Ann Hargis – Art Gallery & Museum Studies – Manchester Art Gallery

My work placement has been at the Manchester Art Gallery, working with the Collections Management department. Currently the gallery is putting together the Cultural Olympiad exhibition We Face Forward: West African Art Today. Part of my duties have been to process incoming loans on KE EMu, a task which is usually a bit monotonous and painstaking. However, with We Face Forward the process was even more daunting for a myriad of reasons. For one, the show began coming to fruition only six months before it was meant to open, while the usual timescale is one to two years in advance. Furthermore, the nature of the show made the work of the registrar extremely challenging, for it featured works by artists from Africa, many of who have never exhibited in Britain before. Therefore the process of actually shipping works presented Phillippa and Sian, my supervisors, with a number of difficulties, simply because they had no prior connections or plans as to how best go about transferring the works safely. Additionally, because of the language barrier, many of the standard forms used at the gallery had to be translated into French for the benefit of the artists, and even still, many of the inter-gallery charts detailing the status of the objects were written in a mixture of English and French.

For these reasons, my presence was heavily utilized and I was given a great deal of responsibility with the We Face Forward. Phillippa even let me sit in on staff meetings, not only to see how exhibitions are put together, but so that I could gain a better understanding of the artworks. In this way, the work I did when entering objects into KE EMu greatly benefitted, because I was able to make sense of what I was including and how they would eventually be put on display. Indeed, although this may sound like a simple task, there was an enormous amount of confusion surrounding the artworks, and what would regularly be a time consuming task on KE EMu, in this instance evolved into a convoluted one. Being of varying African languages, many of the artists’ names were difficult for to read, and furthermore, many of the titles were only discovered as they arrived. This required me to label things such as “Photograph 1” or “Untitled 2” initially, and then constantly go back and rename pieces as more information came in. Lastly, I was able to help the conservators by preparing the condition reports for each work, which required me to regulate the details of each KE EMu entry, take and add photographs of each piece, export the information into the form of a report, and also save and organize each report in the museums’ shared computer system and then also print them out for use. Again, although this wasn’t incredibly difficult, it requires a great attention to detail, for even the most minor of mistakes could affect the entire system.

When speaking with my supervisor Phillippa, I asked her if she ever experienced any personal gratification with her work, and she immediately cited the satisfaction of seeing an artwork arrive safely at the gallery after months of planning. Just yesterday, I too experienced this same satisfaction when I saw a piece I had initially entered into the system go up on display for We Face Forward. Knowing that I had done the deskwork in order to ensure its presence was an unbelievably satisfying feeling. It was reflective of my small, yet very real, impact upon the gallery.

Tonje Saeboe – Art Gallery & Museum Studies – St. Chrysostom’s Primary School

For eleven days, Sophie and I worked in St. Chrysostom’s Primary School. We did a project with them about The Lion King because it was suitable for that age group and it was just out at the cinemas so they might already be familiar with the story. In the lessons we taught the pupils how to make their own storybooks, how to make animal facemasks, how to play African drums and we also taught them the song: ‘I just can’t wait to be king’. The children were very enthusiastic and engaged in the project and we felt very welcome at the school. As a part of the project we were going to develop the school’s webpage so the project needed to be suitable for being displayed online. For this reason we documented the process by taking pictures of their storybooks and facemasks, and we also recorded the pupils singing the song.

 

About the music lessons:

The pupils were very excited about having music lessons and the first lesson was filled with enthusiasm, but further into the project their concentration fell and they were less interested in practicing. Anything that was new quickly captivated them but when it came to practicing what they had already learnt, their interest disappeared. Both genders were equally involved during the warm-up exercises but when it came to singing the song the performance was varied. For this reason, I sometimes made the boys and girls compete over who could sing best, which helped.

