most weeks the Education Manager would have a work experience student, at least one each week. In busy weeks and school holidays when the education manager had many tasks that needed completing, she would call in volunteers to assist her. I wonder how she would ever meet deadlines without work experience students, interns and volunteers. Will there be paid work at the end of this? Not likely!

I have noticed lately that this free labor has made its way into the commercial galleries as well. I recently applied for a job as a manager at a well known Sydney commercial gallery to find that there were two part time ‘interns’. It sounded to me that their duties were not structured, they were general admin gals, and happy to do so. Do you think we are being taken advantage of in the arts? Rarely these days does it seem that these internships turn into worthwhile paid employment, which I think was the original intention, and is still today in banking and legal firms. I would love some feedback on this.

I AM VERY USEFUL

Post 4

Recognising that I was able and knowledgeable, the head curator offered me some work, editing text panels and assisting with installation. This was interesting work and with a deadline which I always find challenging. I was able to do this work from home. I did start to wonder again if I was not using my time here as well as I could be, yet again moving sideways from education.

The next day at my internship the education manager informed me that the head curator would like me to do more work for him and she was Ok with me making the change if I wanted to. Having had this conversation with myself regarding direction and outcomes previously, I clearly stated that I wanted to stay in education and public programs, as I needed to achieve specific outcomes by the end of the internship. Every department was over worked and under staffed so I was in demand!

From here on in the only sideways movement I made was to reception for an hour each day to relieve the reception staff for their lunch. I AM very useful!

I did get to amend a grant application for a secondary school digital program, and the application was approved. This did seem like a very straight forward process, with timeline for the project and a budget, the figures just needed adjusting to fit with the granted dollars.