One of the reason to why I took up this Painting Course was because it was self driven and it promised employment at the completion of it. I discovered that the independence that this course taught also applied to the promise of employment part. My experience with finding employment specific to my practice has not been successful up until this point. I have experienced more unsuccessful applications than successful work experiences and positive outcomes- which is normal. However no matter to how many CV workshops or careers employability sessions I attend, there has not been any direct advice to individuals with my career interest: social research and project management. Furthermore, the PPD lectures that have been organised have been helpful but what other students and me seem to agree with is the fact that there is little to no explanation how the talkers had gone from point A to B. What steps did they take the moment they left University or education to help them achieve their position today? I had a few meetings with some tutors about their personal experiences of post graduation and their responses mainly included the fact that in order for ones career to kick off is to have connections through their parents.
Experiences:
Back in November 2020, after having a meeting with Zoe Mendelson about possible work experiences in my field of interest, she suggested some names and programmes that would interest me. Therefore I ended up contacting the host of the 'All in the Mind' BBC 4 radio programme as I wanted to experience first hand how they conducted and gathered their research. They came back with some advice how I could get into a similar field but a job role position never got offered.
I started attended the British Museum workshops in this past year and I gained so much from the sessions with Sarah Jeffray. One of my favourite session was when me and another student ended up having a one-to-one with her due to no one turning up to the workshop. She gave me probably the most valid advice to date. As she explained that Degrees aren't necessarily important in the field that I would like to work in and suggested to start out in charity work in order to boost my connections. She went onto suggest her Workshop Programme but by the time I had found out about it, all the spaces had all been filled up. It genuinely sounded like such a great experience as it would have consisted of gathering your own research, organising and presenting it in the form of a workshop.
Internship Programmes:
After a talk that Laura Harford did from Studio Voltaire I was inspired to write them an email and see if I could get accepted onto their Summer Internship, this did not work out in the end.
Due to the connections that Wimbledon UAL has made with Bold Art Tendencies and after the positive feedback students have given me about their experiences on the programme I have been trying (for the second year running) to apply for their Summer Programme. I have also requested for a permanent position after the programme, therefore my application is still pending due to the Covid-19 outbreak.
Forensic Architecture is a multidisciplinary research-based organisation that investigate cases of state violence and violations of human rights around the world. I have repeatedly gone back to referring to them in my research and as they are based at Goldsmiths university where they intend to include students in some projects, I though I would email them and ask if there were positions available (or just opportunities where I could just shadow)- application still pending.
I have also emailed and applied to some larger scale organisations such as the Tate and the Wellcome Collection for their Summer Internships- application still pending.
Artists Assistant:
I got into contact with Dr Deborah Padfield's after I heard about her research project about 'Pain: speaking the threshold brings together a distinguished multidisciplinary team to analyse material generated during face2face.' [https://www.ucl.ac.uk/slade/people/academic/profile/DGPAD35#biography]
One of my favourite shows that was on back in August 16th - 26th May 2019 was the 'AI: More than Human' exhibition based in the Barbican gallery. It largely influenced my Thesis and as a result I got into contact with the curator to see if I could shadow her. I managed to receive a few answers back from her however the contact seemed to stop on her behalf after the second email.
Job Applications for post Graduation:
[majority of these are still pending]
I see myself in either Art Management or being a creative Director as I love the organisation side of things and helping creatives build their vision. As a result over the past few weeks I have spent the majority of my free time sending out applications to creative companies asking if they have vacancies:
I have gotten into contact with the charity called Art Emergencies to see if they have any vacancies or training programmes for me to volunteer and mentor on one of their creative courses.
Mandinga Arts is another organisation that I have applied to for their Art Management vacancy
I have sent an application to the Creative Technical Theatre BA programme at Wimbledon UAL as they personally let me know that they were looking for an assistant for next year
Applied to Adrem Studios for a Creative Assistant vacancy
I have applied for many many more admin/ assistant jobs that are still pending on their company websites, such as:
Welcome Trust
Forbes
Deep-Mind