 

A typical day of music started with a few body stretches, of which their favourite was trying to stretch into different shapes of fruit. There was the banana, the watermelon, the apple and the grape. To warm up their faces we sang a song about a little frog where they opened and closed their mouth like a frog. Also this one was highly popular and they laughed a lot the first time because everyone looked silly.

 

The pupils learned the lyrics fairly quickly and we started adding movement to the song to make it a bit more interesting, and there were several funny suggestions were words were often taken quite literal. For example one line of the lyrics was: ‘I’m brushing up, I’m looking down, I’m working on my roar!’ To which one boy suggested that we should brush our teeth. The days were full of funny unexpected events and being in a primary school was very enjoyable. It was also tiring but the work was very rewarding and we could see the children improve in just the short time we were there which was very encouraging, especially if they understood how to spell a word or write a sentence. The teacher did say that during the music lessons they had seen some come out of their shell, which was very encouraging!

 

I would highly recommend anyone trying to be in a primary school because it is such a friendly environment and you will learn something new every day about children or teaching. It’s challenging but very rewarding.

Meghan Treasure – Art Gallery & Museum Studies – Manchester Art Gallery

Working at the Manchester Art Gallery as an access project researcher has been an interesting and fulfilling task. My job is to take their works on paper collection, take a photograph of a high quality resolution, upload it onto their database, update their descriptions and then make sure the dates are consistent.  I have enjoyed working with their works on paper collections, particularly the prints. To see some a print by Goya or Rubens up close is an amazing experience for me. Not only did I enjoy handling the collection but I also liked learning about the database Ke Emu and understanding its complexities.

 

I think it is important that a gallery such as the Manchester Art Gallery’s collection is accessible and available to the public as much as possible. Everyone who has access to the internet and a computer are able to access and use my project by going to the gallery’s website. If you search for a piece by for example, Eric Gill, there will be an updated photo, and a new description. Although their collection online has about 35,000 entries only 13,000 have an image. So because of my project I am helping improve this number and enabling the staff and the public to have a better image and description for research and general use.

Harriet Richardson – Art Gallery & Museum Studies – Pankhurst Centre

Today, the Pankhurst Centre, once home to Emmeline Pankhurst and birthplace of the Suffragette movement, holds a small heritage area consisting of three rooms, one of which is a reconstructed parlour displayed where the original members of the Women’s Social and Political Union (WSPU) held their first meeting in 1903.

Figure 1: Craft at the ‘Drop-In’ programme.

However, this is only one section of the building. The other section hosts a number of women’s charities and offers a space for activities and events in which women can learn together, work on projects and socialise.

The building also houses Manchester Rape Crisis (MRC) which provides counselling to victims of rape and abuse. Also, Women MATTA (Manchester and Trafford Taking Action) provide a support service to women at risk of offending and women at risk of receiving custodial sentences.

My placement, ‘Heritage Development Worker’, was based solely in the Heritage Centre. From the first day it was clear to see that awareness of the Pankhurst Centre in the community was low. On top of this, funding had been slashed due to public sector cuts. It became apparent that the Pankhurst Centre was facing a deadly ‘catch-22’ situation. Without awareness, there would be no visitors to bring in much needed revenue to the building; but without funding, how could the centre promote itself to the outside world and develop an audience?

Figure 2: Stall at Manchester Histories Festival,

During this time, I facilitated the Pankhurst’s involvement in the Manchester Histories Festival, a Jewish International Women’s Day event, and organised a number of events to be held in the Pankhurst Centre itself, including a large event held on International Women’s Day which was particularly successful. I also created a social networking profile for the Pankhurst Centre on Facebook and Twitter, turning a vast number of internet users into potential visitors.

These efforts proved to be very successful and by the end of my placement, visitor figures had risen by 161 people from Jan-May 2011 to Jan-May 2012.

However, throughout my time on placement, there was one aspect of my practice that I felt uneasy about. Namely, would enticing more visitors to the heritage centre have an adverse effect on the social side of the centre, and the women it is trying to help? Should I have factored in the women’s thoughts and feelings during my audience development campaign? Indeed, can the Pankhurst truly exist harmoniously both as a cultural destination and as a haven for women in need?

