Finishing up... 237 hrs completed

Today is my last saturday of work at the Gallery for my internship. While it has been tiring at times, working full time, completing the internship hours and writing the research paper, it has been an amazing adventure.

Writing the ed kits, kids trails and other public programs had been educational and at times provided me with a real insight into the running of a regional gallery.

I have so much respect for my supervisor, whose role appears to have grown dramatically even since I started in july. Finding cuts to the arts seems to have filtered down through local gov to Councils and seems to be affecting regional galleries. I watched my supervisor and her colleagues take on even more work, when another assistant should be employed... But funding is as it is.

Over the past 6 months I have completed a lot of work for my supervisor and the Gallery. Mainly because I have the personality (organised and committed, to the degree of being a slight perfectionist) and ability (7 years as a visual arts high school teacher, assistant coordinator of artexpress at cofa) to do so. Having me write the past 2 ed kits, 3 exhibitions worth of kids trails, art activities and interview questions for interviews with artists/ curators has lightened her load. I have experience writing programs so it was not too challenging for me and I don't think having me intern was too  much extra work for my supervisor... And this is going to sound wanky, but I think she would have struggled (not too mention, worked much longer hours) without my assistance.

I am very greatful for the professional experience I have gained, the professional contacts I have made, the artists/ curators I have met, the friends I have made and the opportunities I have been given as part of the internship. Presenting my education kits to my fellow teacher colleagues at a teacher preview was definitely a highlight, as well as meeting Wendy Whiteley and working on such an important exhibition for the Gallery.

While I have learnt a lot, I think that 240hrs is too long for an unpaid internship. I think I probably stopped learning at around the 150hr mark, which I think is long enough for an internship. I am not bitter about it, I am just tired.

However, I am looking forward to finishing off my final 3hrs next thursday, enjoying the opening of Brett Whiteley: On the Water. I know I will enjoy a celebratory champagne or two.
Stay tuned for one more post as I'm sure I will have some great photos to share.

Marisa

Open Day 2012

If a picture says a thousand words, well...

Open Day!... and the hard questions to open my mind

The last few weeks have been very busy getting ready for the Gallery's Open Day tomorrow (Sunday Oct 27 2012). This coincides with the local town's Fair Day.While I have still been fixing up the Brett Whiteley ed kits (emailing them to Alec George at the Brett Whiteley studio for his thumbs up/ suggestions) and generating questions to ask Wendy Whiteley for her interview (film to be shown in the Gallery's foyer for the duration of the show), it has also been very exciting to see all the inner-workings, gearing up for the Gallery's biggest Open Day of the year.

Back to the Wendy Whiteley questions - I am finding this very difficult!
How do you ask questions to the ex-wife of a late artist (who died in his prime), on topics such as his processes, his emotional state when creating, influences and love of water, wildlife, travel (the themes our exhibition is based on)? How do you be sensitive  but also questioning enough to allow her to speak openly about his works (when much of it would probably be quite upsetting).
I have not been able to really focus on this task, as I don't know Wendy personally. I have heard that she is a very strong willed woman... But who am I to generate these questions which I feel may be intrusive? I have no journalism training, so I don't know how to approach this and have done what I can. I have relayed my feelings to my supervisor and I was surprised to know that she feels much the same....

But for now, the focus is on the Open Day tomorrow! Everyone is invited, there will be performances by Ruark Lewis, Wild Ones - Art and Designer market stalls, kids activities and much more...

I hope to see you there!

... And now for some Whiteley!

With the Ruark Lewis exhibition well under way, all educational resources completed and public programs (including a fantastic audience participatory work - Catscradle) in full swing, my attention is fully on the Brett Whiteley education kit. I still have around five weeks till the Whiteley show opens, but it will be such a blockbuster exhibition for this regional gallery that the pressure is on.

Luckily writing this kit has been much easier than the Lewis kit, whose work can be challenging to write about for younger audiences (and the title of many of his works change with each display!). I have also been fortunate of the generosity of Alec George from the Brett Whiteley Studio, AGNSW. As the show at our Gallery is in association with the Studio, he has been quite generous to share resources, meaning I could use some info from existing Brett Whiteley Studio/ AGNEW education kits, not having to re-invent the wheel. There is such an air of excitement around this exciting exhibition... I am constantly talking it up to my students and am excited to be able to take them on an excursion to view it just before the Christmas holidays.


