Students jumpstart exhibitions at UQ Art Museum

Five University of Queensland students will debut as curators in a series of exhibitions opening at the UQ Art Museum on Friday, 17 April.

The exhibitions are the culmination of JUMPstart – an internship program developed for UQ art history students in 2014.                   

The five students shadowed UQ Art Museum staff in areas of collection management, exhibition programming and public engagement throughout the one-semester program.

UQ Art Museum Associate Director (Curatorial) Michele Helmrich said JUMPstart had given students practical curatorial and museum experience.

“Introducing art history students to the various facets of art museum life helps prepare them for opportunities available within the visual arts when they graduate,” she said.

Course Coordinator Dr Allison Holland from UQ’s School of Communication and Art said the internship brought to life theoretical coursework about curatorial and museum practice within the visual arts.

“It’s one thing to curate a ‘virtual’ exhibition, but it’s something entirely different to work within a real space and see how the artworks sit side-by-side and how people move in and around them,” she said.

The five student-curated exhibitions are:

Just Kids (20 March – 19 April 2015) - featuring Ben Quilty's Self Portrait Dead (Over The Hills And Far Away) (main photo).

Curator: Isabella Baker

Taking a cue from the title of Patti Smith’s memoir, Just Kids asks what it means when we say we’re ‘just kids’, with works  showing that rebellion does not end with youth. Artists: Adam Cullen, Julie Dowling, Cherine Fahd, Matthys Gerber, Noel McKenna, and Luke Roberts.  

A journey through the abstract: natural worlds (21 April – 17 May 2015)

Curator:  Jacques Langlassé

With a focus on four artists who bring a scientific focus to artistic practice, the exhibition explores how their works capture and retain those normally lost, intangible aspects of nature inherent to our existence. Artists: Natalya Hughes, Caroline Rothwell, Sandra Selig, and Carl Warner.

Initiates (19 May – 14 June 2015)

Curator: Emily Ryan

The exclusive identity associated with a group and their initiates has been a recurring subject across cultures. This exhibition brings together disparate examples of belonging, seeking to belong and not belonging. Artists: Ray Cook, Ben Quilty, Danie Mellor, TextaQueen, and Jenny Watson.

Multiple minds (16 June –12 July 2015)

Curator: Claire Smallhorn

Collaboration is a form of exchange that presupposes mutual understanding, shared languages, common goals, and the ability to negotiate across differences. This exhibition exposes modes of working within art that do not rely on one single artist-author to execute them. Artists: Claire Healy and Sean Cordeiro; Tim Johnson, Karma Phunstok, Nava Chapman and Yiwon Park; and Gabriella Mangano and Silvana Mangano.

Disposition (14 July – 9 August 2015)

Curator: Kathryn Halliday

Disposition aims to create an experience shaped by the tools of cinematic production to prompt discussion about the camera and how it continues to filter the way we look at and see the world around us. Artists: Daniel Crooks, Jess MacNeil, Sam Smith, and Arryn Snowball.

The JUMPstart exhibitions continue until 9 August.

Media: Sonia Uranishi, +61 409 387 623, sonia@soniauranishicommunication.com or Sebastian Moody, +61 7 3346 8761, s.moody@uq.edu.au.