These are questions that may never be solved and the heritage area may always take a backseat to the social aspect of the building. As a member of staff quite rightly said, “when you’re faced with so many women in crisis, you have to put them first.”

Figures

• Figure 1: Craft activity at the ‘Drop-In’ programme, the Pankhurst Centre. http://www.thepankhurstcentre.org.uk/ (Accessed 23/05/2012)

• Figure 2: The stall at Manchester Histories Festival, Manchester Town Hall, Authors own photograph (03/03/ 2012)

Katie Burt – Arts Management Policy & Practice – Z-Arts

My name is Katie, as part of my MA in Arts Management Policy and Practice; I choose to elect the work placement as one of my modules. My placement was with the organisation now officially known as “Z-Arts”, formerly Zion Arts Centre based in Hulme Manchester. Z-Arts is a multi art form organisation dedicated to children and young people. Z-Arts has offers a array of participatory arts workshops for the local community of Hulme and surrounding areas.

 

My placement spanned from January- May 2012 and I clearly came into the organisation at an exciting time as Z-Arts were in the middle of their re-branding process and in the initial stages of developing a new strategy to incorporate a programme of children’s theatre into the venue. My placement involved supporting their new programming strategy by conducting research into children’s theatre to help the organisation understand what the current provision for children’s theatre is across the North West.

 

The term “children’s theatre” within the context of my placement was understood as theatrical productions, produced and performed by professional children’s theatre companies (i.e. performed by adults) for children under 13 years old.

 

I had the opportunity to carry out lots of exciting research tasks including interviewing programmers from key venues in the region, including The Lowry and The Royal Exchange and interviewed a whole range of children’s theatre companies’ Artistic Directors from around the UK.

 

I was really pleased to be asked to help support Z-Arts Strategic Touring application for the Arts Council as part of my placement, by having some of my research attached to their bid. This helped to show me how my research efforts were of real use to the organisation.

 

On my days in the Z-Arts office I was very often enthusiastically greeted by the office dog Henna, what an added bonus to a brilliant work placement experience.

Henna the dog!

Sophie Govan – Art Gallery & Museum Studies

My placement involved working as an external practitioner at a local primary school with another student. We were given total control of the work we would like to carry out with the school, but the underlying theme was to work on a project which would showcase the creativity of the school on their website. We were assigned three classes in the first two years of the school, and ran a Disney themed project, in which pupils created their own storybook about The Lion King, in addition to learning the I Just Can’t Wait To Be King song from the film. On a typical day we would go in and start first with one of the very excitable Year 1 classes. After a session on music practice with Tonje, they would create a page from their storybook and use words from spider diagrams worked on by the class for ideas. Often we would realise clear changes that we needed to make in teaching, so by the end of the day in the Year 2 class the work was generally much more improved. We ensured that our lessons had variety, so one day the pupils made facemasks and on another day they would learn to drum, and if they worked hard we showed them the video of the song in the film as a treat. We ran lots of exercises to work on their writing skills, and they learnt all sorts of words associated with animals in Africa and the jungle. A highlight was definitely hearing the recording of their final performance of the song in the last lesson, as Tonje made a CD for them to keep in class. The classes covered all sorts of areas, including art, music and literacy, and the Disney theme was a great way to get them excited about the project – they often referred to us as ‘The Lion King people’ which was amusing. The children were very sweet and made us thank you cards at the end of the project and read them out to us in front of the class. We don’t have access to the photos currently, but we took lots of photos of their storybooks which turned out beautifully, and also one of each class with their facemasks on. Here are some of the quotes we collected from the pupils who wrote what they learnt and enjoyed about the project:

 Gabrielle: I liked everything but most is when we made a mask and the books. Thank you for the things we have done.

