Looking to gain professional experience in an art gallery while you study? UVic’s Legacy Art Gallery is seeking workstudy students to act as Curatorial Assistants for the 2013-14 academic year.
Writing student Rowan Grant preps the Maltwood Gallery for an incoming exhibit
Four exciting positions are open for students interested in exhibitions, programs and collections research: exhibit preparator, digital media, publicist, research. And while the positions are primarily based at downtown’s Legacy Gallery at the corner of Yates and Broad streets, some work will occur on campus.
What kind of student are they looking for? Second year or higher is preferred, says Caroline Riedel, Curator of Collections for the University of Victoria Art Collections, but department doesn’t really matter. “This summer, we had a Writing student, a History in Art student and a student in the Cultural Resource Management program,” she says, “so it could be someone with multidisciplinary talent.”
Is experience necessary? “Previous experience isn’t technically required, but is always an asset,” says Reidel. “That could mean web design, digital photography skills, communications writing, graphic design, experience with installing exhibits or handling artwork, cataloguing . . . it all depends on the position.”
History in Art student Emerald Johnstone-Bedell (left) and Culture Resource Management Program student Lesley Golding (right) prepare a Maltwood exhibit
UVAC has funding available for 175 hours per position, at the standard workstudy rate of $11 an hour. Anticipated tasks will include assisting with grant proposal writing, content research and exhibit design development, cataloguing art and artifacts, developing publicity materials, writing media releases and designing posters, among other duties. Students will also be expected to work Saturdays and one weekday afternoon, to accommodate gallery hours (10am to 4pm Wednesday to Saturday).
Highlights of UVAC’s upcoming exhibit season include Paradox, new work by Department of Visual Arts professors at the Legacy, The Art of the Book—a juried exhibition of books as art objects by members of the Canadian Book Artists and Bookbinders Guild—plus Shakespeare’s Big Books, an exhibition of Shakespeare’s iconic first folios as part of a citywide collaboration including UVic, the Victoria Symphony, the Belfry Theatre and the Greater Victoria Public Library.
Lesley Golding installs the upcoming Maltwood exhibit “Coalescence: Bridging Contemporaneity & Tradition”
Also coming in January 2014 is The Big Button Blanket Project. Participants will create the world’s largest button blanket in this project by Carolyn Butler Palmer, the Williams Legacy Chair in Modern and Contemporary Art of the Pacific Northwest. Created by designer and artist consultant Peter Morin with elder button blanket makers in Victoria and UVic students at First People House, this project will allow elders to share their knowledge and stories of button blankets with the student participants. The exhibition will also feature historic button blankets, photographs and other related material. The blanket will be danced by performance artists Morin and recent Governor General’s Award winner Rebecca Belmore—a former Audain Professor in UVic’s Department of Visual Arts—in January 2014.
To be eligible for the positions, students must be approved for the workstudy program through the UVic Student Awards and Financial Aid Department. Please check the SAFA website for the application form and further information. Positions will be posted here on September 4th. To apply, send your resume and cover letter to Curator of Collections Caroline Riedel at criedel@uvic.ca by Friday, September 27th. Late applicants will not be considered. The first round of interviews will be held in October.
“It usually takes a while for students to even know that work-study is there and find us,” chuckles Reidel, “so this is just another way to get those applications in sooner and get up to speed sooner.”