Work Placement

For my final day of shadowing Sonya booked me on to shadow the art technicians again for a day. I started my shadowing head technician Graham, helping him to clear out the textiles studio and clean off silk screens with the pressure washer. After this we set up the drawing and painting studio for the midday life drawing class, we set up easels, lighting and a backdrop for the life model after wiping down and moving tables from the previous workshop. I then went down to one of the ceramics studios and cleaned the floor using a electric floor cleaner. 

After my lunch break I worked with another technician Skinny. We went down to the ceramics studios and glazed all the children’s clay sculptures from the previous week as children’s aren’t allowed to glaze their work for safety reasons. We then went round and cleared up some studio spaces ready for the evening classes, this included tidying up the painting and drawing studio again and getting some materials for textiles. We then went back down to ceramics and started loading up the kiln for a glaze firing, including the children’s work I helped to glaze 

I worked alongside the duty managers and customer support assistants for a day of my work placement, my main activities were standing in as a cinema usher and checking tickets, speaking with other CSA’s on their roles within MAC and sitting in on the monthly meeting that all heads of departments use to organise and sync up their diaries and the Yes plan software that organise every event on at the MAC. 

Hannah, one of the duty managers showed me the software she uses to organise which if her CSA’s are on shift each day and covering each event for security and safeguarding. They use rota cloud to schedule in all staff for various events. 

Half way through my shift the lead duty manager changed to Ruth, from this point I worked with another CSA helping her to clear out workshop spaces (moving tables and chairs into storage using trolleys) and contacting catering and cleaning staff over radio to clear out meeting spaces (coffee and teas).

My second day of shadowing was based in the main office with the managers. I spoke with Sonya, my employer about the courses that run through the year, getting an understanding of capacity, employment of tutors and artists, and organisation of events online

I sorted through the play box ready for half term events and child care next week and I organised the tutor registers into their files and threw out any junk tickets that had been left by tutors.

I used yes plan soft wear to help Jen add workshop descriptions onto scheduled events through February half term so the duty managers know what’s going on for each event. 

I went through the safeguarding soft wear with Jen and saw their about the all about me form they send out to get more specific requirements for the children coming into the workshops. This was particularly interesting to know how we can find out the right information for children who may be in the process of getting mental health or learning support diagnoses. 

On my first day shadowing I worked with the art techs of the building. I was shown round all fire escapes from the art studios and started working with art tech Imogen.

I helped to prepare materials for workshops in the textile studio. This included prepping mosaic tiles and Pre mixing inks for printing. We then set up the studio spaces ready for workshops in the afternoon (setting out tables, cleaning and getting materials ready for tutors). Through out the day we responded to calls from the art tutors requesting materials for their workshops

Today helped me gain a better understanding of the role of a technician and what is required to set up all the workshops in a day at the MAC.

For my first shift at the MAC I was scheduled on to help out at the yearly girls who geek event. This event is run for girls secondary schools to sign up and find out about different job opportunities within the art and science sector.

My main role of the day was to facilitate the flow of the day making sure every group knew where to go to get the most out of the experience.

I started by helping at the welcome desk, giving out the schedule packs to the school teachers who were leading the groups, we checked they had all completed the media forms and directed them round to the theater entrance for the first talk.

From 10 GWG had a number of women speaking on pannels and over zoom about their work within science and tech. We used soft wear called Slido which allowed the participants to anonymously post questions to the panel and respond to running slide shows through the talks. It was my job to go through the question submissions and get rid of any inappropriate posts from the groups. 

Yesterday I had my induction at the MAC where I got signed in to their online system, I completed the online fire safety and manual handling training and got my ID card. After this I took a tour round all facilities in the building and spoke with my employer about my first shift this Friday at the girls that geek event. We walked through the schedule together and what my roles will be during the day. I also briefly met one of the technicians I will be shadowing next week.

Whilst I wasn’t sure that I’d be able to fill the full 70hrs minimum of work placement, I reached out to my tutor who got me in touch with Ayesha, a Phd student at BCU who is in the process of publishing a sci-fi novel that needs in book illustrations. I contacted her with examples if my work to see if she would be interested in working with me. We set up a teams meet where she told me a bit more about the premise of the novel and how she would like it illustrated and have agreed to set up a meeting next week to share ideas once I have completed a NDA and read through an extract of her work. 

My employer set up interview of sorts where I could tell them more about my past work experience in the art sector and find out a bit more about what roles I’d be taking on in my placement. They asked me some specific questions on my experience working in arts based children’s workshops and how I have implemented safeguarding in my other jobs. We also spoke a little more about my schedule, organising it so that I'd be working over two weeks; one week focused of shadowing management and technicians and the other working in the LSA role (learning support assistant).