I don't know if it is the warmer weather; the fact that I just submitted the draft of my research paper; that I only have five more Saturdays left 'til I complete my internship; or that I am just so excited to be working on a Whiteley show (after years of being inspired by his practice and transferring this to my students), but I feel a strong sense of calm for the first time in a long time... This has been an amazingly challenging experience, but I will be happy come November 15.

Brett Whiteley The pink heron 1969 (detail) Art Gallery of New South Wales. Gift of Patrick White 1979 copyright Wendy Whiteley

Ruark Lewis at the gallery

While the exhibition doesn't open til next saturday, the gallery thought it was a good idea to put Lewis' most recent works on display in the garden. Star shelters, movable, playable prisms, based on aboriginal astronomy, were designed as a gift to the nt government as shelters for the homeless. Visitors are invited to crawl in them, play on them or simply admire their intricacies.They are a HUGE Hit with kids (and kids at heart), just in time for the warm weather and school holidays! The exhibition opens at 2pm next saturday... All welcome!

Finished my first Education Kit!!

What a momentous week!!!

I finished the Ruark Lewis Education Kit just in time to present it to fellow Visual Arts teachers at the Gallery's 'Teacher Preview' afternoon next Wednesday. It was a lot of hard work, but I am glad I was able to contribute to one of the Gallery's publications... I am looking forward to seeing how it is received at the 'Preview'.

It was also a sad week to be in education with the Government's announcement to cut funding and jobs. This, along with the impending introduction of a National Curriculum will be detrimental to Australia's cultural capital. The draft of the National Curriculum for The Arts lacks intellectual rigor, conceptual depth and is a very weak, watered-down version of the NSW Syllabus that I already teach. Given these two factors, we can say goodbye to creative, critically thinking, curious, expressive and imaginative young Australians with highly capable interpretive skills! Art education brings so much to society... only we'll realise it in 10 years time and it will be too late.

What can I say, I love being an educator... I hope there will still be need for me in the future.

126.5 hours down!!

I didn't know how else to title this post as I am just so excited to be over half way through my internship. I can see the finish line!!!

Over the past few weeks I have been working steadily on the education kits for Ruark Lewis exhibition (which opens in 2 weeks) and the Brett Whiteley exhibition. The Lewis kit has been a little problematic when trying to define his practice in language that is accessible for students. Also writing questions for specific works has been difficult as we did not know which exact works will be on display (and if you know anything about Lewis' exhibitions, his works change depending on the space, audience, location etc). I have also found it a little difficult working on Saturdays while my supervisor works Mon-Fri. I have tried to make sure I email her every Monday with that weekend's work but she is so busy that sometimes I think she forgets to reply.
But being a teacher with my own prac students to supervise I know what it is like to have to think of someone else too. I'm greatful she was able to take me on and I'm sure it is just as hard for her too, having an intern she rarely sees. Hopefully it will be much smoother in two weeks time when I will be on school holidays and able to intern Mon-Fri for two weeks.

I am now starting research for the Whiteley ed kit. This will be a real blockbuster exhibition for the gallery so the pressure is on!

That is it for now. To be honest my brain is mush.  Between teaching high school kids (who get a bit ratty this time of term), working every Saturday at the gallery, and trying to research and write my research paper on Sundays (and in any other spare time) I am buggered! This is definitely one of the hardest things I have ever done in my life!

Bring on November!

An exhibition opening won't wait for fractured fingers!

A post is long overdue... But I've discovered that everything takes longer with one hand. Fracturing my fingers couldn't have come at a worse time (why couldn't I have done it in november?) But the show must go on.

So its out with the old and in with the new. This week I said goodbye to lucy goosey and the art of Australian picture books, and hello to Ace Bourke: A Collector's Journey.

What an amazing, inspiring and insightful exhibition of Ace Bourke's private collection. Works include historical etchings from colonial Australia (Bourke is a descendent of governor Philip Gidley King), aboriginal bark paintings, to works by contemporary artist friends of Burke's (Tracey Moffatt, Jonathan Jones, Micheal Riley, Jenny Kee). Also on display is the film of Bourke reunion with Christian the lion. A lion he bought in England in the '70s, raised for a year then returned to the wild! It is amazing to hear how casual Bourke is when telling the story about 'buying a lion from Harrods'.

