Being an art archivist is very exciting, not entirely easy but it feels so good to be back doing some art related research again!
Let’s begin by introducing my-self. Hi, I’m Nurain. I’m a postgraduate student from Northumbria University Newcastle, studying in Cultural Management and I was doing my 8 weeks placement with the participatory organisation Tees Valley Arts.
Back in early February I met Rowena, the director and Peter, the office coordinator to talk about what the organisation does and what they did in their past projects. I was touched by the amount of hard work they put in to be where they are today.
I then started my placement in early March and I didn’t know anything much about being an archivist but having the knowledge of being an art student for over 6 years it was not that tough at all.
My project tasks for this placement were to find out the details of the Tees Valley Arts Art collections from the background of the artist to the medium and dimension of the art piece. Other than that I was also cataloguing about the art collection on the Tees Valley Arts website with Zoe who is another intern at TVA.
To remember back when I first started with TVA, I was a bit anxious! New place, new people, new environment! For someone who has anxiety, I surprisingly felt comfortable and I think this was due to the fact the people in the office were welcoming.
But sadly my 8 weeks placement has come to an end but that doesn’t mean that I’m never coming back again. So I’d like to give my big thanks to Peter who guided me through the process on what archivist does and also for suggesting meetings with Helen Welford and James Beighton from MIMA to help me understanding the task of being an art archivist.
I would also like to give my thanks to Zoe Bishop, it was a great pleasure to work with her on various software platforms such as WordPress and Photoshop.