In April I went to speak at the Canadian Museum Associations 2015 national conference in Banff Alberta. I had such a good time meeting and connecting with some amazing people working in museums and galleries across Canada. I gave a presentation entitled How to teach hard topics: Indian Residential School and the Native Youth Program as a case study. I presented with Jill Baird from The Museum of Anthropology and Naomi Sawada from The Belkin Art gallery. It was such a great turnout and lots of people had insightful and heartfelt comments after the presentation.
Another thing that I was there to specifically talk about was public programming and how I use creative writing and visual arts as a way to get youth to connect with exhibitions that maybe they would normally just walk past.
I can't express properly how much I enjoying working with youth. I have been working in museum settings for over eight years now and getting the opportunity to interact with youth and the public in the most creative ways. I truly feel blessed for the opportunities I have had.
Now that I will be graduating from my masters program in the fall I have been thinking about what I am going to be doing with all my now free time when I am not writing. How will I pay the bills while still engaging everyday in artistic practice? I am hoping that I will be able to continue my museum/gallery public programming work. This is work that excites me. My brain starts spinning with new ideas whenever I have a chance to sit and think about new programming I could do.
So I guess if you know anyone who is looking for a workshop facilitator, writer in residence, or guest public programmer give them my email or point them to my website because come September I'll be ready to take on new and fun work.
Readying myself,
FRancine