The opening this arvo was a fantastic who's who of the Australian art world. It was officially opened by Burke's longtime friend, Jenny Kee and most of the contemporary artists represented were present.
Like I said earlier, it has been tough with fractured fingers (not to mention looking like a goose at the opening with my arm in a sling) trying to work as usual. I was on lighter duties today, which mainly consisted of telling people not to bring food and drinks into the exhibition. This turned out to be a great job as I was able to greet all the guests, have some excellent art chats and great networking.

In the past week I have also completed some more work on writing the ed kit for the Ruark Lewis exhibition (this will follow Burke's show in 6 weeks). Now I have typed the notes from our meeting, I have also done a fair bit of research (for quotes, practice) and started generating the art historical/ critical/ making questions. It is starting to come together... slowly!

Thats it for now, 97 hours down only 143 to go!

Photo: Ace Bourke and Jenny Kee at the opening of Ace Bourke: A Collector's Journey.

Meet the Artist

On Saturday my supervisor and I had our first meeting with Ruark Lewis at his studio. We had to discuss which works he will display in the up-coming exhibition, as well as lock in dates for public programs so that the marketing dept. could print the ads and invites. We also needed to discuss what the programs would be and how involved Lewis wanted to be in the process.

Prior to the meeting I read Lewis' Precis, as well as conducted some bio research and research into pieces written about his practice. I found the writing about his works quite difficult to fully understand, as he works quite collaboratively, using text, language, performance, history and narrative throughout.

Upon meeting him everything became clear. He was extremely generous with his time (given his health concerns) and willing to share the journey, practice, meanings, intentions, stories (just about everything) behind the making of EVERY SINGLE artwork he has created! As he has been creating since the early 1980s, it was a lot! It was amazing to hear this one-on-one from the artist himself, as it definitely gave me a much better insight into the concepts of the works.

When my supervisor told Lewis that I was going to use his works to help me explore ways to engage young people with deeper understanding and appreciating of contemporary art, he was very happy to share even more! He showed me some preparatory sketches and models and the finished works. He was also quite happy for me to have a look around his studio and take some photos (Sorry, but I can't show any here until the exhibition is up). It was a fantastic meeting which lasted a little over 3 hours. Hearing the stories behind the conceptual development of his works was really beneficial and is helping me to write the biographical and art historical/ critical information to accompany the education kit for the exhibition. It was also fantastic for my research paper (as long as it is used in the kit or publication). Lewis would have kept talking well into the night if we didn't have to leave. I think my supervisor regretted telling Lewis about my paper as he spent most of the time talking to me and not so much time on the logistical information for his exhibition.

I really enjoyed this experience. It is my first of it's kind and has made me realise just how much I would enjoy working with artists and doing this 'for real'... While I do still really enjoy teaching, this meeting (as well as having two full 8hr days of parent/ teacher interviews last week) has made me consider a change earlier than I had expected.

QAG Brisbane - 'Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado'

Last week I went on a little interstate excursion to QAG to view 'Portrait of Spain: Masterpieces from the Prado'. It was a fantastic exhibition, full of beautiful paintings from the Prado Gallery in Spain. The exhibition featured portraits of royalty, saints, religious icons, landscapes and still lifes. I especially liked the portraits of female royals... a majority of their eyes were so captivating in conveying a sense of complete apathy and lack of interest in being painted. Almost like they were saying 'why do I have to be here? There are so many other things I need to be doing'.

The exhibition is very inclusive. Besides a very good layout, the accompanying programs/ activities were the best I have ever seen at an Australian gallery. As a teacher, one of my favourites was the 10m table of fresh fruit and veg, arranged to inspire a Spanish still life drawing. Exhibition ticket holders were invited to sit down and draw their own composition either with pencil and paper or using one of the provided ipads (and drawings could be sent to yourself!). This is an amazing activity for audience members of all ages and knowledge/ ability levels to further engage with works/ subject matter of the exhibition... also to hook them into making a return visit to the gallery! The Spanish tapas and sangria bar was also a hit!

I think it is great to see galleries providing these fantastic public programs and activities to accompany their blockbuster exhibitions. It is something that I have taken back to the gallery which I am interning in, as well as my school. What an experience!

A quiet Saturday at the Gallery

Today was very quiet at the gallery. I think that the cold weather kept many people away.

Having less people (kids especially) around to keep an eye on, enabled me to get much more work done than I had expected. My main task today was to read Ruark Lewis' 'Precis of Survey of Works List'. It took a good part of the day to read all 23 pages of notes on every work he has created to date. Although it was a long and sometimes brain frazzling task, it really concreted his practice for me.

