Behind the scenes at the VAC

​Blog post written by: Madison Gulenchyn

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My time at the VAC has been so interesting, I haven’t been stuck behind a desk, I’ve been able to explore the true potential and creativity social media holds.

I’ve spent my days researching my social media posts by documenting them in action. Like when I visited Marissa Sweet’s Acrylic Landscape Painting class.

​It was so interesting to see the class in action. Rather than assuming how Marissa taught her class, I was able to meet her, talk to her and learn how she was teaching.
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Photographing the class was a breeze, Marissa is so inviting and engaging. She’s so sweet and that shines through in her teaching. Connecting with teachers and professional artists has been an interesting aspect of this internship. 

Connecting with teachers and professional artists has been an interesting aspect of this internship. ​

I recently joined in on a lesson when Courtice Secondary School’s Arts and Culture Specialist High Skills Major students came to visit, and took one of our school programs.

​The program was lead by a former VAC Education Coordinator Intern, Sam Jones. She worked with us through the Young Canada Works Internship program helped create education programs from JK- Grade 12 for visiting schools. 

Urban Visionaries was designed to look at Canada’s history including the early buildings in Bowmanville, like heritage sites. The course uses printmaking to look at ways to redevelop them for the community to use and explore for the future.

Something else I was fortunate enough to photograph was the Ron Benner exhibition in the third floor Loft Gallery.

The exhibition, Trans/mission: Barley-Corn-Maize, has been something beautiful to document. From the intricacies in the design of the exhibitions to the interesting story behind it, and the VAC.

I’ve even been able to connect the exhibition to National Holidays that we can celebrate through our social media channels.

There are wonderful photographs included in this exhibition to detail the history behind it, which is why we’re using them for May, which is National Photography Month! Stay tuned on our social media channels.

Most recently, I was able to watch the installation of Sameer Farooq’s exhibition, Boop Museum.

It was so interesting to watch boxes full of deaccessioned objects, turn into a beautiful, creative display.
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Being an intern at the VAC allowed me to meet Sameer and even help him move dolls out of his way, while he was labeling the names of the dolls!

For sure not something I 100 per cent saw myself doing during this internship, but definitely an interesting, niche experience that I wouldn’t have gotten anywhere else!