Throughout my internship at BAF I worked towards art education programming. My role at BAF entailed researching and planning programming and gallery sitting. The programs I planned ultimately were not executed due to a lack of support from schools we would have liked to attend programs at BAF.

Provided below is a breakdown of the internship:

Tuesday, Oct 4th: Research into workshop/community focused event concepts including target audience

I researched the programs that are run around the city at various galleries and created a document that had a list of these organizations and a small summary of what educational programs they facilitated looked like. It referenced the source websites so that we could go back to them and get more information if needed.

Tuesday, Oct 11th: Completion of research and creation of 3 workshop/community-focused event concepts, choice of target audience and start of initial conversation to target audience for scheduling

I came up with three different workshop ideas and came forward with them to Chantal. She chose the workshop she wanted me to move forward with and I continued planning and organizing from there.

Tuesday, Oct 18th: Finalization of concepts and outreach to selected target audience with event date/time/details

Tuesday, Oct 25th: Kelly Lycan was installing her show at BAF and I had the opportunity to sit down and talk to her about her work. We were able to go over the program outline I had created and altered it according to what she envisioned the program to look like.

Tuesday, Nov 1st: At this point in the internship Chantal (the program manager) and I realized that the students we had planned in attendance for the workshop were not going to be available for the workshop we had planned.

This was the week we had planned on having the program, this resulted in me researching and looking up alternative student groups to come to the programs. I emailed out program proposals to multiple schools around the Vancouver area attempting to reach out and find students to come out to our programs.

Chantal and I went to buy some supplies for the opening of the Kelly Lycan exhibition that was opening that weekend. We chatted about BAF and how she got started at BAF, she is currently interested in project management and has tied together her multiple interests in this role. I found it a valuable experience to chat with Chantal and see where someone else took their BFA and what they did with it. It was additionally exciting because Chantal had interdisciplinary interests in visual arts, marketing and project management and she is working in a role that combines those interests. This is particularly intriguing because I am interested in how skills transfer across disciplines due to my background in both psychology and visual arts.

Tuesday, Nov 8th: I continued to work towards setting up the program with Keith Langergraber. We talked about what his vision for his program would be. He is currently the resident artist at BAF and he met with me over the past couple of weeks in passing and we had chatted about the workshop.

I created program outlines to send out to schools and organizations with student groups and continued to reach out and attempt to find students to attend.

Tuesday, Nov 15th: I was supposed to come into BAF however, there was no work to be done on the programs. I worked remotely in following up with contacts at schools.

Skills: This is a list of skills I had prior to the experience. I do not have a list of new skills that I learned because I believe I sharpened my skillset and used the tools I had in a new context.

• Researching and applying findings towards the development of a project.
• Communicating with others to create a program that aligned with the goals of the organization
  • This included working with Chantal as well as consulting with the artists whose work I was programming around
• Created concrete goals for myself to work towards
  • Finishing the research
  • Thinking of various program ideas
  • Consulting with the artists
  • Creating summaries and outlines of the proposed projects

What did I do?

I am attaching the materials I created throughout the internship below.

Program Research (working document) as well as ideas for programs:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1ZbVLB3RdPQH4c2riOMnqmBZtzFC4waX_UeqYDehUYVc/edit?usp=sharing

Kelly Lycan program outline:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1jXHor41v_nV-K_pywFBZHLfdu7rpDKORyhcXlwlQkaQ/edit?usp=sharing

Keith Langergraber program outline:

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1C9GRXEYzjuRsKjR0n_P0ZVsfkqlnFC2v1nYJttAoud8/edit?usp=sharing

I have already broken down the timeline above into each day I was at the internship. I was at BAF from 12-5 each day and worked on program development for about 2-3 hours. Other tasks I did when I had completed my programming work for the day included:

• Gallery attending, talking to people who came to see the shows. During my internship, there was James Nizam’s show as well as Kelly Lycan
• Aiding in the installation of the artwork
• Running short errands (Chantal said she felt bad asking me to run errands but I had nothing else to do and wanted to help)

Moving Forward: I hope to hear back from Chantal about the school contact that she had in mind. The programs are largely dependent on if we have interest in them from schools or other organizations with groups they could bring in. If we can not secure a group for the current show or for Keith’s show I plan to adapt the workshops to possible future exhibitions. I am continuing communication with Chantal and we will create a more concrete plan in the coming week.

