Two weeks ago, I decided to take onboard a task that I'd never tried before, but I was very eager to try out to gain more experience with the broader world. I would have liked to have done it sooner, but I couldn't be due to COVID restrictions. My university has its own art gallery within the city centre of Chester, which we are fortunate to have because there aren't a lot of art galleries within Chester compared to other cities. Not to mention, this gallery is specialised for the art and design department within the university, students, and teachers.
Before my shifts, one of the fine art lecturers sent an email about invigilating for the gallery before, and I put my name down for two changes. I wasn't quite sure what I would be doing, but the lecturer Jeremy was able to help me through the process and get up to speed about invigilating an art gallery space; it really helped a lot. Otherwise, I would have been clueless about what to do.
It was pretty nerve-wracking at first. I've never invigilated before (unless you count babysitting your siblings) because I felt like there were a lot of factors to consider, and things could quickly have gone wrong. However, after the first hour of being at the gallery, I felt I could do it with ease. The most exciting part was writing down guests' interests in buying the student's work or even clicking the guest counter every time a person walked through the gallery.
On the other hand, I faced a few problems within the gallery. The main one was that some of the curtains that blocked off some of the galleries fell over, and I couldn't pick them up by myself; however, it was quickly sorted the next time the gallery was open. Another incident was that the person taking over my shift didn't show up, so, unfortunately, I had to close up earlier than expected because I had plans after the change.
Overall, my experience watching the gallery space was insightful as it gave me a feel of what it would be like to work behind the scenes within an art gallery and gave me more social and work skills. Furthermore, in the future, I would most definitely like to do more shifts at the CASC gallery and maybe even take on board volunteering at other galleries.
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