8x8 at the MCA

The second meeting for the 8x8 program was at the MCA on Saturday, with the 8 uni students from SCA and NAS, and 8 (minus 1) high school students from around Liverpool. The aim of the day was to develop participants' understanding of the Biennale of Sydney: all our relations, by viewing the exhibition at the MCA as well as proposing an exhibition concept in response to this year's theme. Participants were also put into pairs of uni:high school student in which they will make the final works for exhibition - so another key outcome was simply getting to know your collaborator and their artistic practice.

This turned out a really inspiring day, with high schoolers impressing me with how articulate and knowledgable they can be (interspersed with bouts of shyness, 'ummm...' and 'what she/he said') and uni students proving their ability to not only share control but act as encouraging mentors - putting a lot on the line by opening up their practice to another's input.

For me personally, I find this sort group activity really difficult and felt the day feeling a little lost. This is partly my own shyness and that I prefer to know what's going on before I jump in - being familiar with people, my head around the activity, aware of the intended outcomes, sure of the timeframe. I also struggle with blurred roles of facilitators, participants, staff etc. though this openness and shared responsibility is a really important part of the collaborating and shared learning process. 

8x8 at Cockatoo Island

We had our first meeting for the 8x8 program on Saturday: 8 school students from the Liverpool area, and 8 uni students from SCA and NAS visited Cockatoo Island to speak to Biennale of Sydney artists, view some of the installation process and start thinking about their own art-making for upcoming workshops and exhibition.

Unfortunately I couldn't make it because of my own work commitments (pretty much everything in my life seems to be clashing!) but all went to plan and they sound a great bunch of students to be working with.

On one hand the strength of the project is obviously in bringing together the knowledge and approaches of different organizations, people, artists and setting up ongoing relationships. That said, my biggest difficulties so far have been working in a partnership across organisations, where just contacting people for a minor query or getting approval from all parties can delay plans for weeks, particularly considering I've only been available for the internship one or two days a week. I guess this aspect is common to any part time work, but something that seems fairly common in the arts where people are lecturing, studying, parenting, or working outside of weekday business hours.

This has become a surprisingly big project when added to liaising with project partners is the relatively simple yet time consuming task of contacting and securing proper paperwork from 16 high school and uni students. Again, because the project is never going to be the only thing each participant has going on in their life, sometimes responding to an 8x8 email or phone call is not a priority.

What I have come to really value in this project, and my internship in general, is people's willingness to let go and see what happens rather than run everything their way. To me the best managers trust you enough to have some creativity and not just recreate their vision.

Interestingly this ties nicely to a theme we are prompting students to explore in their art-making in response to similar themes in this year’s Biennale of Sydney: looking at different types of collaboration, the relationships and power balances that are set up through this exchange. 

Auslan gallery tour app

This afternoon I started out to bring together some information on the site for use as an Auslan interpretation of the site - to be used for a "Smart Auslan" gallery tour.

The app will be a permeant (but living) publication that tells the history of the site and the building, and how it has undergone regeneration from a Powerhouse to an arts centre - rather than being available as an Auslan interpretation of every exhibition. Pretty much people will be able to pick up a smartphone at reception with a smart Auslan app; they will photograph QR codes at different points around the site, connecting them to Auslan discussions of the point, as well as some relevant video interviews and photographs.

So far this has been a really enlightening and surprisingly apt approach - to explain the history and use of the centre through physical points of the site. Some of the sites to be marked with a QR code are things like public artworks: a big "Koori Floor" that is the ground of the main gallery space, or outdoor sculptures around the building.

I'm especially liking the room to talk about little or anecdotal details, like the spray-painted crosses on steal beams marked for removal in the early stages of rebuilding. Or the funny 'watch for falling nests' signs that lead onto discussion of plants and animals in the surrounding environment, the huge "hoppers" that help explain the whole process of coal-fired electricity production that was carried out in the former Powerstation (and my personal urge to rant on the ills of our outdated attachment to coal power).