Agnes: I liked the singing because I liked the warm up the most. I liked the song and how to play the drums.

Kian: We learnt The Lion King Song. I liked doing drumming.

Amar: I like the books. I like to sing a lot.

Year Two:

Dyian: I like singing the most. I liked drumming. I liked the face masks.

Tope: I like the songs and I like the drumming.

Salome: I liked doing the face masks and doing the elephant. I liked the singing the Lion King song.

Mo Yin Kwok – Arts Management Policy & Practice – Whitworth Art Gallery

Working at the Whitworth was a great opportunity to get to know not only the rich history behind this beautiful Victorian building but more importantly, the supportive staff!

 

Being a placement student at the Development Department, I got a chance to see how funding applications were collaborative efforts of all departments. I have had many enjoyable conversations with different members which deeply enriched my knowledge on how talents are pooled together to contribute to the many exciting projects happening at the Whitworth.

 

Time was short but I am already a proud member of the family! I cherish every moment at the Whitworth attending meetings, sharing tea breaks, enjoying the Christmas party or even planting trees at Whitworth Park! I am inspired by the passionate team and am now motivated to excel my skills and knowledge to contribute to the vibrant cultural scene of Manchester!

Stephanie Coxon – Art Gallery & Museum Studies – 20 Forthlin Road

As part of my Art Gallery and Museum Studies MA, I did a placement at 20 Forthlin Road, Paul McCartney’s childhood home. The house is now a part of the National Trust and they hold tours of both 20 Forthlin Road and Mendips, John Lennon’s childhood home.  20 Forthlin Road is a typical 1950’s council house in Allerton (South Liverpool) and when I went on the tour, I was surprised by how residential the area is. I have become accustomed to National Trust properties being grand stately homes in the middle of nowhere but you could not get further from this with Forthlin Road. The tour highlights the success of the Beatles even though the guide only talks about Paul and John’s upbringing. As a visitor, you automatically look at the house knowing the success of the boy to come. To realise that the man the whole world now knows as Sir Paul McCartney, a surviving member of one of the biggest bands of all time, lived in this small council house dreaming of fame and fortune is a special thing. The feeling you get from the tour is almost overwhelming, especially for a Beatles fan.

My placement involved visitor consultation.  The custodian of 20 Forthlin Rd has recently moved out of the property and so the house now has an empty room. The National Trust had 5 ideas for what could be done in the room, 5 themes that they thought people would like to see. The five ideas were: reconstructing a typical 1950’s bedroom, using the space as an introductory room, showing the musical influences/inspirations of Paul, 1950’s post-war living or 1950’s fashions and icons. It was my job to research these five ideas, find pictures which could highlight my findings so that the visitors could understand what was intended and then present them to visitors after they had been on the tour. The maximum number for each tour is 15 people and therefore, at the beginning of each tour we would welcome them at their meeting point at the Jury’s Inn in Liverpool and ask them if they had 20 minutes to spare after the tour to help us. We then went to a conference room where I presented the five ideas and the visitors gave their feedback on forms that we had created for them. I then presented ideas as to what they could do in the room; activities that could take place such as dressing up and we discussed what they thought of these also.  This has now been put into a spreadsheet in order to understand our findings, some of which were surprising.

I have learnt a lot throughout my placement, about the National Trust as an organisation, about the Beatles, about visitors and their needs and a deeper insight into working life. It has been an unforgettable experience.

Kate Weatherall – Arts Management Policy & Practice – The Royal Exchange Theatre

 

During my placement today we had a fire drill, just the thing to stretch my legs after a full morning of online research into training provision within producing theatres. The reluctant grabbing of bags and a four floor descend was worth it to see the full cast of Lady Windermere’s Fan hovering around the fire assembly point still clinging to their lines and character. The siren had interrupted a tech run-through so unfortunately they weren’t in full dress costume circa 1890.

