There were some challenges to finding a work placement, but also honestly some blessings.
I first started with an established contact from the South London Gallery which was achieved through being in their Art Assassin’s program for young artists. I knew who to talk to about a possibility about a placement. Which I ended up getting until the middle of January but I would need to find something along side it as they could only offer me two days a week starting from the end of October.
I was then led onto an even better path when I went to Slovakia for the summer and I was able to get contacts from my cousin as she’s an actress who knows a lot of people. I was able to visit Turčianska gallery in Martin and talk to the the director who I was able to get her email. My cousin was also able to speak to the director of the Park of Culture and Recreation gallery in my families home town, Prešov, after I had returned to England. The director of that gallery definitely wanted to hear from me as they would need a fluent English speaker for the warmer season. So these places are something I will hopefully do after December and am still in the process of sorting those two places out.
Due to my Slovakian background I knew I wanted to do something with that, so I sent an email to the Czech centre as they had a gallery and I wanted to be in an environment that is closer to home. However after having an interview with them and spending a whole day with the other interns the worst happened- they decided to not give me a placement. A week before I was supposed to start DPS.
So, I had one week to find something.
Here’s a few lines from my notes that I wrote on the day of hearing the unfortunate news “I’m panicking, crying, screaming and raging all at once…I gave them a whole day of sitting in a boring team meeting then learning from a past intern what to do with the other interns that were there, and they say nah I don’t think it aligns with what you wanna do. GREAT. ABSOLUTLEY FAN-FUCKING-TASTIC!”
After panic emailing galleries from sheer desperation that were outside of London I actually managed to get a response from the Northampton gallery/museum (Northampton is where I live) I was also suggested by Ansel to apply to Renee Materials who were looking for an intern urgently. I got an interview with them and within a day got an offer from them. That was the Friday of that week, Northampton gallery also gave me an offer that same day only a couple hours later- at that point I had already chosen the former. Can you imagine that, struggling to hear back from lots of galleries or companies for months to suddenly have two offers in one day!
The Universe has a real sense of humour.
Leave a Reply