Some brief info: Lewis 'is a visual artist and writer producing in a wide range of media such as painting, drawing, installation, artists-books, public art, theatre, performances, audio and video works. His art tends toward conceptual language, exploring the poetics of spatial history, involving chance procedures and architectural strategies of improvisation.' reference: http://ruarklewis.com/home/

The following are some examples of his works:

Reading (and understanding) Lewis' Precis was important as I have a meeting with him at his studio next Saturday. I am interviewing him for the education kits which I will produce for the exhibition... and hopefully also get some valuable insight into how to engage young people with his highly conceptual, abstract and text based works (which is what I am aiming to base my research paper around).

After going back to teaching this week (and not working at the gallery mon-fri) it was good to come in this morning to see that the education resources that I wrote for the visiting school groups of the current exhibition, have been successful! yay! 

Holiday flu has hit... But it won't ruin my Tea Party!

Even on my internship I couldn't escape the dreaded holiday flu... The story of my teaching life :-) .

So I had a few sick days this week but it was still very eventful. Tuesday was our Mad Hatter's Tea Party!! I was Alice and along with the Hatter, hosted arvo tea for 52 children (all under 7, ave age being about 4!). So most of the morning was spent setting up, streamers and balloons, as well as the usual public programs of story time and 3 pre-school groups. The tea party was crazy... Or should I say, MAD! It was great, we took the kids through the gallery's gardens to look for the white rabbit, had a best hat comp, sang songs, ate food... I was careful as I didn't want to shrink too much... And topped out all off by giving a tour of the exhibition!!! I loved it, the kids loved it, it was great fun!

After being a high school teacher for 7 years, I can safely say I have never worked as hard as I did for the 2hrs I was Alice! I have a lot of respect for primary school teachers.
The rest of the wk was a little less busy. I finished writing the Early Stage - Stage 3 trail and worksheets for the coming school groups for the current exhibition. I was bummed that I missed friday and the meeting with the artist I will be writing the ed kit for on the next ex. But I'm going to meet up with him with my supervisor in the coming weeks.

I didn't do as many hrs as I wanted to this week, but tomorrow school starts back so I have to be well and rested to face all those teenagers.

I had a great 2 weeks, I wish I could have taken time off work to do the internship in one big chunk. But this way I do get to see the development of more exhibitions. So now I'm only going to be doing saturdays until the september school hols.

Until next saturday... :-)  Stay arty!

Bourke, Binh Danh and The Biennale... What a first week!!

Wow!! what a first week at the gallery! After all the excitement of the opening day of our new exhibition of works from Aust picture books, the excitement kept on coming!

Working in public programs in such a small regional gallery has made me realise how much goes on!! As there are only 5 full time staff (director, corator/ exhibition co-ord, marketing, public programs co-ord, workshops co-ord) everyone does so much. Given that we have multiple holiday programs linked to our current exhibition, my jobs last week were vast. Ranging from writing the Stage 1- Stage 3 education worksheets for the primary school group visits when school resumes, to photocopying colouring worksheets and making sure all the pencils were sharp and 'Lucy Goosey' drawings were blu-tacked on the wall. I also had to act as crowd control between 10-12 every day for 'story time' in the gallery and usher for the daily film screenings at 1pm. Even though it was very busy (especially when we had 90 pre-schoolers turn up for story time on friday!!) arvos have been quite and I have been able to focus on researching and writing the education kits and worksheets for the exhibitions.

Some other highlights for the week were also meeting with Ace Bourke to discuss his up-coming exhibition, meeting Binh Danh (he is the artist in residence at the gallery while his work is on display at AGNSW for the 18th Biennale) and taking the volunteers from the gallery on an excurion to view the 18th Biennale of Sydney: All our relations!

Binh Danh is an very generous artist who produces amazing works which he calls chlorophyll photos. Essentially printing images onto leaves using the plant's photosynthesis process. His works are beautiful and very powerfull. While residing at the gallery he is running holiday classess for high school students, teaching them to create prints like his. He is very generaous in sharing his methods and practice (which is something that I have discovered is rare in the artworld) and I am excited as I was able to enroll one of my yr 11 students in the class (I am a high school art teacher in my other life). I cant wait to see what she can teach us!

