Michelle: PHG Project Outline and First Meeting Reflections

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My partnership with the Presentation House Gallery (PHG) will consist of me cataloguing and organizing their archives. I have no prior experience with cataloguing archives but I believe it to be a very straightforward task.

My first meeting with the PHG Gallery Manager , Diane Evans, was on October 12th, where I warmly welcomed. Our meeting lasted around 5 minutes since she could not find the computer for cataloging and the team was still so busy with fine-tuning the set up of their new exhibition,  Screens and Thresholds.  It’s totally understandable because I imagine the setting up of installations to be quite chaotic as it reaches the deadline. I went to check out the exhibition as well so it was still worth the trip!

Screens and Thresholds Exhibition: http://presentationhousegallery.org/exhibition/screens-and-thresholds/

We discuss briefly and her main tasks for me include the following:

  • Catalogue the archives
  • Organize the books after everything has been catalogued and scanned
  • Work at the gallery on Mondays and Thursdays from 2 – 5 pm weekly (around 6 hours per week)

There is no tight schedule set since cataloguing is a straightforward task that can be done over a longer period of time. There is no set expectation beside the completion of my task. This is very interesting to me because I am used to having some type of deadline or “push” to be in place but there is none of that for this partnership. I was told it was best to go with the flow of the workspace and in a sense I am experiencing the “go right into it rather than having a plan” type of job. I think this could be interesting as I would be most likely working individually surrounded by the other staff who are focused on their own tasks. In a sense, I need to instil an internal deadline and motivation into myself for this task which is a good challenge for me as I am usually reliant on external motivation rather than pushing myself with internal motivation. Our main mode of communication and exchanging feedback would be through VIA weekly or bi-weekly emails.

My main goal for this would be to catalogue their whole archive by the end of the partnership and do it well myself without relying too much on their help – to be more independent and well versed in my own tasks.