The Stanley Picker Traineeship at Matt’s Gallery is an opportunity for a skilled graduate to broaden horizons within the gallery profession. Now in its fifth year, the traineeship is sponsored by the Stanley Picker Trust and includes a bursary of £2,000.
The current post holder Lauren Barnes, a 2011 History of Art graduate from The Courtauld Institute. “The Traineeship is useful for people who want to diversify and learn different aspects of working in a gallery,” she says. “It’s also good experience to secure further employment in the sector. I will be moving to full-time work as an exhibitions assistant at the Barbican – a job role that would have been unobtainable if I hadn’t received the bursary.”
The successful applicant works as an intern at Matt’s Gallery two days a week, assisting with research, administrative responsibilities, exhibition hanging and marketing. The gallery represents a number of high profile artists including Willie Doherty, Graham Fagen, Mike Nelson, and Hayley Newman.
As well as helping with the financial pressures new graduates face as they gain experience, the bursary pays off in other ways too, with previous interns now working in paid positions at Matt’s Gallery. Matilda Strang commenced the Traineeship in 2011 alongside her MFA Curating at Goldsmiths. She now works part-time at the gallery as an archivist while also working as an independent curator. Having graduated in 2010, former Slade School of Art student Holly Slingsby, the first Stanley Picker Trainee (2008), is now Gallery Manager for Sales and Representation as well as a practising artist.
Barnes adds: “The opportunity is not exclusively for graduates from MAs and MFAs, neither does it matter what course you graduated from. Previous trainees have completed their term whilst studying full-time and, being a History of Art graduate, I had no previous experience of working in a gallery context.”
The deadline for the next traineeship is Friday 15 February. For more information see jobs and opps.
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Check Professional development and Project work on Jobs and opps for more graduate opportunities.
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