Internship!

17/10/11

This week I spent a day shadowing a couple of the teaching staff at the hospital school. They were teaching English and Science so not directly art based but the experience let me learn more about the patients (some of which are long term so I would see again) and what activities might be appropriate for them. This week I plan to look through the hospital’s art cupboard to see what kind of activities I could do and to understand exactly what my role will be for each Tuesday I am there. I do enjoy simple teaching but I figure I should use the opportunity to get more focussed experience at this time in my career – arts and craft based. Being able to make up activities will also give me more independence, ultimately making me feel more confident. I also want to feel useful so this will give me a direct way to input. I have to remind myself though, not to offer too much as I have got a lot of other things on (plus am only one day a week at the hospital)!

Briefly, I must refer to having been given a tour of the Whitworth’s Dark Matters exhibit by the Curator, Helen Stalker. This was a great experience as an art student (and I didn’t actually realise that even members of the public can ask to have this?!) I learnt a lot more about the exhibition and in particular, certain pieces which I hope to use in my art classes with Galaxy. I am particularly interested in Daniel Rozin’s interactive, exploratory ‘Snow Mirror’ and Brass Art’s mystical installation ‘Still Life No 1’ which relies upon the dark and light to explore textures and the way in which shadows can tell stories/appear fantastical/unnerving.

Snow Mirror

Brass Art

Apart from that, this Wednesday, instead of working at Galaxy, I joined a training session which Wendy was running to recruit new volunteers. I enjoyed my role as a casual assistant to Wendy and most of all I got to take part in animal touching and poetry workshops! These were great as I now have a better understanding of what experiences the children at Galaxy have had – and also of course what being in a partnership with the museum and gallery can offer. In the animal workshop, I got to hold a live snake! Would’ve loved a longer session with more animals! Andrew Gray (who ran the session) was great – I was really shocked by the ‘surprise’ at the end (can’t give it away I’m afraid – I may ruin it for hundreds! :p)!

On Friday, I ran my first workshop at Galaxy – trying to gather materials and inspiration for the interview room I will be transforming. I felt a little disappointed by the turn out and enthusiasm for this. I was warned that not many children would take part but from my experience working with the kids in class time, I did think there would be some more enthusiasm. Of course, with school it is compulsory plus anything different to the norm is probably going to be received well! I have realised also that for them, being in the ward as suppose to the school, they are distracted - almost surrounded by their illness (not just metaphorically but also as there are social workers, nurses and check-ups). I was also unfortunate as a lot of the kids go home on Fridays and the ones who are left are mostly the ones who aren’t well enough which is another barrier. Having said all this, I got two girls to take part and they made a few marbled sheets - but just had a limited attention span. Due to this, next time I will take big sheets and set up the activity so that lots of marbled paper can be made quickly and for the purpose I have in mind. I will still encourage suggestions and try to probe their interest in the project but failing that, I figure this way I will still have resources which I can go forward with. Perhaps I could also arrange a different time to do an activity with them.