Chisenhale Gallery, London

For the Exchange Programme I volunteered for at Chisenhale Gallery, one of London’s most innovative galleries for contemporary visual art, where I assisted in the preparation and delivery of a performance event being held in the galley’s exhibition space.

The performance was by artist’s Emily Roysdon and Ian White and was part of Chisenhale gallery’s Interim Programme, which is a series of talks, performances and film screening that are programmed between Chisenhale’s main exhibitions.

During my time at Chisenhale I worked alongside the gallery’s staff and their Exhibitions Intern in preparation for the event, this involved preparing the exhibition space, assisting the artist’s, and maintaining the gallery by re-hanging some artist’s prints and putting up vinyl lettering. I also worked front of house during the event and was responsible for checking bookings and welcoming and providing information to the public.

During my week in London I was also fortunate to have time to see the sights and visit some of the other art galleries, including the Tate Modern, The Victoria & Albert Museum, The Barbican Centre, Camden Art Centre, ICA and the White Cube.

I really enjoyed my time in London and felt that it really added an extra element to the voluntary Internship I had been doing at the Collective Gallery in Edinburgh. It was particularly interesting seeing the similarities and differences between volunteering in London in comparison to Scotland, and sharing experiences with Chisenhale’s intern. It was also great to get the chance to visit some of the galleries in London that I had heard of through volunteering in art galleries in Scotland, but had not yet had the chance to visit.