Larger Learning Points:

1. How to deal with failure: The programs were not a success in the way that I had hoped. I have learned to be adaptable and deal with challenges. This isn’t linked to this placement in particular however it was a valuable reminder that failure is a part of life. Things don’t always go the way we want them to and we need to be able to react in an appropriate manner and resolve issues that come up.
2. What goes into planning a program around an exhibition. This was definitely something I had not encountered in the past. I have worked in programming however not in a gallery. I learned that I need to work with the artist and how to think creatively to incorporate art theory into tangible learning experiences for children. If I am able to facilitate a workshop at BAF in the future this will be even more valuable because I will have the opportunity to see how this actualizes.

Resume Line (from my actual resume!):

Burrard Arts Foundation – Art Education Programming | September 2016 – Current

At BAF my role is to research and develop programming related to the exhibitions that are being held in the gallery space. Other duties include gallery sitting, engaging with visitors and correspondence with the program manager.

Burrard Arts Foundation (BAF) Internship

For my CBEL partnership I was paired with BAF and assigned the role of grant writing assistant. Though the responsibility didn’t commence until quite late into the term, I feel very fulfilled and was able to get in my 40 hours (minimum). My job position did not extend beyond any other realm of duties, how ever it can be broken down chronologically into the steps that took place to get to the December 7th deadline.

• I researched the City of Vancouver’s Cultural Project Grant and downloaded eligibility guidelines to cross-reference with BAF and their public role in Vancouver’s art community
• After my second meeting with Kate Bellringer, where she shared with the necessary dates and deadlines, I was instructed to familiarize myself with BAF’s exhibition and project archive, as well as their mandate.
• I am briefed on what project is being proposed for the grant, which is their BAF 2017 Residency . Kate gave me the email of Karen Hasselfelt who is a Cultural Planner for the City of Vancouver and instructed me to send her a brief email that entailed a synopsis of the project and why we are suitable for this grant in particular
• Early November we are given access to the application form, which is now an online format. Kate and I discussed how much of the grant I would cover which was essentially as much as I could. For example things I did not have access to were 1) finances 2) board of directors 3) knowledge of the previous grant etc.
• Henceforth most of my remaining hours were spent further researching BAF and completing the bulk of the essay blocks. These included:
  • Summarize the history of the organization 
  • One Sentence Project Description
  • Discuss the artistic vision and rationale for the proposed project
  • Describe the proposed project, the project’s goals and the arts programming taking place
  • Who are the intended primary audiences and participants of the proposed project (i.e. artists, organizations, general public, members, individuals or communities)?
  • How will you promote the proposed project to the public?
  • How will you evaluate the proposed project to determine its reach and impact on audiences, participants and artists, and if it has achieved the project goals?

• Each week I would meet with Kate for a few hours to discuss any edits to the text and give me tips on the language style that a big grant warrants. For example I had already concluded it must be concise but I did not know you must also write with assertion. “BAF intends to __” vs. “BAF will do __”. During our meetings Kate would also answer any questions or give me different levels of access to helpful documents concerning the project
• On November 22nd Kate and I attended a workshop meeting titled ‘Grant Online Application Workshop’ which was more to cover the technicalities of the online aspect more than the content of the application. It was however interesting to gain insight into the variety of organizations that apply
• On December 1st we had our final meeting where we ran through the entirety of the grant to ensure that between the two if us there was nothing missing and that what I’d written presented BAF accurately (which it did!).

Changes

The changes in my role were largely due to the rate of communication between Cultural Services and myself. Despite sending an email on the day of my instruction, it took an additional two weeks before the City of Vancouver gave BAF access to the online application.