On a very wet and windy Thursday, the public programs co-ord, curator, an assisstant and I took 45 of the gallery's (elderly) volunteers on a whirl-wind tour of the Biennale, as organised by the director. We saw some of the AGNSW (being treated to a talk by Binh Danh), all of the works at the MCA (also given a guided tour) and most of the works on the lower part of Cockatoo Island (with tour by Biennale Head of Public Programs and Education, Virginia Mitchell). It was frantic, but also very inspiring... and the volunteers seemed to have a great day. It was a great treat for them.  I have only just realised how very hard they work and how nuch they know about the inner workings of the gallery. It would not exisit without their help.

I was amazed by a few works on Cockatoo Island and a little dissapointed by some at the MCA. My favs were Alick Tipoti's lino print 'Girelal' (MCA), Peter Robinson's foam chain-link installation 'Snow Ball Blind Time', Philip Beesley's living forrest 'Hylozoic Series', Ed Pein's paper 'Source: Corridor of Rain', Monica Grzymala's paper 'The River', Adam Cvijanovic mural painting also 'The River' and Jonathan Jones' 'Untitled (oysters and tea cups) (all at Cockatoo Island). It was a shame we didn't see the whole island, but as the rain came down very heavy in the arvo, we had to leave. But I will definately make the return trip!

I can't imagine how week 2 can beat the excitement of my first week, but I am looking forward to it! So far I know it invloves me dressing up a Alice for our Mad Hatter's Tea Party on Tuesday and a meeting with Ruark Lewis on Friday. Bring on week 2!!!

Peter Robinson 'Snow Ball Blind Time'

Philip Beesley 'Hylozoic Series'

Monica Grzymala 'The River'

Ed Pein 'Source: Corridor of Rain'

Jonathan Jones 'Untitled (oysters and tea cups

Family Fun Day

The first day of my internship, as well as Family Fun Day, co-inciding with the opening of the new exhibition, 'Look: Art from Australian picture books today' at the gallery!!!

What a big day to start my internship. Fantastic to see the magic happen behind the scenes to create an amazing opening and open day.
Face painting, storytelling, cartooning, colouring as well as Alice & The Mad Hatter... Shadowing the public programs co-ordinator, to walk a day in her shoes was incredible! It has really opened my eyes to the work involved in working for a regional gallery.

I'm keen to see what tomorrow will bring! I m already excited for friday, to meet with the artist that I will be writing the ed. kit for in the next exhibition.

 

Induction complete

Today I completed an induction of my arts org. All ready and excited to start my internship next sunday.
I will be starting on ' family fun day' at the gallery. Then working for two weeks straight (my school holidays).

Its week 9 of term 2, and holidays are much needed. Even though il be working for my next two sets of hols (& every saturday), I'm excited for the challenge and adventure that lies ahead.

The paperwork is in!!!

Last week I met with my gallery supervisor to organize the paperwork, lock in the dates and finalize my project for my internship. I sent off the paperwork today and start in a little over 3 weeks!!!
I'm excited to be developing educational resources and public programs for two largish exhibitions:Ruark Lewis and Brett Whiteley. I hope to learn a whole lot... I wonder if there's a chance ill get to meet Wendy Whiteley???

Teaching full time while undertaking the internship and writing the research paper is going to be tough. But I'm looking forward to the challenge!
Let the adventure begin!

My First Blog Post

Hi all

This is my first ever blog post! It has been a long time coming.

I don't have too much to share just yet, except that I am excited to be blogging the process of my COFA Internship... the very bright light at the end of my Masters degree.

Something interesteing (Irresistable):
This past Friday and Saturday (18th-19th May 2012) I attended the VADEA conference at the newly opened MCA. It was amazing!! So many inspiring artists and educators! Lindy Lee, Brook Andrew, Susan Norrie as well as a guided tour of the new MCA and great updates on the status of Visual Arts in the National Curriculum (I don't know what we'd do without the likes of Kerrie Thomas and Karan Maras). Thanks to the dedicated efforts of the VADEA executive for recharging my teaching batteries and inspiring me to aim to be a better art teacher!

As usual, a fantastic conference! And the view from the MCA wasn't too bad either!

www.mca.com.au/events/irresistible-vadea-conference-2012/966/

vadea.org.au/

 
 

New Blog #3!!!!!

So frustrated! My old blog (for the second time!!!) seems to be having technical difficulties!!! So this is a test of my new blog. Oh I hope that I can access settings to add you all.

Wish me luck!