For the placement module I opted for the Royal Exchange Theatre as it implied hands on experience working directly with young people within an arts education setting. It proved to be a great way to view many aspects of an arts organisation up close.

Evaluating a Behind the Scenes Workshop Week was a significant part of my placement and an opportunity to gain insight into the aspects of a producing theatre along with an understanding of RET education department initiatives. The workshop week was the first of its kind for this targeted age group and was a direct result of successful shorter workshops held for younger participants age twelve to fifteen.

The timetable for the five days practical week for students aged between sixteen and nineteen from the Greater Manchester area was quite demanding for them and me. Interacting with a range of students and professionals was interesting with the bonus of seeing backstage preparations then watching performances in both the main stage and the studio theatre. After an evaluation document was written up and delivered I needed to complete the next part of my research; the training provision offered by producing theatres. This was a solitary task and frustrating at times, as other organisations seemed to keep their great practice examples close to their chest!

A perk of the placement with the theatre were tickets for Press Night performances; these nights find everyone on edge, the disappointment for me was that none of the reviews corresponded with my impression of the performances. But the bonus of attending Press Night is spotting local Mancunian glitterati from stage and small screen and football pitch.

 

On careful reflection about my placement, after all the personal insights into how to develop an evaluation document for an arts organisation or completing a research task; the highlight of the experience has been queuing in the Green Room waiting for my veggie sausage and beans between the glorious Maxine Peake and two blokes from a BBC Sunday night drama.

Ellie Edmonds – Art Gallery & Museum Studies – Manchester Histories Festival

I undertook my placement at the Manchester Histories Festival (www.manchesterhistoriesfestival.org.uk) in the role of assistant co-ordinator. The festival was preparing for its second year and my role was to assist in all aspects of organisation alongside other volunteers and the Co-ordinator Claire Turner. I came to the placement with no experience of events management, so I was faced with an extremely steep learning curve! Claire was very keen that I should experience all aspects of events management, so as a result my placement was extremely varied and interesting (Telephoning the National Trust to enquire after photos of dogs was one of my stranger tasks).

The Festival works in partnership with the University of Manchester, Manchester Metropolitan University and local organisations with the aim to celebrate Manchester’s unique history and heritage through work with local communities and educational institutions. The festival took the form of ten days of events and activities culminating in the ‘Celebration Day’ at Manchester Town Hall. The events ranged from hands on archaeology workshops, outdoor gaming and walking tours, and exhibitions and food tasting.

I was primarily assigned the task of organizing the Community History Awards, to be held on Celebration Day. This involved identifying and contacting local organizations that were eligible to apply, alongside detailing information to be published on the festival’s social media. I then collated the applications and sent them to be reviewed by a judging panel. The prize- giving ceremony was held by radio presenter Dave Haslam and BBC Northwest Tonight’s Ranvir Singh. The winners were awarded trophies in a ceremony that included performances from some of the participating local schools.

Image taken at the Celebration Day at Manchester Town Hall.

I was particularly interested in gaining experience in PR and marketing so with the help of Claire I contacted Sara Teiger, the freelance PR that was working with the festival. With her guidance, I produced a database of events by region and wrote targeted press releases with specific information to that area. These releases were then sent to small local papers such as the Salford Star. Having press releases I had written appear in print (in one form or another!) was very rewarding and was fantastic experience for a similar role in the future.

Other aspects of my placement included writing copy for the website and festival programme, editing the website with up to date content and news, producing copy for social media, working with various IT programmes in the office including Excel, Dropbox, Quaytickets and Eventbrite, attending meetings and working closely with volunteers at the celebration day to ensure the day ran smoothly.

The festival will be next held in 2014, with opportunities for volunteering if you would like to get involved, or simply visiting for an amazing experience.

Because of my placement at the Manchester Histories Festival I was confident enough to apply for a Marketing and PR internship at Oasis Academy MediaCityUK, for which I was successful and am now building my PR and marketing experience to enable me to apply for graduate-level positions.