Skills

I utilized my writing and research skills for the project, and bettered my ability to be concise. This was mostly due to word counts throughout the document, which at times felt meager in comparison to content demands. I also acquired knowledge of language that is essential for grants. I had no awareness that language should be assertive (as mentioned above) and learnt the fine line between this and being brazen.

I greatly appreciated this exposure and was able to transpose these skills into a personal grant recently submitted.

Burrard Arts Foundation Grant Writing Assistant, October – December 2017

Assisted BAF in the completion of their proposal for the 2017 Cultural Project Grant. Organized email correspondence between the City and BAF, conducted detailed research (on both the COV and BAF) and independently composed many components of their application. Gained an assertive, concise writing style.

baf-handout

The project for grant writing at BAF will consist of a month long research role where I will independently (for the most part) produce a grant to be submitted in early December. I will be working closely with the director of the Burrard Arts Foundation, Kate Bellringer, who will be guiding me through the process of appropriate language and format structure for the outline of the final proposal. Though I do not have any previous experience I have been informed that all necessary education will be provided in order to commence the research. I am excited to further my research skills and broaden my lexicon of art.

In my initial meeting with Chantal Sullivan and Kate Bellringer we discussed the objectives of BAF and previous exhibits and projects. This project will begin during the 3^rd week of October, and until then I am instructed to continue familiarizing with the archive of previous shows and artists that BAF has engaged with. This will aid in forming a clear mental image of how BAF choses to represent emerging arts on a global and local scale, which will be essential to carry through into grant writing.

My involvement with BAF during the fall will be an intense commitment given the level of independence in regards to the project. I will have a personal working space at the foundation where I will be advised and given feedback primarily by Kate. My hours are yet to be established. Both Chantal and Kate have indicated communication will be best maintained via email.

This project will be art education programming at the Burrard Arts Foundation (BAF). The gallery is opening a show with Kelly Lycan on November 5th and they would like to program with youth in the community. My role will be researching, planning, and executing this programming. In a larger context this project will promote youth in the community to visit BAF, learn about, enjoy and participate in the arts. BAF believes that it will be beneficial to aim for one workshop/community-focused event at the mid-way mark of the internship and one at the end. The workshops are meant to be under two hours long each and there will be two workshops throughout the duration of the internship at BAF.

The skills I have necessary for this placement are related to planning and establishing programming. I have been involved in youth programming throughout my past, working in summer camps, classrooms, and youth organizations. These experiences have provided me with the skills to research workshops and programming as well as planning and execution. I am hoping to gain more knowledge about the art education part of my placement. I haven’t had much experience working in the arts however the team at BAF is knowledgeable about the exhibition that is happening, the space, and what programming has looked like in the past.

There is a set schedule for the duration of the internship and I will be working directly from BAF every Tuesday from 12-5. I will be working with Chantal Sullivan and she or someone else that works at the gallery will be there throughout my internship. We will communicate directly with one another throughout the internship and they will provide feedback along the way. After the first program occurs there will be more opportunity for feedback, seeing what worked, went well, or didn’t go so well. I can develop the next program based on the feedback I receive from the event itself and the team at BAF.

The internship will be broken down as follows:

Tuesday, Oct 4th: Research into workshop/community focused event concepts including target audience

Tuesday, Oct 11th: Completion of research and creation of 3 workshop/community-focused event concepts, choice of target audience and start of initial conversation to target audience for scheduling

Tuesday, Oct 18th: Finalization of concepts and outreach to selected target audience with event date/time/details

Tuesday, Oct 25th: Event logistics completed and coordinated for next week’s event, follow up with invited attendees if needed

Workshop during week of Oct 24th – 29th (date/time TBD)

Tuesday, Nov 1st: Choosing next workshop/community-focused event, including and working with feedback from workshop #1

Tuesday, Nov 8th: Finalization of concepts and completion of outreach to members

Tuesday, Nov 15th: Event logistics completed and coordinated for next week’s event, follow up with invited attendees if needed

Workshop during week of Nov 21st – Dec 3rd (date/time TBD)