Queens Gallery Assistants: A Reflection & Exploration.
Reflections by Madison Webster, Emma Henry, and Astrid Bridgwood
What is the Queens University of Charlotte Gallery Assistantship?
The Queens Gallery Assistantship is an Arts Leadership & Administration-Art History hybrid semester-long practicum course which allows students within the Arts Administration and Art History major to gain practical, tangible experience of gallery curation and installation in the Queens galleries. The Bank of America and Lovener Galleries, located in the Sarah Belk Gambrell Center for the Arts & Civic Engagement, rotate exhibits each semester (Spring and Fall), as do the participating Assistants. The Gallery Assistants support these exhibits under the supervision of Department Chair Dr. Siu Challons-Lipton. The Assistants participate by selecting the works for each exhibit, supporting writing of an exhibition-specific curator’s statement, researching the biographies of selected artists for publication, and even participating in an artist’s panel by creating questions and even hosting such a panel on the evening of the exhibition launch!
Assistants are involved in every step of gallery work, from label-making and formatting to installation and hanging processes. Assistants will receive and hang work from the selected artists, supported by the Queens University installation team and Dr. Challons-Lipton, and help to takedown, package, and store the work at the end of the exhibition run, as well. While the exhibition is active, Assistants will routinely “watch,” the galleries during open hours, giving tours where scheduled and remaining engaged with the arts on campus through interviewing visiting artists and exhibition participants.
Meet the Spring 2023 Gallery Assistants: Madison Webster (2023), Emma Henry (2023), and Fall 2022 returner Astrid Bridgwood (2024). What was your experience as a Gallery Assistant this semester, supporting the “ENGAGE US! Art for Social Change,” exhibition?
Madison Webster: Having the opportunity to be involved in hanging “Engage Us!” was a great experience that I learned a lot from. Curating the show was a fun challenge, and I most enjoyed getting to know the artists and hear their stories. By being a part of this process, I’ve gained valuable insight on what goes into hanging a show, and the dialogue the curators must have with the artists and vice versa. It’s been an eye-opening experience with great people, and I was happy to play a role in the hanging of this show.
Emma Henry: As a gallery assistant to the galleries at Queens this spring semester, I have been able to help with gallery typical roles, responsibilities, as well as the current show, ENGAGE US! Art for Social Change. During previous internships, I have assisted with collections, exhibitions, and gallery management. However, I was able to be much more hands-on throughout the installation process for the current exhibition. It has also been very rewarding to work alongside the other student assistants, Astrid Bridgwood and Madi Webster. With four artists’ pieces placed in the two galleries, we received a lot of installation practice. As well as installing the works, we were able to help lay out the show.
As students progressing towards the arts field, this kind of experience is invaluable. Throughout the experience, I have been able to apply what I have been researching for my capstone project, “Sustainable Practices: Museums and Galleries.” In my writing, I used my role as a gallery assistant at Queens to support my studies, as well as created a proposal for the galleries to become a more sustainable space. Overall, my time and experience in this position was beneficial and rewarding, as it taught me new tools, gave me a new example of work in the arts, and included team building involvement.
Astrid Bridgwood: The hands-on experience of gallery installation was an entirely new and refreshing learning experience for me throughout my semesters as a Gallery Assistant. I had the privilege of working on both this semester’s exhibit, “ENGAGE US! Art for Social Change,” as well as last semester’s “Indigenous Voices of the Carolinas,” exhibition. This semester’s installation process was much more labor-intensive, especially with the inclusion of Irisol Gonzalez-Vega’s “Lavarse Las Manos,” a massive stretched-canvas piece on a wood frame that had to be constructed and de-constructed for hanging and takedown. This taught me a great deal about working as a team, as well as learning about best practices in terms of hanging, storage, and maintaining a large-scale work.
Considering the space we were engaging with as we curated the show was important, as well. Many of the works present in this exhibition were brightly colored, highly textured, and large-scale. We had to evaluate not just how to present the works, making the best of our space, but how to visually balance the galleries: ensuring these bright and invigorating works were not in competition for the eyes of our audience. The chance to meet these artists in our “Panel Discussion,” solidified this as an exemplary experience for me as a student. Working with the other assistants to create questions and a presentation program to interview the artists on the evening of our exhibition launch was exciting! Overall, my experience as a Gallery Assistant has added to my resume, making me a more viable and experienced candidate for other professional gallery positions, as well as been an invigorating way to continue my engagement with the Charlotte arts community as a Queens student.
Above: Images of Gallery Assistants Madison Webster, Emma Henry, and Astrid Bridgwood assisting with the installation of exhibition artist Irisol Gonzalez-Vega’s “Lavarse Las Manos,” alongside Head of Installation at Queens, Kurt Warnke. (Images taken by Dr. Siu Challons-Lipton).
Madison Webster will be graduating in May 2023 with a degree in Studio art. After graduation, she plans to attend graduate school at Edinboro University for an MFA with a concentration in painting.
Emma Henry is a senior at Queens graduating in May 2023. She is an Arts Leadership & Management major and minoring in Art History. After graduation she plans on working at SOCO Gallery in Charlotte, NC and soon after receiving her master’s degree.
Astrid Bridgwood is a student of Art History, Philosophy, and Arts Leadership & Administration currently serving as a Gallery Assistant for the Department of Art, Design, and Music, with ongoing projects focusing on liberal arts education at Black Mountain College. In her free time, she writes and publishes poetry (read more here) and hopes to pursue a career as a Professor of Art History.