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Art students dip into the world of work

21 January 2011

Art students at Oxford University are experiencing the glamour and glitz but also a taste of life behind the scenes at some of the world’s most famous galleries, museums and festivals.

The Saatchi Gallery in London, the Henry Moore Institute, Leeds, the Peggy Guggenheim Collection in Venice and New York’s internationally renowned photography festival are among major centres of art agreeing to temporarily host students from the university’s Ruskin School of Drawing and Fine Art.

The Professional Practice Programme began last year when 20 students each spent time on a placement in Oxford, then two or more weeks elsewhere, often in prestigious establishments overseas.

The initiative aims to give students a flavour of professional artistic life. The range of organisations is deliberately diverse to reflect students’ varied interests.‘

Students are experiencing the expectations of other sectors and rising to new professional challenges,’ said Ruskin Secretary, Juliet Franks, who runs the initiative.

‘They are seeing that some artistic roles can be more challenging than they thought, or more mundane. The programme is blowing away prejudices; not only about some types of work but also about what students think they might enjoy doing.

‘Many students want to become full time artists, work in public art or in teaching. The placements can give them a taste of the reality, and the range of tasks and responsibilities involved in these roles.’

Students choose their locations in conjunction with the School, from a list compiled by Ruskin staff. They visit an Oxford site first, which could be the Pitt Rivers or Ashmolean museum, the Sarah Wiseman Gallery in Summertown. They might also shadow the Arts Co-ordinator at the John Radcliffe Hospital.

Those going abroad are encouraged to attend courses at the university’s language centre beforehand.

For some, it’s their first trip overseas while others have never travelled on their own before,’ Ms Franks said.

Some students don’t realise just how talented they are, or what else they can achieve, then they go away and begin to realise their potential and, sometimes new avenues start to open up to them.

Second year student Kinga Lubowiecka spent a month at the Peggy Guggenheim Collection, formerly the American’s private home, on the banks of the Grand Canal in Venice.

Ms Lubowiecka said: ‘It was a once in a lifetime experience and it's not every day that one has the chance to work in a place housing one of the world's most fascinating modern art collections.

I had a sense of great responsibility but also of excitement. Each day brought new challenges, from preparing the gallery for opening and communicating with visitors in different languages, to giving talks on the collection and the life of Peggy Guggenheim herself. It was a truly unforgettable and very rewarding opportunity.

The visits are arranged by students themselves and a hardship fund is being established at the Ruskin to help students pay their travel and accommodation costs.

Some of the opportunities link students with alumni and several members of one family, all of whom attended St Edmund Hall, have already provided financial support for the scheme to two arts students at the same college.

The programme is generating a huge amount of enthusiasm within the school,’ Ms Franks said. ‘The collective experience for the students can be invaluable not least from seeing other approaches to working in the arts but also in introducing a network of new friends.

This initiative depends entirely on the goodwill of host institutions and we are enormously grateful for their co-operation. Many of the organisations seem to have enjoyed creating this link with the Ruskin, knowing that we have some very dynamic young artists here.

For more details contact Juliet Franks at Juliet.franks@humanities.ox.ac.uk

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