Program Spotlight

Building Bridges to University Audiences

By Patricia Sullivan, Public Programs Officer, Agnes Etherington Art Centre

Fortunately, the Department of Art, our most obvious partner, is located across the street. Our director and three curators are all adjunct professors, and supervise graduate students in practica, and undergraduates in research projects, that contribute to exhibitions. Graduate students also hold their annual conference here. Professors can book visits to the storage vaults to study works in our 14,000-piece collection. The curators and I also speak to classes at professors' requests. The Art Centre collaborates with the Department of Art in hosting an artist's residency, an annual exhibition of work by graduating students, and also one by the Fine Art faculty every four years.

Our receptions, talks, screenings and lectures tend to concentrate in the academic year so as to benefit from student attendance. Beyond that, I see my mandate is to cultivate students' informal involvement with the Art Centre. In our role as a civic art gallery, we have served local elementary schools for over twenty years with good curriculum-linked programs. These are delivered by Queen's students, many from the Department of Art but also from the Faculty of Education and other areas. They receive extensive training in order to deliver programs that involve gallery discussion and hands-on projects in our studio. The docents also deliver our family programs, and often develop their museum knowledge through summer jobs and other volunteer positions. The experience strengthens their resumes, and former Art Centre docents hold positions in museums and galleries across Canada.

The docents naturally act as informal ambassadors for the Art Centre, and we formalized that in 2004 when we changed their December party into a reception where they can each invite three friends. Part of the deal is that they tour their guests through the galleries in the course of the evening. This helps dispel the intimidation factor that can affect young adults who have not visited the Art Centre yet, and encourages them to return.

Four years ago, I decided to expand our programming in order to attract more students to the Art Centre in their free time. We began offering open studio sessions, where docents facilitated art-making projects in an informal way. These have had erratic attendance, but a fruitful offshoot has been a stronger link with the residence life office. Dons in residence are obliged to find activities for their floors, and booking a session at the Art Centre has become a popular resource. In 2004, we launched a project called stART your year with ART!, in which we held a number of events in early September to welcome students back to campus and get the Art Centre on their radar screens. This was successful, but due to limited resources we conflated the week into a one-day Open House last September, which was manageable and well attended.

An outcome of these activities has been the initiation of a Student Advisory Council. This council consists of a team of students drawn from across campus who meet with me to develop and organize programs for their peers. Our first such event will be a showcase of students' work from the four arts departments on campus - film, music, drama and art - to be held in early March. Students face much competition for their time, but I hope that peer involvement and word of mouth will create momentum for this event and future ones.

Our programs do not differ greatly from what other Canadian university galleries do, according to the small, informal survey I have been making recently. The University of Toronto Art Centre has an association which is an official student group, with a newsletter and a mandate to organize events to involve students in visual culture on campus. Harnessing the energy and enthusiasm of students for an enriching volunteer activity is a key factor in the process, as is involving other art forms in programming.

The Galerie de l' UQAM, at the Université de Quebec à Montréal, has launched a program aimed at developing students' critical skills in discussing contemporary art. This project, described in a recent issue of Muse, the magazine of the Canadian Museums Association, seeks to capitalize on young adults' interest in social concerns and relate them to issues in the art of our time. Here is where the university art gallery can spark a life-long interest in visual culture, especially for students not enrolled in relevant academic programs.

I have more work to do in researching what my Canadian colleagues are doing in this area, then there's the wealth of American institutions to discover. Some of my planning has been influenced by the initiatives taken at the Berkeley Art Museum and Pacific Film Archives, University of California, whose staff have been generous in sharing information about their successful student committee. They provide an inspiring model of how an institution can develop a relationship with a mobile, often elusive, yet key audience, one we all want to cultivate.

Pat is interested in hearing from other educators reaching out to college and university audiences. She can be contacted at sullivap@post.queensu.ca