Thinking about what makes a tour specifically for the Deaf community, and not just a tour that's been translated into Auslan... I'm hoping the centre will be able to get a consultant or representative from the Deaf community, as I really know very little of Deaf culture or ways of life for hearing impaired people - and I want there to be at least something that specifically relates to the history or culture of hearing impaired people in the area. The most I've got is some wiki-essentialisms of hearing impaired people being into social media and new technology. Perhaps true for some, but not much to work with beyond the reassurance that an app and smart phone technology is the way to go...

Gladly going down to Melbourne in coming weeks so will be able to check out the National Sports Museum's Smart Auslan tour - I think it's the only museum in Australia (so far) that has used this app.

People and organisational culture

I'm realising how useful it has been to have my one-day-a-week fall on staff meeting days. I now have some idea of the many things going on at the centre, but more importantly I actually know what people do - beyond curators arranging things on walls or marketing staff sending out flyers.


I'm impressed by the positivity in these meetings, be it about a great show coming up, high attendance numbers or low attendance and a quality experience. This is nothing like staff meetings at my workplace which regularly become a list of 'watch-outs' and venting grounds for ever unfixable problems - unfortunately I can't claim to be above a lot of the whining. As much as I know it's good to acknowledge stress at work, it's been really refreshing to see the flip side of sharing good stories. 


Chatting to one of the Creative Producers yesterday, he was explaining how he managed to by-bass arts administration qualifications through professional experience and specialist knowledge. Partly because of this background he can so effective in bridging gaps between community and arts organisations, which explains why specialisation in arts management isn't always a good thing... I think the people (students and lecturers) that have most impressed me through this masters have been those that bring their non-high-arts experience. 

Side note on gallery invigilation

I'm having this week off the internship as waiting on a few agreements between supporting orgs before I can start moving.

BUT feeling I need to vent from my little gallery visit last Sunday.


I went along to a new exhibition at a gallery usually full of chatty, informative invigilators. Soon after walking in I reached up to point out a feature of a sculptural work to my partner (pointing: a great social exchange between people as they share interest and talk about artworks) and soon after had someone run out from behind a counter and snap at me not to touch the work. This is fine, maybe an overreaction but I assume lots of people had gone to touch this work before me. I explained, and walked away trying to laugh off my embarrassment.

So as I was talking and laughing about the incident, another invigilator who had seen the whole thing reprimanded me again. I told him I hadn't touched the work, and instead of apologising he made me promise twice that I hadn't, and acted as if he didn't believe me.

I spent the rest of the exhibition feeling like I was being watched every time I approached a work - I swear they walkie-talkied all the staff to tell them to watch out for me!

Way to make you feel welcome.

March planning

I've spent the last couple of weeks with my head down writing. 


Working on administration side of an outreach program that will involve a small group of high school and university students. This has proved pretty time consuming, given than it's only one of many, many public programs planned for the year. A big portion of this is due to the fact that we're working with children - hence working with children checks, permission letters, medical info, risk assessment, fun fun.


I'm coming to see how much paperwork is involved in even what seems to be the smallest community engagement type of project. I have a bit of an idealistic belief in 'community based' planning, that public programs and almost any gallery activity should be community driven from the outset. Unfortunately this approach is incredibly hard to perfectly translate into reality - aside from heterogeneous groups and massive populations, the amount of permissions, consultation, data-gathering, mediation... Which is why I am more willing to understand there's a place both for sustained community engagement programs, as well as (well informed and flexible) 'top down' projects. 

One month in

Hello! I'm finally posting after almost a month in my intern position at the arts centre. At this stage one day a week and I plan to be here until at least July.

Really enjoying the experience so far, with a friendly team of staff which makes a big difference. I'm acting as a public programs and education assistant with two key projects:

1) project managing / schools liaison for a community outreach program with BoS and MCA (though unfortunately this may change depending on funding)

2) Research and put together a brochure on the history of the site - a beautiful industrial renewal gallery much like Carriageworks. Eventually this info will become an Auslan interpretation via a smartphone app (which I think is really cool)

Last Thursday I managed to sit in on a gorgeous kids' play called White, all about two men who live in a hand-crafted white world that slowly gets infiltrated by colour. It's a really beautiful play that made me appreciate how great art and programming for kids can be, and how disappointing that we have so much hyper-bubbly junk instead. Badge-making workshop that followed was also good fun - if every gallery invested in a badge-making machine there'd be a lot of happy children.