My assumptions in working for a commercial gallery were to directly associate with selling artworks and talking to clients.

I expected the working environment to be formal and professional. After revisiting the gallery, I worked on packaging artwork that was ready to be shipped to Toronto. I didn’t expect Wil to be busy in the daytime and I was at the gallery alone on my first day on the job. I was worried that I would have made mistakes when no one was supervising me, but Wil gave me a really detailed description about my tasks and that helped a lot. I learnt that working is not like studying in school, sometimes there are no guidelines and I have to find a way out by asking more questions.

This project provides me useful insights and a better understanding of the art world and how commercial galleries function.

WAAP addresses the need to reflect artists’ way of seeing and thinking who have a different point of view. The goal of WAAP is to create the condition for young artists to develop their practice within the city. I hope WAAP will gain more publicity through this project.

Wil expected us to learn something out of this experience and develop  better connections in the industry.

There are no important deadlines but I’ll work in researching the benefits of a corporate collection throughout the fall. I’m also working on WAAP’s Weibo account (which similar to Twitter).

The project’s schedule runs weekly and we will get feedback and self-reflect on how much work has being accomplished.

Feedback will be collected through our conversations as it is fairly open and helpful.

We used to communicate through email, but now we have a WhatsApp group for the three of us, making it much faster for responses. We communicate very frequently, at least a couple times a week.

My partnership with Wil Aballe Art Projects (WAAP) consists me of doing certain curatorial tasks. My duties would range from pitching the artist(s) to various art institutions for an exhibition to finessing the artist statements for the artist. Despite not having much experience towards these roles, Wil manages to offer clear and precise instructions in order for me to thoroughly maneuver these tasks.

My initial meeting with Wil Aballe was done in person, we went over the availability and how many hours we’re required to work. As most of my duties do not require me to be present in the gallery, I can do them in the comfort of my own home. However, as a student in this partnership we are only supposed to work for around 50 hours throughout the entire semester, it would be difficult to calculate the hours of me working at home, as I tend to spend a couple hours here and there and do some other stuff, then return to the assigned task(s). Therefore, I thought that it would be wise to just do the work on the tasks assigned to me at the gallery when I work, this way it would be a lot easier for the both of us to figure out the hours, since I would spend about 5 hours each week at the gallery.

The tasks that were assigned to me did not come with a deadline, which I think that is great, because it eases off a lot of pressure. However, I personally prefer a more structured schedule, as I could plan when each assignment or task I should tackle first or if there is anything that I should prioritize.

As we mostly work alone at the gallery, Wil created a text messaging group for Olivia and I to communicate with him if we were to bump into any problems or concerns during the time of our work. On the other hand, our tasks and assignments would be given out to us via email as Wil tends to attach documents, either for further clarification or for reference.

So far, I have not received much feedback on my work. As mentioned previously, I do not have much experience in this field, which is the more reason why I think having feedback is important. I believe that with his feedback I would be able to learn faster would be able to fix any ongoing mistakes that I might have. Other than that, I would also like to have some sort of feedback on my performance at WAAP, I would like to see what Wil thinks of my overall commitment at the gallery. I would like to know things such as whether my outfits are too casual, if my cologne is too strong, or maybe if my service is not up to par. I feel that all these aspects of presenting myself towards others are crucial, especially in a commercial art gallery setting where I’m exposed to a lot of important people.

I did not expect for me to enjoy this partnership as much as I am now, I have never had this much “fun” while working in the past. However, I think that there is one thing that could still be changed regarding this partnership, I know that it sounds impossible, but I hope to not only do curatorial task, but rather to learn how to do everything in order for me to become a well-rounded person when I delve into the field of art.