#abigail balkitis

[abbiebalkitis]

the end

We're approaching the end of my adventures in industry, heading back to university for my final academic year, which is sad, daunting and exciting. I'm just a bag of messed up emotions!

I am very proud of all my talented friends who have been on the industry journey. I'll be living with some fabulous people come September, most of whom have been doing amazing things: working in New York, helping on a TV programs, working for high fashion designers... It makes what I've been doing pale in comparison! I'm looking forward to heading back up to Leeds and having a proper catch up before the workload and madness of third year kicks in.

[abbiebalkitis]

Grown up jobs

Nine, the exhibition at Surface Gallery which I was coordinator of, comes to an end this week. It was an incredible experience acting as one of the show's "coordinators" and one that I don't believe I would have had at another gallery. After all, I am only an intern!

I had been with Surface about a month when I volunteered to take on Nine. It was a big task and seemed rather daunting. I definitely struggled to get my head around what I was doing and I didn't believe I'd actually planned an exhibition until I was stood looking at the finished product! 

Despite work with Surface Gallery being being voluntary, when you take on a project like an exhibition, it can end up feeling like a full time job; there was a lot to get sorted and it was quite a learning curve. My role as coordinator meant that I was the one in contact with the nine artists exhibiting. I organised the contracts and was keeping track of the money, but I was also a point of call for most their enquiries and issues. It was a task in itself trying to get responses, organise and keep nine people up to date. I don't think I actually got them all in the same room until the exhibition opening night!

Aside from working with the artists, I have also had to organise the space and events. I have sorted out the gallery, made it clean and ready for exhibition and helped the artists display their work for the show. I've also written sponsorship letters, organised workshops and planned opening parties, which included finding a musician, hiring equipment and sorting out a bar. I've been overseeing the promotion of Nine on social media, the website and in physical form. This meant writing the press release, sending it out to publications, making sure flyers were printed and distributed and even designing the window display. I've been a busy girl!

So course I couldn't have done it without the help of my lovely co-coordinator and the other fantastic gallery volunteers. I am really glad I stepped up and put myself forward to act as coordinator, I've learnt so much, gained much more awareness of my capabilities, grown in confidence and met some fab people. The artists I planned the exhibition for are a lovely bunch and I'm glad Nine has ended up running smoothly for them. I am so grateful for the opportunity I received and I'm proud of what I accomplished. 

[abbiebalkitis]

The street art exhibition officially opened its doors to the public on Friday night with a spectacular party. There were break dancers, an excellent DJ, local beer and the hard work of the coordinators resulted in an extraordinary turn out in audience numbers and an impressive amount of work sold!

It was a wonderful  and successful night, but it's taken me a weekend to recover. It was probably one of the more hectic events to work for the first time but a really good experience!

[abbiebalkitis]

What now

I have recently begun volunteering at Surface Gallery, as part of my placement year in industry. It's a fabulous experience because, as a volunteer run gallery, you have the opportunity to get involved in whatever capacity you are experienced in or enthusiastic about. As a newbie it is a little difficult to know where to start as the working of the gallery is pretty much an unknown but everyone is lovely. The volunteers are generally other creative types and the first exhibition I actually saw at the gallery was Emerge, featuring the work of volunteers; it was good way to get an insight into people! I'll let you know how it goes as I'm jumping straight in at the deep end designing school packs and coordinating the studio artist show! 

[abbiebalkitis]

now

Well, I've finished working with Claire (with an offer of returning on the table!) so I am currently trying to make it on my own and secure the rest of my required work days doing something different. So far, not liking it. I don't like not doing thing but it's hard to motivate myself. I feel a little bit lost. 

I've just finished reading One Day by David Nicholls and Sylvia Plath's Bell Jar, both of which I definitely relate to at the minute.

[abbiebalkitis]

Sound

A large chunk of my last week went on working with the year fives making instruments. The school had brought in a very talented sound artist to run sessions with some of the classes.

It was really interesting to watch the class over a period of time and to see how there learning developed. Everything was linked into the topic of music. They considered how we hear, how we make instruments, how things like density and size of material affect pitch, other culture's instruments, historical music: again, child-lead learning at it's finest. The amazing question "how do death people hear?" lead the class to learn about Evelyn Glennie and our week long question was inspired by her: what sound is your daily medicine? There was a constant drip of learning and the children were so enthusiastic.

Claire and I worked on making the instruments for the class to use during their sound session. They were shown how to make a couple of simple string instruments as a starting point but were then left to use their own imaginations. We had supplies of wood, junk modelling equipment, string and tins. From these miscellaneous items, they produced recycled drum kits, maracas, rain-makers, guitars: there were so many different and exciting sounds being produced.

The sound artist was fascinating to watch. The class produced their own individual compositions and also played together using the instruments we had made: they were completely engaged and made some really exciting noises.

[abbiebalkitis]

My Last week

So I've had my last week and officially finished working with the fabulous Claire Simpson at her residency in Dunkirk Primary School. I would say I'm rather sad to leave! I've had an amazing time and have been so inspired by all the wonderful ideas I've heard and creativity I've witnessed.

It was a lovely last week: I have played with a bit more clay, acted as an extra pair of hands in sorting the allotment, been to the Discovery Garden in the snow & drunk hot chocolate, welcomed the creation of the new parents support group, asked some amazing questions, built instruments, made music and I was put into the 'Good Book' assembly!