THE TATE
The Tate St Ives is one of the largest hubs of creativity and art in Cornwall. Events, exhibitions and programmes at the Tate are aimed to connect with the external community. I excelled in Art during school, it was my favourite subject and most of my breaks or free time were spent in the Art department. Therefore it was obvious when looking for a placement during work experience week that I wanted to immerse myself within a creative environment.
Unfortunately, when I contacted the Tate they informed me that they did not offer work experience for students. However, I was encouraged to participate in the Tate Collective, this was for young people to engage with the arts. I began travelling to St Ives for these meetings every fortnight, where we would partake in different practical workshops.
I was apart of the Tate collective for over 5 years, it was after 3 years that I became a paid member of staff as a Peer Leader. This role helped me practice all the skills and confidence the Tate Collective had helped me developed over the years prior to getting the role. My responsibilities included being a leader amongst small groups of young adults during workshops and day trips. I cannot express the full extend of how much the Tate Collective assisted the process of my professional and personal development over the years but am very grateful. As well as being a Peer Leader, I have been on a judging panel along with the Programme Co-ordinator and their colleague to assist them in hiring someone to fulfil the role of artist in residence for that term. This person was to lead the next programme for the collective. This was an amazing experience and allowed me to feel like a valued member of the team despite my age. The collective also allowed me to meet some unforgettable people. I still do work and make special effort to be in constant communication with the Tate. I was recently lucky enough to be in the new promotional video (at the top of the page) for the Tate Collective.
Please scroll below to find out more about my time with Tate.
THE LINDER PROJECT
St Ives
This was my first project I had helped create with the Tate collective. It was a collaboration with Linder Sterling who was the artist in residence at Porthmeor Studios during this time. Sterling wanted to work with a team of northern soul dancers that had performed at the Brit awards with Pharrell Williams and have them collaborate with some ballet students from London. This was very exciting and was my first experience working with artists and other incredibly talented dancers. This was also a very creative production and included marketing tools I had not heard of before such as flash mobs.
The whole project was taking place over the spring half term period, so we only had a week to work with Linder and the dancers. Before they left we showed them around some of the sites in St Ives and decided to hold a Northern Soul Night at The Crypt. It felt like such an emotional journey which enabled me to bond with new friends from such different but equally creative backgrounds. To keep the theme of spontaneity, we decided to advertise the event on the day. This worked surprisingly well and was an amazing night. It was after this project I fell deeply in love with working on events and especially within these creative environments. The video at the top of this section will show you an insight into The Linder Project.
Skills used and developed during this project:
- Fast learning
- Team work
- Motivation
- Time Management
For more information please click on the link below.
http://stivestv.co.uk/all-st-ives-tv-videos/circuit-tate-st-ives/
BLUE PRINT FESTIVAL
Liverpool
There is a Tate Collective based at the Tate galleries in London, Liverpool and St Ives. Each collective had to produce a festival to connect with the local community and make them aware of the Collective so we could encourage more people to join. A year after joining the collective we were invited to Liverpool's team for their festival, Blueprint. It was an amazing opportunity to connect with like-minded people at a similar age. We became close with the collective groups from London and Liverpool and I even continued a pen-pal relationship with a London collective member. The weekend had reached a majority of the creative community and helped boost awareness of everything that the Tate could offer to the locals and the younger audience.
Skills used and developed during this project:
- Teamwork
- Lateral Thinking
- Communication Skills
- People Skills
MOSTYN GALLERY ONE -
EXHIBITION
Wales
As I was getting ready to celebrate my fourth year at the Tate Collective, I was invited to represent the Tate Collective St.Ives at Mostyn Gallery in Wales. The gallery was showcasing a collection of art work curated by Cylch young people. This was a great networking opportunity and was thrilled to be asked to represent the collective on this trip. Along with liasing with the creative individuals at the gallery, at the age of 17 I was able to develop and practice my professionalism.
Skills used and developed during this project:
- Professionalism
- Independence
- Communication
SWITCH FESTIVAL
SWITCH festival was created by the Tate Collective in St Ives. It was the first large scale project that I had been leading during the whole 5 years of being with the team. It was up to myself and 5 others to create a festival from scratch to engage creativly with the local community and make them aware of the Tate Collective. It was a long process and took the entire summer holiday to plan with meetings twice a week. The collective worked incredibly well as a team and allowed us to work with a variety of different people.
We were all delegated different tasks throughout the creation of the event and dedicated our focus to SWITCH from start to finish.
As I was the longest running member of the collective I was asked to talk publicly at the opening about the collective and my time there. I am a confident person so did not find public speaking a problem but found it very useful to practice and was thankful to have the opportunity to share my praise for the Tate Collective and the amazing people I had become friends with.
Skills used and developed during this project :
- Teamwork
- Communication
- Time management
- Negotiation
- Commitment
- Public Speaking
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CAMPER OBSCURA
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This was a pop up interactive art workshop situated on St Ives Smeatons Peir. I was the Peer Leader selected to help run the project and assist the artists.
I was there all day and took on various roles such as managing visitors and relaying information. This helped improve my communication and interactive skills with the public.
Skills used and developed during this project:
- Communication
- Leadership
- Commitment
THE MAGIC BUS TOUR
The magic bus tour was one of my first roles as a Peer Leader. The tour aimed to allow young creative people to visit art hubs around Cornwall, these included:
- Newlyn Art Gallery
- Kestle Barton
- CAST
- Penzacnce Exchange
I was responsible for looking after a group of people and assisting them if they needed help. This enabled me to deal with situations appropriately and using my initiative. I was also responsible for a vunerable adult with learning disabilities which was a useful experience, and one I enjoyed.
Roles used and developed during this project:
- Leadership
- Responsibility
- Adaptability
PROJECTS
These pictures have been collected to showcase the projects and experiences I have been on with The Tate.
