QAGOMA Backstage Pass Regional Internship
12/11/2015
I was very excited to receive the opportunity to be part of the Backstage Pass Regional Internship program offered by QAGOMA. Being based in a small-medium contemporary art space in Townsville, the program allowed me to expand my knowledge in several areas and be exposed to top level Gallery standards, practices and procedures. Most importantly, it inspired and reinvigorated me to deliver high quality experiences at Umbrella Studio.
In the two weeks at QAGOMA, I spent time working with several different areas such as Exhibitions Management, Education, Touring, Exhibition Design, Gallery Members, the Gallery Shop and Public Programs. All the staff were very inclusive and very generous with their time, knowledge and enthusiasm. I particularly learnt lots about touring exhibitions and management of exhibition scheduling and the process of writing educational resource material for touring exhibitions. One of my key objectives from this internship was to gain more experience in exhibition tour management for our plans in 2016 and 2017. By improving our external touring program, we will be fulfilling one of Umbrella’s main objectives, create more exposure for Townsville artists outside our region. I also was able to spend time helping the exhibition design team sourcing suppliers and the gallery members team with a members preview event. I assisted the public programs team with data entry of their programs onto the website and a tour of the Gallery shops and library resource. Every day was a new adventure! I also had a day where I visited three university galleries and met with the curatorial staff. They showed me around the exhibition and though their collections and gave me plenty of reading material.
QAGOMA staff made my experience very enjoyable, and it was clear the work environment was productive and inclusive with a great sense of teamwork. In the lead up to such a major exhibition as the 8th Asia Pacific Triennial, it was wonderful to see how it all comes together and how the different gallery areas interact to deliver this major exhibition. I look forward to returning to see APT8 next time I am visiting Brisbane. I thank QAGOMA for delivering this program and providing regional staff, like myself, the chance to upskill and receive high level professional development.
– Angela Cheung, Gallery & Media Coordinator
